story research.

[huxley]

i want to do a story that takes place in the 1800's. i'm not sure which date exactly. cause i want certain things in the story, like certain technology in the setting and certain technology not in the setting.

i do not want any automobile but i want horse carriages.

i want city to city transportation by train, locomotives, steam engines.

plus i need to inform myself on what type of industry did the 1800's have. because i want one character to be a owner of a either a factory or own a company that as the monopoly on an iteam or product, which makes him a very rich man.

locations that i would like to know the day to day activities would be the boating docks (like the type of trade that might be loading or off loading from ships, ) ship yards, (like what types of ships that might have been building.)
what were the markets like? was it runned by the poor and or new immigrants? would like to know about the division of the poor class and the rich class.

i'm going to go to my local library and start doing some research but i'm a very visual person i thought movies, documentaries, and pictures would be great for me to start visualising the world i'm trying to create.

does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how to research the 1800's?
any helpful links or names of some documentaries or films would be great.

my setting is in a big city with lots of people. industries. the city needs a harbor for ships. need trains, and horse carriages. plus the right fashion.

i was thinking either base it on a city like london or some middle european city. like somewhere on the coast of italy, france, or spain.

thanks for the help.

[Commonmind]

You'll have to make your story believable, and in that sense you're going to have to rule out areas that weren't really affected by the boom of industry during the time period in which you're writing. London, New York, Boston, Chicago, all of these areas would work well; I'm not certain about Italy, France or Spain, but that may have something to do with the fact that their particular contributions weren't large enough to have played a major part in industrial history, and my knowledge of these times only reaches to the most popular areas.

As for research, you're likely going to spend more time reading than watching, so you might as well suck it up and put your nose to the grindstone. There aren't many resources out there in video form that paint a clear picture of the era; the ones that are available (the History Channel has a few DVD's on the market that go into the Industrial Revolution in detail) are usually centered around certain areas, or how the people during the time were affected; they don't focus too much on the actual technology, save a few tidbits here or there that might be helpful.

[Teresa Edgerton]

If you want the trains, you're probably talking about the mid-to-late 1800's. Since it was a century of enormous changes it might be helpful to narrow your focus down even more. (As well as what part of the world you are interested in. If you are going for an English or European type setting, you don't want to know about conditions on the American frontier, or vice versa.)

[j. d. worthington]

As for automobiles... well, they didn't even come into extremely limited use until the late 1800s, and not into general (though not widespread use) until well into the 1930s. Here's a very brief bit to give you some ideas on that one:

Automobile History - Invention of the Automobile

Other aspects of technology... look for some biographies of notable figures of the period you're looking at. In those there should be at least a chapter or two describing the milieu, and at the back there should be bibliographies where you can refer to the books used; many of these will be on the subject of the cultural (including technological, demographic, social, etc.) aspects/changes of the time (this would also include employment figures, with a description of what parts of society held what positions). And, as Teresa says, depending on where you're at, you may be looking at a period of rapid, nearly day-to-day change, or something much slower, but with periodic leaps forward.

Oddly, one book with a very good thumbnail sketch of the conditions in various parts of London in the 1880s is Donald Rumbelow's The Complete Jack the Ripper. The early section of the book has a surprising amount of information on this (as it helps to get a complete picture of the social factors involved), and (as I recall) a rather good bibliography to help you look up other sources on this period and place.

[Teresa Edgerton]

My DSL line went haywire earlier when I was editing my previous post. Everything seems to be working now, so I'll try to remember the brilliant advice I was in the process of giving you at that time.

If what you are looking for is information about city life around the middle of the 19th century, you could do a lot worse than Charles Dickens. His books are not what you would call a pictorial source, but he was a very descriptive writer, who really could paint vivid and detailed pictures with words. He was more interested in people and social institutions than in industry or technology, but he travelled widely and was a keen observer, and if you want to know what his era looked like, smelled like, felt like, sounded like (and especially talked like), you might want to read his American Notes, Sketches by Boz, or Pictures from Italy -- which also describes part of his journey through France on the way.

