One artist, Marzena Żyła-Hoppe has created a funny yet gruesome comic series titled Veinity Fair inspired by historical events.

Particularly fascinated with the Victorian era the artist illustrates–a perfect blend of scientific progress, bizarre practices, and questionable individuals that were considered completely normal back in the days. 

Hoppe admits she has been interested in history since childhood and always felt like something was missing. As a young adult, her interest inclined toward books, documentaries, and other media which showed the less glorious, but much more intriguing side of history. She found herself pondering over questions like "How did people deal with ailments before anesthesia? What would women do during their periods? What were the burial practices of our ancestors?”

This inspired a debut of her popular comic series that has commanded a great following on social media.

More info: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Patreon | veinityfair.com

#1 Taxidermy

During the Victorian era, taxidermy was a regular pastime, appropriate for people of all ages. Stuffed animals were hung in the parlors as evidence of the given homeowners' hunting prowess or simply a part of a larger collection of unique items.

Near the end of the 19th century, a new hobby, anthropomorphic taxidermy was introduced. In this style, the mounted animals were posed and dressed in a human-like fashion. The animals also "performed" various activities, for example: dancing or getting married.

#2 Sigmund and Cocaine

Sigmund Freund, is known to many as the pioneer of psychoanalysis. However, what most don't know is Freud spent a large portion of his life prescribing and promoting cocaine as a miracle cure to almost everything.

He is also believed to have been used it himself on regular basis. Some scholars believe this largely influenced his theories on the human psyche and treatments which are considered pseudoscientific today.

#3 Unwrapping Gifts

During the 19th century, Egyptomania swept over Europe causing a few disturbing trends in society. 

Among the most porpular ones are 'unwrapping parties'; during which people would observe or even take part in unwrapping ancient mummies, stealing the valuables they could find, or even dissect what was left of the body for "souvenirs".

#4 Temporary Melancholia origins

Got the morbs (Soc., 1880) Temporary melancholia. Abstract noun coined from adjective morbid.

#5 Poisonous Food coloring

During the mid-19th-century era the English diet experienced an unprecedented increase in sugar consumption, and the use of food coloring.

This emerging trend was quite deadly because at the time, most vibrant eye-pleasing food colors were achieved by adding some pretty dangerous stuff, e.g., copper sulfate for blue, copper arsenite for green, or mercury sulfide for red.

Many people got seriously sick and some even died because of the coloring in their sweets. In 1851 nearly 200 people were poisoned by colored lozenges, 17 of whom fatally. 

#6 Universal Cure-alls

"Clyster, bleed, purge, repeat" was the holy Grail for many doctors throughout the ages. At the time, the medical fraternity believed that bad blood, humor imbalance, or miasma were causing all illnesses known to humanity.

Such treatments were hence prescribed  as universal cure for almost all ailments upto the late nineteenth century.

#7 Doctor Thomas Dent Mütter

Doctor Thomas Dent Mütter was a brilliant surgeon porpular for pioneering many techniques that immensely helped correct burn victims and people with extreme physical deformities.

Mütter himself was a  very sympathetic man dedicated to alleviating human suffering.  He boasted to be one of the fasted surgeons in the U.S and even wrote a book on special techniques used during such surgeries.

Nevertheless, he became the first surgeon to administer ether anesthesia in Philadelphia and adapt his methods over time according to the newest discoveries.  Today he's best known for an enormous collection of medical specimen and oddities kept in Philadelphia.

#8 The Perpetual pill

Also known as the everlasting pill, it was a porpular 19th century medicine thought to bring balance to the body's humors by inducing purging.

Made from metallic antimony, a highly poisonous substance that causes health effects similar to arsenic poisoning; An antimony pill would pass through the gastric system practically intact, so it could be retrieved, cleaned  and put away for later use. 

#9 The Great Stink

The summer of 1858 was exceptionally hot for Londoners. This unbearable weather was however overshadowed by something even more unpleasant: the 'Great Stink' coming from one source,The Thames.

At the time, the river served as a sewer for all human, factory, and slaughterhouse waste in the area. Apart from the offensive smells, Thames was also the source of cholera outbreaks and other diseases that constantly plagued the city.

As the level of the river dropped because of the heatwave, "a huge pile of human excrement was left piled up right next to Parliament." Benjamin Disraeli described it as a “Stygian pool, reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors” and proposed a bill supporting the modernization of the sewer system based on new plans.

#10 Children Playing Funeral

It might look too Bizarre in the modern world, but during the Victorian era, Children playing funeral was a common sight.

This often, a reflection of The high mortality rate meant children often witnessed death in their families and replicated during play time.

Special doll sets containing small coffins and mourning fabrics were sometimes given to girls, to help them practice performing tasks connected with a funeral, like attending the mourners.

