Victorian-American Headaches: Part 2

Victorian-American Headaches: Part 2

Part 2 of 11 in a Blog Article Series; May be read in any order. Links between each are provided for ease in reading.

Victorian-era American doctors faced the challenge of diagnosing headaches, relying upon intellect, experience, and deductive reasoning. After all, physicians couldn’t order a blood panel and read the results to assist in diagnostic work. This 1890 newspaper article contains a variety of types of headaches in 1890 language. I’ve provided translations where possible.

Victorian-American Headaches: Part 1

Victorian-American Headaches: Part 1

Victorian-Americans had several ideas about the common trouble of headaches– what caused the malady, what might help once a headache became entrenched, and perhaps why women suffer headaches differently than men.

Because I suffer from severe chronic headaches, I’ve often wondered what our Victorian-American ancestors did when they suffered a headache (migraine, tension headaches, etc.). What was science’s answer in the late nineteenth century? With so much primary historical information to share, I’ve prepared an eleven-part blog article series covering this fascinating subject.

This is Part 1: Why I write about headaches in in the Victorian Era United States and why hats may be to blame.

Victorian America’s Fried Chicken

Victorian America’s Fried Chicken

July 6th is (United States’) National Fried Chicken Day. A perfect time to acknowledge and celebrate the love of fried chicken throughout the nineteenth century. Not only was this dish well-established in the colonies (17th and 18th centuries), it was a favorite throughout the States as the nation expanded to the California coast. Vintage newspaper clippings detail restaurant menus featuring fried chicken and provide vintage instructions for frying succulent drums, thighs, and breasts. Apparently folks said thank you with a good meal then, the same as they do now.

Oatmeal in the Victorian Toilette

Oatmeal in the Victorian Toilette

In this Blog Article Series about Victorians and Oatmeal, we’ve seen cookies (both with and without raisins), Victorian attitudes about oats for food (rather than fodder), and vintage newspaper clippings highlighting the attitudes of some American Victorians. This article is still about oatmeal–and Victorian woman using those rolled oats in bath sachets to soften the skin. See the Victorian-American bath sachet recipe(s).