19th Century Archives

Topics

Featured

Victorian Era Timeline

The Victorian Era was a time of vast political reform and social change, the Industrial Revolution, authors Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, a railway and shipping boom, profound scientific discovery and the first telephone and telegraph. But the Victorian Era—the 63‑year period from 1837‑1901 that marked the reign of Queen Victoria—also saw a demise of […]

Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese Immigration in America The Opium Wars (1839‑42, 1856‑60) of the mid‑nineteenth century between Great Britain and China left China heavily in debt. Additionally, floods and drought contributed to an exodus of peasants from their farms, and many left the country to find work. When gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley of California in […]

Hermitage

Original Mansion In 1804, Andrew Jackson bought a 425‑acre farm—including several slaves—from Nathanial Hays and named it “the Hermitage.” He and his wife Rachel moved into a group of log buildings on the farm. In 1819, several years after Jackson earned national hero status in the War of 1812, construction on the original Hermitage mansion […]

Red Cross

Henry Dunant and the Origins of the Red Cross In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant was traveling in northern Italy when he witnessed the aftermath of a bloody battle between Franco‑Sardinian and Austrian forces near the small village of Solferino. The fighting had left some 40,000 troops dead, wounded or missing, and both the armies, […]