Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Edwardian Lady in Purple and Yellow Travel Outfit, 1904

There’s something about arriving in new cities,
wandering empty streets with no destination.
I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I'm born to leave.
― Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: In Search for The Great Perhaps
A vintage fashion illustration from 1904 showing an Edwardian lady wearing a beautifully made purple and yellow travel outfit. For additional flourish, she is carrying a spectacularly luxurious muff.

Original illustration found in my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. You can download the free high-res 8" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, crafting or scrapbooking projects by clicking here.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

19th Century Public Domain Poetry: Varieties in Verse from 1867

These two verses were originally published in either the May or June 1867 issue of Godey's (the book is falling apart so the pages are jumbled together). The verses were translated into English from Italian and French, respectively. I am not quite sure if the translations were accurate as the poems seem to be missing something?

The Italian verse reads:
With joyful notes birds greet the spring,
And fairest flowers their odors fling;
But wicked love pretends to sigh
'Cause the fair things so soon must die.
Poor child! cries spring, thy happiest hours―
Will they last longer than my flowers?
The French verse is called "With a Lock of Gray Hair" and goes like this:

Despise it not because 'tis gray,
Nor cast the gift with scorn away.
It tells of love as warm and true
As ever youthful bosom knew;
But, purer far than love of youth,
It needs no blush to own its truth,
Nor faltering tongue a love to tell,
Such as might angels' bosoms swell.
You can download the verses on the original book paper as a free high-res JPEG without a watermark here. Lovely as a a vintage scrap to embellish a card, collage, junk journal or scrapbook page.


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Edwardian Lady Traveler in Velvet Outfit, 1904

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude.
To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility,
is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire.
For politeness is like a counter ― an avowedly false coin,
with which it is foolish to be stingy.
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
A vintage fashion illustration from 1904 showing an elegant Edwardian lady wearing an impressive velvet travelling outfit with a mantelet decorated with prominently placed tassels and a skirt with a bold infinity-loop design. For extra swagger, she has decided to accessorize with a tightly rolled parasol that could potentially be used to school anyone who might try something vulgar.

Original illustration found in my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. You can download the free ready-to-print 6.75" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, crafting or scrapbooking projects by clicking here.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustrations: A Pair of Fancy Hats for Spring, 1875

Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.
― Anonymous
A pair of vintage fashion illustrations showing fancy hats for spring from 1875. The lady on the left is wearing a hat of black satin-finished chip while the lady on the right is modelling a hat made of dark steel-gray French chip.

You can download the free high-res 12" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG here for use in collage art, crafting projects or to embellish scrapbooking pages.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Lady in Carriage Dress, 1860

A page from Godey's Lady's Book in 1860 (I think it is from June or July? I am not sure as the cover is missing). The description for the dress reads:

The Agatha. ― Dress of pale Pomona green taffetas; the under skirt having a horizontal trimming of black silk set on with a slight fulness (sic); the upper skirt has a diagonal trimming to correspond; corsage square, pagoda sleeves, rather long and flowing.

At the top of the page is an embroidery pattern for a child's skirt.

You can download a free 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for cardmaking, collage, crafts or junk journal projects.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Lady in a Gored Robe, 1860

A page from Godey's Lady's Book in 1860 (I think it is from July or August; I am not sure as the cover is missing). The description for the dress reads:

La Princesse. ― This carriage or home-dress is another variation of the gored robe, the skirt coming in at the waist in broad, square plaits; the stuff or material for this season of the year is a light reps cloth, of silk or worsted in naroow, horizontal stripes; flat bows of silk, the prevailing color of the dress. Bonnet of Cobourg straw, with a Clotilde veil.

At the top of the page is an embroidery pattern for a shirt bosom.

You can download a free 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for cardmaking, collage, crafts or junk journal projects.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Real Photo Postcard (RPPC): Romantic Couple in the Garden (Vintage Valentine's Day Greeting)

I no longer believed in the idea of soul mates, or love at first sight. But I was beginning to believe that a very few times in your life, if you were lucky, you might meet someone who was exactly right for you. Not because he was perfect, or because you were, but because your combined flaws were arranged in a way that allowed two separate beings to hinge together.
― Lisa Kleypas, Blue-Eyed Devil
A vintage, hand-tinted French real photo postcard (RPPC) from c1910. This one shows a young Edwardian couple in the garden, obviously enjoying in each other's company as they whisper sweet nothings to one another.

You can download the high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark here for a Valentine's Day card but can also be used in a romance-themed junk journal or scrapbooking project.


All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please link back to RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Edwardian Lady Travelers in Brown and Purple, 1904

At one time or another we are all called to leave the safety of our homes,
the certainty of what we know, the illusions of who we are.
Not everyone will heed this call, of course.
And those who do will risk losing themselves completely.
But if we choose to ignore the invitation,
we risk never knowing who we might have become.
We risk dying without knowing what it is to live.
― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen
A vintage illustration from 1904 showing two Edwardian lady travelers dressed for a winter journey.The lady on the left is in a brown suit, with a matching brown bow in her hat while the lady on the right is wearing a heavy tan jacket over a purple dress, and is holding a muff to keep her hands warm (and perhaps to conceal a weapon). Both ladies look pretty serious - they seem like they are embarking on a quest?

This illustration was found in my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. You can download the free ready-to-print 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for crafts, collage graphic design projects by clicking here.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Victorian Childhood Games: Cat's Cradle

This illustration and the accompanying description of a popular Victorian childhood game of Cat's Cradle was taken from an 1875 issue of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine.

I know this doesn't really have any relevance to the game but a phrase in the article (which I highlighted above) jumped out at me as I was reading it: "Shades of Verstegan - living soul of Richard Grant White, come to our rescue!" I find the sentence rather intriguing - I don't think I've ever read or heard anyone use that phrase before. Isn't it marvelously Victorian? I'm still hazy as to what it actually means! If anyone could shed some light on that turn of phrase? I would be delighted if you do.

Quick links to characters named:
[1] Verstegan
[2] Richard Grant White

For those who have not actually played Cat's Cradle before and would be interested in the steps, here is an easy-to-follow Youtube video from MomsMinivan:




All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.