Best 1890s
The beginning of the seventh story arc in the long-running JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. It’s 1890, in America, the Steel Ball Run — the first horse racing championship across the North American continent — was about to begin. Johnny Joestar, once being hailed as a genius jockey, is now paraly...
The Card Players is a group of five oil paintings made by Paul Cezanne during the early 1890s. The compositions show Provençal working men absorbed in a card game, with versions differing in size, number of figures, and surrounding details. Cezanne organized the bodies, table, and interior through s...
A Red Record is a 1890s pamphlet authored by Ida B. Wells. It presents detailed research on racial lynchings in America’s South, specifically challenging common defenses offered by white communities. The work exposed the fabricated reasons used to justify these violent acts and remains a crucial doc...
Weber and Fields Music Hall was a prominent vaudeville and burlesque venue located in New York City. Opened in 1896 by the comedy duo Joe Weber and Lew Fields, the theater became a major center for comedic entertainment. It was distinguished by its fast-paced revues and original burlesque sketches t...
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. was an American television series set in the American West of 1893. The show centered on a Harvard-educated lawyer, Brisco County, Jr., who worked as a bounty hunter for wealthy industrialists pursuing John Bly and his gang. Supporting characters included Lord Bo...
Carl Zeller’s Der Vogelhändler, composed in 1891, remains a significant work of Viennese operetta. The opera tells a rural romance set in the 1890s and is notable for its melodic style and comedic elements. It’s primarily performed by amateur and professional theater groups interested in showcasing...
Wiener Blut, meaning “Viennese Blood,” is an operetta based on compositions by Johann Strauss II. It was assembled posthumously in 1899 by Adolf Müller Jr. The work features a romantic storyline and prominent waltzes characteristic of the Viennese operetta tradition from the 1890s. It’s primarily en...
Ida B. Wells’ “Lynch Law in Georgia” is a critical examination of extrajudicial killings by white mobs targeting African Americans during the 1890s. The pamphlet details specific incidents in Georgia, revealing the systematic nature of racial violence and its denial of due process. It serves as an i...
This 1896 Lumière Brothers short film documents the arrival of a passenger train at La Ciotat station in France. It represents a pivotal moment in cinematic history as one of the earliest examples of filmed actuality. The footage offers a rare glimpse into transportation technology and daily life du...
Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre was a prominent vaudeville venue located at Broadway and 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York. Built by theatrical impresario Oscar Hammerstein I in 1899, the theater became famous for booking a mix of novelty acts, circus performers, and celebrity entertainers. The venu...
The Widow’s Kiss is a classic cocktail dating back to the 1890s. It features gin, apple brandy, benedictine liqueur, and chartreuse for a complex flavor. This stirred drink offers a subtly floral and bittersweet taste appealing to those interested in vintage cocktails or exploring unique herbal comb...
*Anarchy* is an influential political pamphlet written by the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, first published in 1891. The text serves as a foundational definition of anarchist communism, clearly outlining Malatesta's vision for a society organized entirely without government or coercive authori...
Véronique is a French opéra comique by André Messager, with a libretto by Albert Vanloo and Georges Duval. It premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in 1898 and became one of Messager's most enduring stage works. The romantic comedy follows a wealthy young woman who adopts the identity of a...
The Red Record is an 1895 anti-lynching pamphlet by American journalist and activist Ida B. Wells. Drawing on newspaper reports and documented cases, Wells compiled statistics on lynchings in the United States and challenged claims that mob violence primarily punished sexual crimes. The work argues...
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat is an 1896 French short documentary film directed by Auguste and Louis Lumière. Capturing a train pulling into the coastal town of La Ciotat, it is one of the earliest examples of an actuality film, a precursor to the modern documentary. Composed of a single continuou...
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases is a pamphlet published in 1892 by the African American journalist Ida B. Wells. Drawing on press accounts and statistics, it argued that lynchings of Black Americans in the South were not responses to criminal acts but instruments of racial terror and e...
"Der Opernball" is a Viennese operetta composed by Richard Heuberger, featuring a libretto by Victor Léon and Heinrich von Waldberg. The work premiered in 1898 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and quickly became Heuberger's most significant theatrical success. The narrative revolves around the r...
"The Four Troublesome Heads" is an 1898 French short film directed by Georges Méliès. In this early trick film, Méliès uses pioneering multiple exposure techniques to show himself repeatedly removing his own head and placing it onto a table, creating the illusion of multiple disembodied heads. The f...
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory is an 1895 French short actuality film directed by Louis Lumière. The silent, black-and-white footage simply depicts numerous employees exiting the gates of the Lumière photographic factory in Lyon, France. It is historically significant as one of the earliest sur...
Frau Luna is a German-language operetta by Paul Lincke, first performed in Berlin in 1899 and later expanded in a 1922 revision. Its comic fantasy follows Berlin characters who travel to the Moon and encounter a lunar society, combining science-fiction spectacle with local humor and popular song. Th...
The Sprinkler Sprinkled is an 1895 French short film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. Widely recognized as the first film comedy in cinema history, it runs for less than a minute and features a simple, staged narrative gag. The film depicts a gardener watering plants using a hose, who is pran...
*Der Landstreicher* is a German-language operetta from the late 19th-century Austro-Hungarian Empire, notable for its place in the popular Viennese silver operetta era.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism is an 1891 political essay by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. In the text, Wilde argues that capitalism forces individuals into poverty and servility, whereas socialism would liberate them to pursue true artistic individualism and personal freedom. It remains a key text...
Sam T. Jack's Creole Burlesque was an American all-Black variety and burlesque revue that opened in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1890. The show is frequently cited by theater historians as the first organized Black burlesque company in the United States. It toured widely and provided early professio...
"Blacksmith Scene" is an 1893 American short film directed by William K.L. Dickson and produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. Filmed inside Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, it features three blacksmiths hammering an anvil and sharing a bottle of beer. The short is histo...
An 1894 American stage production that served as an early example of the theatrical revue format, blending musical numbers with satirical stage sketches.
"The Dreyfus Affair" is an 1899 French short film directed by Georges Méliès that dramatizes the contemporary political scandal surrounding Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer wrongly convicted of treason. Produced by Méliès's Star Film Company, the film consists of a series of scenes depicti...
The Princeton Triangle Show is an annual student-written musical comedy begun in 1891, distinguished by a national tour and its traditional kickline.
The Haunted Castle, originally released in France as Le Manoir du diable, is an 1896 trick film directed by Georges Méliès. The production utilizes practical theatrical effects, such as pyrotechnics and substitution splicing, to depict a bat transforming into the demon Mephistopheles within a mediev...
