My Victorian Nightmare

Latest Episodes:

Bonus Episode! - A little Hallowe'en Candy Oct 31, 2024

On today's minisode, Genevieve reads her 3 favorite spooky Victorian Halloween poems! Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven, Lake of the Dismal Swamp by Thomas Moore, and The Broomstick Train or the Return of the Witches by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Ep. 16 - Happy Hallowe'en! Oct 28, 2024

Today’s episode will contain absolutely delightful, bone-chillingly fascinating Victorian Halloween traditions, as well as a few more creepy-eepy Victorian house histories and hauntings.

References for today's episode:

https://gaslampfoundation.org/victorian-halloween-traditions-now-thats-scary/

https://www.grunge.com/1056548/what-victorian-halloween-was-really-like/

https://mix108.com/is-this-home-the-most-haunted-estate-in-minnesota/

https://www.huntingdondailynews.com/daily_herald/news/spooktacular-stories-the-haunting-of-baker-mansion/article_7370709e-6ff2-5d04-a92a-9853bc26b288.html

https://hauntedhouses.com/minnesota/forepaughs-restaurant/

Ep. 15 - Among the Dead Men Oct 21, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve will be diving back into your favorite grizzly, hideous, at times very witty, and fabulously illustrated Victorian publication - The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record. She'll discuss a creepy German law, Revolutionary war skeletons found in walls, coffins for lifeboats, and a journalist’s detailed report on what it was like to walk around a surgical school in the middle of the night in 1871.

Ep. 14 - Mannequins in the Attic Oct 14, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve discusses the creepiest Victorian haunted house she could find: The Villisca Axe murder house. She talks about both the chilling backstory and the hauntings.

References for today's episode:

https://adelaidehauntedhorizons.com.au/haunted-villisca-ax-murder-house-ghosts/

https://murderhouse.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/eldrm7/stayed_the_night_at_the_villisca_axe_murder_house/

https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/villisca-ax-murder-house/

https://villisca.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=moore&i=f&d=06011912-12311929&m=between&ord=k1&fn=the_villisca_review_usa_iowa_villisca_19120613_english_6&df=1&dt=10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villisca_axe_murdershttps://coronertalk.com/28

Minisode 2 - Coffin-Shaped Boxes and Unbearable Cliffhangers Oct 07, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss coffin-shaped boxes in mysterious huts, a case of suspended animation, a struggle in an elevator with a lunatic, and some other disturbing, little “Items of interest” as they’re called in the 1878 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record which are indeed very interesting items. We’ll also enjoy a pumpkin smash.

Ep. 13 - The Most Haunted House in America Sep 30, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve discusses "America's most haunted house®" - The Whaley House of San Diego California. She'll dive into the bone chilling back story, as well as the spooky hauntings that delight (and seriously creep out) visitors today.

References for today's episode include:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaley_House_(San_Diego,_California)

https://yourtahoeguide.com/2021/07/gold-rush-vigilantes-jim-ugly-and-yankee-jim/

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whaley-1836

https://www.kcghosts.com/california-whaley-house

https://sdghosts.com/the-whaley-house/

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/jul/03/history-san-diego-1850/

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU18850820.2.29&srpos=26&e=-------en--20-SDDU-21--txt-txIN-thomas+Whaley-------

Minisode 1 - Broad Blown as Fresh as Hell Sep 23, 2024

In today's (first!) minisode, Genevieve reads articles from the "Weekly Dose of Blood" in an 1873 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record publication, as well as a spooky little article about a thieving somnambulist.

Ep. 12 - Morbid Curiosity and Murderous Spirits Sep 16, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve will discuss Mediums getting attacked by spirits, men drinking their own blood, live burials, nuns getting struck with lightning and rising from the dead – it’s going to be a spooky rollercoaster.

Ep. 11 - Horrors of the Victorian Circus Sep 02, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve talks about Victorian circus horrors.

References for today's episode:

https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/freak-shows

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/septemberoctober/statement/the-circus-you-never-knew

https://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-circus-performances.html

https://boroughsofthedead.com/barnum-museum-fire-july-13-1865/

https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/greatest-show-earth-freak-shows-pt-barnum-tom-thumb/

https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=DMST18851009.2.46&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

https://www.historyireland.com/the-wee-est-little-man-that-ever-was-general-tom-thumb-in-ireland/

https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-lost-original-madison-square-garden.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid

https://jvc.oup.com/2021/05/20/lost-circuses-of-victorian-leeds/

Ep. 10 - Body Snatchers and Women on the Rampage Aug 19, 2024

In today’s episode, Genevieve dives back into the Illustrated Police News from 1871 - the insane Victorian publication full of grizzly murders, body snatchers, mice in donuts – it was a publication full of complete chaos.

