… you were expected to follow a certain lifestyle. While class structure was changing in America and Europe due to a rising merchant middle class, in the early Victorian era (1840’s-’50’s) the aristocracy still reigned in England.
Wives and daughters of industrialists with their new found wealth, however, mingled in high society, starting to blur the lines between classes. The U.S., as it had since its inception, still had the highest standard of living anywhere in the world because of them.
(Photo: as the profession of photography developed, more and more every day people had their portraits taken. Note the lace collar and hairstyle typical of the early Victorians.)(Note also the photos we have been using are framed. At this time, it becomes much easier to track what women were wearing because families have kept their ancestor’s portraits.)