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1801Diagram of a slave ship
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1807Shopping for fabric
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1807Wordsworth, 'Daffodils'
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1807Textiles from India
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1808Beethoven's sketches
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1810Exhibition of a rhino and zebra
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1815Deciphering the Rosetta Stone
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1815Battle of Waterloo letter
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1816Jane Austen, Persuasion
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1819Peterloo Massacre
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1822Cartoon of a street accident
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1822Shampooing Surgeon
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1827Description of London
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1829Execution of a 12 year old boy
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1829Diary entry on 'The Pillory'
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1830Invention of photography
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18321832 Reform Act
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1834Tolpuddle Martyrs
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1836Early Chartist meeting notes
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1837Dickens, Oliver Twist
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1838The People's Charter
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1839Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby
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1839Poster for Living Mermaid
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1840The Railways
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1840First postage stamp
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1840Coal mining
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1844Popular entertainments
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1844Engels: factory conditions
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1846Freak show: What is it?
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1847Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
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1848The Communist Manifesto
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1849Chartist William Cuffay
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1851The Great Exhibition
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1851Sketch for the Crystal Palace
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1852Woman's magazine
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1852Poverty and the workhouse
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1855London Zoo
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1855Cookery for the poor
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1857Human Exhibition
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1857Mary Seacole
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1858Ship building
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1858Britain's Indian empire
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1859Nightingale, Notes on Nursing
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1860Victorian fashion
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1860Florence Nightingale letter
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1860Coal mining
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1861Mrs Beeton - Lady's maid
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1861Mrs Beeton
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1861Mrs Beeton's Turkey
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1862A Hulk (prison ship)
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1863Underground trains
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1863Alice in Wonderland
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1866Letter from Charles Darwin
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1868City slums
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1869Opening of the Suez Canal
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1872Music Hall
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1876Street sellers
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1876Freakshow posters
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1878Invention of the telephone
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1878Illusionists and conjurers
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1880The textile industry
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1886Victorian farming
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1887Magic show
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1887Circus poster
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1887Victoria's Indian servant
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1888Match Girls Strike
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1888Jack the Ripper murders
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1890Daily shopping
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1892An Asian MP in Parliament
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1893Gladstone: Irish Home Rule
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1895Oscar Wilde on trial
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1896Nightingale Nurse diary
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1898Factory accidents
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1898Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
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Intro
Illusionists and spiritualists were popular attractions in Victorian theatres and exhibition halls: audiences could sit amazed as ghosts appeared on stage and automata solved mathematical puzzles. Renowned performers appeared to levitate, slice the heads off spectators and escape out of locked boxes. This poster advertises the 'marvellous entertainments' provided by magicians Maskelyne and Cooke at London's Egyptian Hall.
John Maskelyne and George Cooke took over the Egyptian Hall Theatre in Piccadilly in 1873 and made it the centre of stage magic in London. Hugely popular, they billed themselves as "Royal Illusionists and Anti-Spiritualists", taking a competitive stand against stage magicians who tried to convince audiences that their illusions were "magical" or "spiritual". In this same spirit, Maskelyne and Cooke exposed as fakes an American magic duo, the Davenport Brothers, by performing the Davenports' act and telling audiences how each trick was done. They blended comedy, illusion and conjuring, changing their act frequently to ensure that audiences were never bored.
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