#regencygothic

18th September 1806, death from gigantism of Patrick Cotter O'Brien, first recorded person to stand at a height of eight feet, known as the ‘Bristol Giant’ and the ‘Irish Giant’, alongside fellow giant and performer Charles Byrne, who also claimed to be an O'Brien. Dying on this day, O'Brien stipulated in his will that his eight foot four inch casket was to be encased in lead, and buried in twelve feet of solid rock to prevent his remains being exhumed by body snatchers and sold for scientific investigation. His reasoning was due to the fate of fellow giant Charles Byrne who upon his death in 1783, had specified that his body be encased in a lead coffin and buried at sea to avoid the same fear. Byrne’s body however was snatched on its way to the coast, allegedly by body snatchers in the employment of famed anatomist John Hunter, who displayed Byrne’s skeleton at his anatomy theatre and museum in Great Windmill Street, Soho, London. Byrne’s skeleton remains on display at the Royal College of Surgeons in London despite public pressure to honour Byrne’s 200 year wish to be buried at sea. All art shown can be found on the website: www.ofgraveconcern.com/steampunkscienceandanatomy For more dark tales from history, and inspired art please follow @ofgrave.concern #regencyera #regencygothic #vintagegothic #darkillustration #historymystery #historymysteries #strangehistory #weirdhistory #macabrehistory #darkhistory #historicalstories #historicalstory #gothicliterature #darkillustration #illustrationartwork #historicalillustration #macabreillustration #gothichistory #gothicillustration #gothicbeauty #vintageaesthetic #steampunkstyle #anatomy #irishgiant #regencygothic #diedonthisday #bodysnatcher #bodysnatchers #historyofanatomy #anatomyart https://www.instagram.com/p/CT-RzFkFjl_/?utm_medium=tumblr

Start not—nor deem my spirit fled: In me behold the only skull From which, unlike a living head, Whatever flows is never dull. Lord Byron, Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull (1808) 11th September 1762, birth of Romantic poet and playwright Joanna Baillie, named the ‘female Shakespeare’, by her friend, the poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott. Baillie’s father claimed ancestry from William Wallace, while her mother was the sister of the famed anatomists and physicians William and John Hunter. With an interest in philosophy and the Gothic, Baillie’s work was celebrated during the 19th century, and led to literary friendships with William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Anna Barbauld and Lord and Lady Byron. Baillie’s gothic work the ‘Plays on the Passions’ first conceived in 1791, detailed the extremity of human passions from love to hate, a recurring motif in her work being that of dead male bodies. Could this be a link to her association with the anatomical work of her uncles? In her 1812 play ‘The Dream’, one of her characters The Prior of a monastery has a large skeleton exhumed from an unmarked grave in the monastery’s vaults. This story has resonance with both her Uncles, and her friendship with Lord Byron. In the early 1800’s, a skull was unearthed by a gardener at Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of Lord Byron. Byron had the skull turned into a chalice, writing a poem about the skull in 1808. In 1768, Baillie’s uncle John Hunter built his famous anatomy theatre and museum in Great Windmill Street, Soho, London. He is alleged to have paid for the stolen body of Charles Byrne, "The Irish Giant", (Continued in the comments). #regencyera #regencygothic #gothiclit #vintagegothic #darkillustration #historymystery #historymysteries #strangehistory #weirdhistory #macabrehistory #darkhistory #lordbyron #historicalstories #historicalstory #gothicliterature #darkillustration #illustrationartwork #historicalillustration #macabreillustration #gothichistory #gothicfiction #gothicillustration #gothicbeauty #vintageaesthetic #steampunkstyle #anatomy #macabremonday #tarotillustration #historymystery #tarothistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CTxIrg1FMLK/?utm_medium=tumblr