#11 Post Mortem Photography.

The Victorians were obsessed with death and had even cultivated elaborate mourning practices into their social structure.

The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 was a game changer, allowing them to explore grief through post-mortem photography. Families would have their pictures taken with dead relatives lying peacefully in a bed or, more unusually, posed in a life-like manner on a chair.

These photos were often the only images that people had of their loved ones because of how are and expensive photography was at the time.

#12 Arsenic Routines

To many Victorians, achieving an"aristocratic" look was a big deal and citizens tried everything to get a very pale complexion associated with aristocracy.

Because of the frenzy, companies started to add arsenic to various cosmetics, including soaps, lotions, and powders. Arsenic was also advised to be ingested, either in the form of wafers (e.g. Dr. Rose’s Arsenic Complexion Wafers) or fluids (e.g. Fowler’s Solution). 

#13 Dr. Fahrney's teething Syrup

Dr. Fahrney’s Teething Syrup was a dangerous concortion of alcohol, morphine and Chloroform marketed as medicine for babies during the victorian era.

It was marketed as a 'miraculous' product, able to cure conditions ranging from teething pain through common cold, to cholera and even dysentery.

#14 Scheele's Green

Scientifically known as copper arsenite, this is a green coloring that was used during the 18th century for everything from wallpaper through dresses to toys and candies.

Its unique, vibrant look quickly made it a porpular choice for many fashionistas. As you can imagine, the arsenic-loaded dye is very poisonous especially if ingested or breathed in through release of arsenic gas

#15 Feathery Hats

Fashionistas of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras were obsessed with  feather hats; adorned with bird feathers, heads, wings, and even whole animals.

The demand for birds spiralled so much that the millinery industry decimated dozens of species and even drove one of them – the passenger pigeon – into extinction.

The last passenger pigeon died in captivity in 1914. 

#16 Victoria and Albert's Minute's-long Cruise

In the summer of 1858, Victoria and Albert took a leisurely cruise down the Thames. However, unknown to them was how severe the Great Stink was. 

It is said they didn't last longer than a few minutes on board despite bringing along scented handkerchieves.

#17 Princess Sisi

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837 – 1898), porpular as Sisi, was famous for her extraordinary beauty, perfect hair and a killer fashion sense.

To live up to her name, she practiced elaborate beauty routines with the use of a variety of products some of which had pretty weird ingredients.

#18 Crape Veils

 Grieving women during the Victorian era wore mourning veils that could be as long as six feet. Made out of black crape, this scratchy fabric was believed to be the most appropriate for mourning.

Unfortunately, some of the black dyes  used in the production were quite poisonous, causing a variety of ailments from like respiratory problems. 

#19 Locomotives and Flying Uteruses

The advent of the steam-powered locomotive was a game changer, allowing people to travel farther and faster than ever before.

But the excitement that came with this form of transport would soon  be faced with a moral and physical threat, especially to women. Some believed that women's bodies wouldn't handle the high-speed (80 km/h or 50 mph) travels, resulting in faintings, madness, or… uteruses falling out.

#20 Mark Twain

Apparently, Mark Twain really didn't like Jane Austen. He wrote a few things he disliked about her.

#21Re- Animating Solar Tincture

 Dr. Sibly advertised his Solar Tincture in the 1790s and early 19th century as a miracle cure that could cheat Death.

While such a remedy could not see the light of day in the modern world, many people in the Victorian era could have been inclined to do so given the high mortality rate of the times. 

Another cure-all from Dr. Sibly's shelf was the Lunar Tincture. It was supposedly the answer to all female problems, which according to Dr. Sibly were caused mainly by the lack of sex, too much sex, menstruation, lack of pregnancy, or menopause.

#22 The Great Book Scare

The Great Book Scare happened in the period between 1880 and 1920 when the general public was obsessed with the idea that library books were a major source of epidemics. Despite little evidence for this, many in the U.S and the U.K. believed that library books could spread everything from tuberculosis to smallpox.

Due to public outcry, authorities and physicians started to come up with ideas on how to limit the risk such as treating books with vapors from heated carbolic acid crystals.

#23 Semmelweis' Advice

While working in Vienna General Hospital in the 1840s, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed a curious thing – the mortality rate of new mothers was a lot higher inwards supervised by doctors compared to those supervised by midwives.

After some investigating, he found the source of the problem – only doctors had access to both maternity wards and autopsy tables. Semmelweis quickly developed a theory of what he called "cadaverous particles" and introduced rigorous handwashing in his clinics. Unfortunately, even though his method worked spectacularly well, he was ridiculed by most of the medical professionals until his death in a lunatic asylum.