PART I
As a Historian, I have many interests both in time and space. One of these, most dear to my heart, is Victorian culture and lifestyles. This interest arose due to the fact that a great deal of my professional life as a Historian directly concerned nineteenth century matters.
My time with the San Diego Historical Society was taken up in large part with the 1887 Victorian mansion, the Villa Montezuma. In struggling to gain further insight and understanding of the structure, I began to study the 1880s to 1900 here in San Diego and in England and was richly rewarded for my efforts. I began to comprehend the cultural influences that both created and impacted the Villa Montezuma even here in San Diego.
The focus for California State Department of Parks and Rec. at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park was principally the second half of the nineteenth century. While employed there, I participated in reenactments of lifestyles of the time. It is sometimes hard for Americans to realize but the Gold Rush, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and everything in the Wild West, and through the Spanish-American War, all took place within the so-called Victorian era. The limited nineteenth century living history that I participated in, was very profitable for me in understanding not just how things were done, but why things were done a certain way.
Obviously, we can never recreate life as it was in the late Victorian times for the simple reasons that we cannot think like people from the past. In 2015, we can go through the motions of living the Victorian life; dress, food preparation, and other aspects of material culture are relatively simple to reproduce. And in some cases are probably better for us. But it is the mindset that we can not reproduce or experience. For example, a re-enactor or living historian cannot recreate the anxiety of dying of simple illness because penicillin has not been discovered yet. Or the trauma of a high infant mortality rate. Or the fear of industrial or work-related injuries with no recourse for assistance. All this doesn't even take into account gender and class roles which were strictly enforced and played a dominant part in the late Victorian mindset. Please understand, I am not putting down reenactment or living history. I firmly believe, through first hand experience, that this approach can teach aspects about bygone times which supplement historic research; and thus provide a fuller, more complete and richer relationship with the historic past.
So when I came across the September 9, 2015 article, I love the Victorian era. So I decided to live in it. by Sarah A. Chrisman, of course I was intrigued.
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