1860: "Wealth, Comfort, Consensus"
The years leading up to 1860 have been described by Ivan Kreilkamp as “a decade of wealth, comfort, and consensus.” The Great Exhibition of 1851, as briefly mentioned on the previous page, set the tone of the period: Britain expressed the immense power they had amassed through industrial and colonial projects to the rest of the world. Perhaps it is this strength and stability that allowed many of Punch’s 1860 illustrations to focus on elements of culture rather than anxieties of the period.
Literary culture was thriving in the 1850s, too, with a mass of influential authors publishing works that would later be considered classics. For example, Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” and Charles Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species” were both released in 1859. Both pieces have stood the test of time and continue to be recognizable to contemporary populations.
Crinoline Caricature
1860 was the median year of what Celine Clayton-Gouthro calls “the height of the crinoline period.” The crinoline was introduced to Britain by Empress Eugenie and was a contoversial replacement for the heavy underskirts of the past. It increased the size of women’s skirts, thus making them more visible in the public sphere and challenging their role as mothers (since children could not stand too close). While some men hated the subversive garment, others embraced it, such as the individual depicted here who is using a crinoline for the very same reason it was criticized.
Victorian Mediumship
The Victorian spiritualism movement began in the 1840s and was both an outlet for religious practice and a method of entertainment. People would have seances in their homes (hence the domestic objects in this illustration) in an effort to communicate with the souls of the deceased. This was part of the broader shift towards spectacle as encouraged by the proliferation of media advertisements. This is perhaps the most obviously humorous illustration of the exhibit: the double entendre of “medium” has not been lost in a modern context.
The New Year
In the 1860s, Britain had a vested interest in international relations—a fact which is reflected in this illustration. Mr. Punch’s agenda for 1860 exhibits this point well, with mentions of Italy, China, San Juan, Suez, Morocco, and India. The item titled “Reform Bill” on the chalkboard refers to the Second Reform Act, which was passed in 1867 and increased the number of British individuals eligible to voter. This illustration was an entertaining way for Punch to inform its audience about the interests of Britain on the dawn of a new decade.