25th August 1822, death of German-born British astronomer and composer William Herschel, brother of fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. William Herschel is credited with the discovery of Uranus in 1781, (English astronomer John Flamsteed had observed the same planet in 1690, but thought it was a star). Herschel would further discover the moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon, and the moons of Saturn Enceladus (on the 28th August 1789) and Mimas. As well as these discoveries, Herschel would also invent infrared radiation, and publish catalogues of nebulae. In 1778, William Herschel believing that life existed on other planets, wrote that he had observed lunar towns, which is especially ironic for the history that follows. 25th August 1835, the New York Sun newspaper publishes the sensational and startling discovery of people and animals living on the moon using "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle", by English polymath, mathematician, astronomer John Herschel, son of astronomer William Herschel. The reports describe a fantastic array of life on the moon including unicorns, beavers that walked on two legs, and bat like winged humanoids that had been named "Vespertilio-homo". The articles now known as the ‘Great Moon Hoax’, first published on this day were written by Richard Adams Locke in order to increase the New York Sun’s circulation. 26th August 1723, death of Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, known as “the Father of Microbiology", for his foundation of the science, being the first to observe bacteria and protozoa in pond water. (Continued in the comments) #steampunkart #steampunkstyle #steampunktarot #steampunkillustration #regencygothic #steampunkgothic #scientificrevolution #scientificart #scientificillustration #historyofscience #historylesson #historyfacts #historicalstories #historicalstory #historyofchemistry #steampunkink #18thcentury #18thcenturyhistory #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #antoinelavoisier #scienceillustration #scienceillustrations #historicalillustration #sciencehistory #williamherschel #johnherschel #microbiology #17thcentury #greatmoonhoax https://www.instagram.com/p/CTFXO8SHnqD/?utm_medium=tumblr

“I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man” Captain Robert Walton In 1985 on Livingstone Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the remotest and extreme locations on the planet, a human skull and a femur were discovered by a team of researchers from Chile. Thinking that the bones were recent they analyzed them and discovered that they had lain at the site they were found for over two hundred years. They were astounded, the island was first sighted on the 19th February 1819 by English mariner William Smith, with the continent itself postulated by Captain James Cook, and later confirmed in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev; part of an international race, not unlike the space race between Britain and Russia, to lay claim to the discovery of the last unknown parts of the globe. Further analyzing the bones, the researchers were able to claim that they had lain at the site since between 1819 and 1825. Another mystery also presented itself, not only were the bones of the first person to ever set foot on the island, twenty years before Antarctic land was confirmed, simultaneously in January 1840 by the United States Exploring Expedition, under Charles Wilkes, and a separate French expedition under Jules Dumont d'Urville; they also belonged to a woman. Further, both expeditions never actually set foot on the land they sighted, this would not occur until an Norwegian expedition in 1895. Therefore this unknown woman set foot on land in the continent of Antarctica some seventy years (continued in the comments). #antartica #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #regencygothic #thesublime #ageofdiscovery #artic #articexpedition #maryshelley #maryshelleyfrankenstein #maryshelleysfrankenstein #frankensteinsmonster #drfrankenstein #thursdaytales #darkromantic #darkromanticism #historymystery #gothicfiction #classicliterature #classicliteraturequotes #gothichistory #gothictales #historystory #historicalstories #darkhistory #historicaltales #deadwriters #livingstoneisland #antarctica #southpole https://www.instagram.com/p/CSevobbnnKa/?utm_medium=tumblr

Happy Birthday to Percy Bysshe Shelley Born on this day in 1792 Tarot card is from the Ofgraveconcern Industrial Sublime Tarot 1760 - 1848 Prints of the cards are available for sale at: www.ofgraveconcern.com/industrialsublimetarot1760-1848 Follow at @ofgrave.concern for more tales and art from history #percyshelley #percybyssheshelley #19thcenturyromanticism #regencygothic #romanticpoets #romanticism #gothictales #maryshelley #percybysshe #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #historicalstory #historicalstories #gothichistory #shelleypoetry #poetsandwriters #frankenstein #maryshelleysfrankenstein #gothicromantic #gothicliterature #gothicliteratureart #gothictarot #tarotart #tarotillustration #gothicillustration #classicliterature #classicliteraturequotes #bornonthisday #bornonthisdate https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKJqK8HzMN/?utm_medium=tumblr