Ep. 9 - Dangerous and Deadly Victorian Fashion Aug 07, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve discusses how Tuberculosis influenced fashion, hazardous beauty routines, deadly hatpins, the dangers of corsets, and strange, kind of gross beauty trends, as well as some really weird and intriguing facts about Victorian fashion.

References for today's episode:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/

https://www.thecollector.com/tuberculosis-art/

https://thevictorianhistorian.com/beauty-fashion/

https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2015/05/29/did-corsets-harm-womens-health/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-leeds-mercury-death-of-matilda/30613252/?locale=en-US

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hatpins-mashers-self-defense-history-women-hats-fashion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_green

https://hyperallergic.com/329747/death-by-wallpaper-alluring-arsenic-colors-poisoned-the-victorian-age/

Ep. 8 - Coffin-Shaped Tables Jul 29, 2024

Today’s episode is going to be a little different. Genevieve will be reading horrifying stories from the Illustrated Police News from 1871, and giving context to the stories.

References for today's show:

https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-875?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199329175.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199329175-e-875&p=emailAamzPoP9dB6io

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/266/oa_monograph/chapter/3065998#:~:text=This%20doctrine%2C%20called%20%E2%80%9Cspiritual%20affinity%2C%E2%80%9D%20swept%20the%20ranks%20of%20spiritualism%20in%20the%20early%201850s.&text=As%20sages%20of%20this%20world%20and%20the%20next%20one https://time.com/6107025/victoria-woodhull-free-love-movement/

Ep. 7 - The Dawn of Victorian Spiritualism Jul 15, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve dives into the spine tingling world of Victorian Spiritualism. She'll talk about where it all began, what a Victorian materializing seance would entail, the ways mediums would trick people into believing they were talking to dead people, and the history of the Ouija board.

References for today's episode:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-john-brown-was-queen-victorias-channel-to-alberts-ghost

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-fox-sisters-and-the-rap-on-spiritualism-99663697/

https://www.grunge.com/665457/the-strange-truth-about-ectoplasm-explained/

https://www.ranker.com/list/victorian-medium-seance-tricks/olivia-pasquarelli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism_(movement)

https://husheduphistory.com/post/653477933416120320/calling-the-unknown-by-name-helen-peters

Ep. 6 - The Wild World of Victorian Vampires Jul 08, 2024

In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the wild world of Victorian vampires. She'll discuss vampire panic and vampire autopsies of the 1800s, real vampires - or at least, folks who were believed to be real vampires, and the inspirations for everyone's favorite vampire, Dracula.

References for today's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panichttps://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/vampire-myths-originated-real-blood-disorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Westenra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paolehttps://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/dracula-bram-stoker-inspiration

https://lithub.com/on-the-victorian-science-and-prejudices-behind-bram-stokers-dracula/

Ep. 5 - The Life and Times of Typhoid Mary Jul 01, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve talks about the life and times of a Ms. Mary Mallon, otherwise known as Typhoid Mary – much to her chagrin.

References for today's show:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon

https://the-line-up.com/north-brother-island

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother-island

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/28/are-victorian-diseases-making-a-comeback/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/letter.html

https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/typhoid

Ep. 4 - The Horror of Victorian Children’s Stories Jun 24, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve talks about the deeply disturbing world of Victorian Children’s stories and the twisted origins of some nursery rhymes of the time that we still enjoy today.

References for today's episode:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/04/the-creepy-and-harsh-lessons-of-early-childrens-books/

https://news.ufl.edu/archive/1996/10/todays-scary-stories-are-tame-compared-to-victorian-age-tales.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-children-literacy

https://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/victorian.htm

https://writingtoberead.com/2023/04/26/dark-origins-the-creepy-true-story-behind-alice-in-wonderland-darkorigins-aliceinwonderland/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meet-springheeled-jack-the-leaping-devil-that-terrorized-victorian-england

Ep. 3 - The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Jun 17, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve covers the life and mysterious death of beloved gothic fiction writer, Edgar Allan Poe.

My Main References:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a45782209/edgar-allan-poe-death-mystery/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/

Ep. 2 - The Victorian Cult of Death Jun 10, 2024

In this week's episode, Genevieve talks about elaborate Victorian funeral traditions, what was, and was not, acceptable mourning fashion of the day, Queen Victoria’s obsession with her dead husband that sparked the trends, the hardship and power of 19th-century widowhood, as well as the almost fetishistic keepsaking of the deceased.

Ep. 1 - The Legend of Octavia Hatcher Jun 03, 2024

In this episode, Genevieve covers the mysterious death of Octavia Hatcher – a women who died in 1891 who, according to legend, was buried alive.

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