These books are available to read online, and may be printable:

American Notes by Charles Dickens - Project Gutenberg

Sketches by Boz

Pictures From Italy by Charles Dickens

All these books are rich in the kind of details that could really make a story come to life. His novels have some great passages for that, too, but in these books it's in more concentrated form.

[Talysia]

If you're looking for industries to use in your story - especially ones that made people very wealthy - then maybe you should do some research into the fabric trade. The owners of cotton cloth weaving mills became very wealthy after the start of the Industrial Revolution, and the same could be said for wool. The only problem I can see with that is how the cotton is obtained, because in a lot of cases it was linked to slavery, just like the sugar trade.

[Culhwch]

This is a timely discussion for me, as I've recently been toying with an idea for a YA other-world story with a framework set in the mid-nineteenth century. Must get my finger out and start doing some research....

[huxley]

thanks guys. i just wanted to add does anyone know which date in the 1800's would be good time to have all the technology like : trains travel. horse carriages, plus i want photography to be available. i should go do some research on the history of photography.

and where would i find info about the down in out people of that time? the people who lived on the streets and how they earned there money. either by stealing or just poor jobs.

[Marvolo]

One benefit is that no one will refute something you say on the basis of "I was there."

Unless your backround is going to be almost a character, I would suggest getting a decent bit of reading done, then making a sort of outline of the area you wish to write about and the time period. Look for quotes from people during your reading. Things like, "People steered clear from the lower end because of the smell of decaying garbage, which attracted a lot of rats." This one quote, along with a photograph and a clear picture in your head of the weather on your fantasy day can give you a good backdrop for a chapter.

Jack walked down the narrow alley. He was forced to look down with every step to ensure his newly shined shoes didn't stray into the garbage that lay about all over the streets of this lowly quarter of London. How despicable these people were, he thought. Here and there, shadows twitched and bucked, hinting at vermin scurrying underneath the trash. The midsummer heat of the day lent a pungent aroma that made his stomach feel weak. Thunder rolled in the distance, nearly drowned out by the loud shouting coming from the next alley over. Jack resented being brought here for the meeting. Whatever the mysterious photographer had on him better be good. Otherwise, a new bit of trash would be attracting rats tonight.


If this description sucks, oh well. I'm just trying to show that the characters are his most important part. That, and a little bit of backround knowledge can go a long way. Take a quote about the place and time and extrapolate what you need to fill in the blanks. It is fiction you're writing after all.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think by the late 1830's photography and passenger trains were coming into common use. People continued to ride in horse-drawn carriages throughout the century.

[SJAB]

I would suggest you read some Dickens, especially for his descriptions of London of the time period and the plight of the poor. It would give you a different take on the situation.

This site has some super links.


David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page

[BookStop]

Daguerrotype, which I believe was the earliest form of easily accessible photography, wasn't around until the mid-nineteenth century. I think it became more common around 1850s(looked it up invented 1839 so your story should tke place after that). Color didn't become popular until the twentieth century.

Tintype was another type of photography that got it's start mid 1850s.

[Teresa Edgerton]

According to articles I've hunted up, Daguerre unveiled his process to the world in 1839, though he had invented it a couple of years earlier. Within the year there were portrait studios in New York, and by 1840 studios were springing up and doing a flourishing trade just about everywhere. It was apparently one of those things that caught on very quickly.

[Lith]

Photography was pretty well widespread by the 1880's, judging from most pictures I've seen, as well as family photos.

Have you asked a librarian yet? They can point you in the right direction. Also World Book encyclopedias (don't know about others) have citations at the end of the articles for books offering more information.

[Tree94]

I have to agree Dickens is a wonderful place to find discriptions of what life was like in the 1800's. Some other authors of the 1800's were Jane Austin and of corse Mark Twain. As far as photos is concerned I'm not sure exactly what you are looking for but I think if you look up pictures from the Civil war era it should help.