Edwardian Promenade

Ladies began to carve out a separate, independent life of their own by the late 1890s, and there came to London a proliferation of clubs catering specifically to gentlewomen of rank and means. Inside, the clubs mirrored that of their more famous counterparts like White’s or the Marlborough Club, as centers of leisure and relaxation, [...]

Washington D.C. was both the capitol of the United States, but also the black elite. It was in this city, which was built with the labor of thousands of African-Americans, to which the beacon lights of the nation drew like moths to a flame. The “colored elite” of the capitol centered around Howard University and [...]

A major development of the nineteenth century was the emergence of world’s fairs, all of which served to entertain visitors and impress them with the technological and cultural advances of Western nations and their colonies which increased exponentially–and dazzlingly–after the 1851 Great Exhibition hosted by England under the auspices of the Prince Consort. By the [...]

Perhaps it was the possession of the ill-fated and cursed Hope Diamond which destined Mary Augusta Yohé to a life of infamy and ruin. Nonetheless, you must say that her fate was that of a series of missteps and foolish actions–rather in the vein of Lily Bart–with which the ebullient American musical actress chose to [...]

One of the most striking differences between American women and English women was the role each played after marriage. The young American girl was sophisticated and cultured, with easy ways and unconscious charm when compared to her English counterpart, but in American society, the position of a married woman was rather restricted to home and [...]

Biographies on Edwardian aristocrats largely confine themselves to Jennie Jerome, Lillie Langtry, and Consuelo Vanderbilt, so it’s a treat to discover one written about one of the most famous women of the era who has since fallen into obscurity.
Born in 1867 and orphaned at three, Ettie Fane was brought up by a beloved grandmother and [...]

History has unfortunately immortalized Lady Duff-Gordon as the cold, imperious woman who, with her husband, Sir Cosmo, commandeered a lifeboat to themselves during the sinking of the Titanic, completely ignoring her position in history as one of the first couturiers and an indomitable, albeit flawed woman, who began her own business to provide an income [...]

When stationed abroad–or sent away for some nefarious reason or other–the English imported the manners and mores of Home to their new locale. As the British Empire grew, spreading across Asia, Africa and Down Under, it was imperative to maintain ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ in the midst of ‘brutish’ nations. Though the leading official of Britain’s [...]