Enduring Evenings

“The fact that our nineteenth-century forebears did not spend all their evenings speechlessly gazing at a moving version of their magic-lantern does not mean that they were as bored as we may be when deprived of the monotonous, habit-forming, visual diet that we accept as entertainment. Hopefully a happier and more enlightened generation of the future, having rediscovered that it is satisfying for man to do things for himself, may wonder how we endured entire evenings gazing at coloured lights.” 

I found the preceding quote maligning television as a form of entertainment in a book written in 1974 by Patrick Beaver entitled Victorian Parlor Games. Beaver was making the point that while we might sometimes look back on the Victorians and think they must have led incredibly stuffy and boring lives, they would not have thought so themselves. In his book, Beaver describes a collection of different parlor games played during the Victorian era that ,reveal that the Victorians  did actually enjoy having fun.  

Rosamond Gibson’s memoir  provides additional examples of the ways in which the Victorians found to amuse themselves. Her descriptions of the various entertainments she enjoyed with her friends and children don’t betray any sense of boredom. 

In one (rather vague) reference to how her days were filled during travels in Europe, she notes, “In the evenings we met in each other’s rooms, playing cards and various games. We were … reluctant to leave [Paris]... especially [her sister]Nellie’s and my beaux[,] with whom we had ridden almost every day.” While horseback riding was one form of daytime entertainment, cards and parlor games seem to have been the choice of entertainment in the evenings. 

When discussing how her days were filled at the family’s summer home in Nahant, Rosamond writes, “My father had imported one of the first croquet sets into this country, and everyone was so eager to play that people began early in the morning. They often continued until eight at night, even playing by moonlight.”

After marrying and having children, Rosamond describes a different sort of entertainment. She writes, “Theatricals were always in order. Among these were Mother Goose, a tableau, with [her daughter] Rosamond as Miss Muffett and [her son] Charlie as the spider, with black stockings on his arms. In Beauty and the Beast he took the part of the Prince, with Lulu Palfrey (Mrs. Guy Norman) as the Sleeping Beauty. The following Thanksgiving they all acted in a little Cinderella play; Rosamond, as Cinderella, danced and sang. Charlie was again the Prince, and Ethel, the proud sister, with Mattie Dana (Mrs. William R. Mercer, of Doylestown, Pa.) and Benny (Benjamin W.) Crowninshield in smaller roles. We had a dress rehearsal two afternoons before, to which many children and mothers came, and on Thanksgiving evening the actual performance was given at a family party.”

It seems from this that organizing plays with the children and then watching them be performed became a source of entertainment for Rosamond and her neighbors. 

So while Mr. Beaver’s quote from above is a little harshly critical of today’s entertainment, he does make a good point. We tend to think of the Victorians as stuffy and boring, because it’s hard to imagine a world of entertainment without our modern technology. But the Victorians didn’t seem to have trouble filling their days, and maybe, just maybe, we could learn something from that today. 

Above: Children playing Blind Man's Bluff, a game in which one person was blindfolded and had to try to catch others in the room. 

by: Katie Schinabeck, Former Museum Guide

Sources: 

Warren, Rosamond Gibson. Recollections of My Life For My Children. Meador Press, 1939. 

Beaver, Patrick. Victorian Parlor Games. 1974.