A small country road in rural Lincolnshire bears the pastoral and scenic name of Tom Otter lane. Conjuring the farming scenes and agrian nostalgia found in the 18th century poems of John Clare, or William Wordsworth. The truth however to the naming of the stretch of country lane is far more gruesome and involves a murder, and execution and a family of birds. On the 22nd November 1804, in Eakring in Nottinghamshire twenty-eight-year-old Tom Otter married Martha Rawlinson, their first child being born a month later. Looking for work Tom crossed the border shortly after into Lincolnshire, leaving his wife and child. It is not known whether he intended to return or not, however his actions play out the fact that he may not have intended to. After a short period he seduced Mary Kirkham, while passing himself off as a widower using his mother's maiden last name of Temporal. Mary became pregnant, and the local authorities forced his marriage to the local girl, who was eight months pregnant. The marriage took place on the 5th November 1805, a little over the first year anniversary of his marriage to Martha. After their marriage they were seen in The Sun Inn at Saxilby, where on the road from Saxiby and Drinsey Nook, Mary’s body was discovered the next morning in a ditch; her skull was so badly battered that it had nearly been detached by the severity of the blows, by a club that was also found a short distance from the body. Carried back to the Sun inn for a inquest into her death, (Inns and coaching houses being common sites during the 18th century, for inquests and local courts); it was clear that Mary had been brutally murdered and a suspect was quickly identified, (Continued in the comments) #gibbet #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #regencygothic #victoriangothic #murdermystery #historicalstories #historystory #historicalcrime #historycrime #crimeandpunishment #ballards #lincolnshire #macabrehistory #darkhistory #gothictales #murderhistory #murders #crimescene #grusome #gruesome #macabre #macabreart #macabreartist #historicaltales #historytales #thursdaytales #murdermostfoul #murdertrial #folkhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CRWpXzDle_m/?utm_medium=tumblr

Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley drowned on this day in 1822 #percyshelley #percybyssheshelley #19thcenturyromanticism #regencygothic #romanticpoets #romanticism #gothictales #poetrylovers #whiteflowers🌼 #percybysshe #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #historicalstory #historicalstories #gothichistory #shelleypoetry #poetsandwriters #gothicromantic #gothicliterature #gothicliteratureart #classicliterature #1822 #diedonthisday https://www.instagram.com/p/CREmIhRHF2j/?utm_medium=tumblr

20th May 1772 birth of British inventor, officer and rocket artillery pioneer William Congreve, inventor of the Congreve rocket. During the first and second Anglo-Mysore Wars. Hyder Ali, and his son Tipu Sultan, had successfully used rockets against the British East India Company. Some of the rockets were collected and sent to Britain, leading to the Royal Arsenal’s military rocket research headed by Congreve in 1801. Congreve first demonstrated the rockets at the Arsenal in 1805, which led to their deployment against the French in 1805, 1806; and their most successful use during the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. The rockets are also mentioned in the American national anthem with the line the "rockets' red glare" describing their firing at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Congreve also invented a rocket parachute, a process of colour printing, unforgeable bank note paper, and an attempted perpetual motion machine. 21st May 1786, death of Swedish pharmacist and chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, whose scientific discoveries were eclipsed during his lifetime due to the same discoveries being published earlier than his. Scheele discovered oxygen before Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, and also molybdenum, tungsten, barium, hydrogen, and chlorine before Humphry Davy. In the course of these discoveries, and the nature of 18th century science, in which new substances were smelled and tasted, Scheele died on this day, due to mercury poisoning. All art shown is for sale at www.ofgraveconcern.com/industrialsublimetarot1760-1848 www.ofgraveconcern.com/steampunkscienceandanatomy Follow @ofgrave.concern for more tales of steampunk history. #steampunkart #steampunkstyle #steampunktarot #steampunkillustration #regencygothic #steampunkgothic #scientificrevolution #scientificart #scientificillustration #historyofscience #historylesson #historyfacts #historicalstories #historicalstory #historyofchemistry #steampunkink #napoleonicwars #napoleonicwar #therocketsredglare #18thcentury #18thcenturyhistory #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #josephpriestley #antoinelavoisier #humphreydavy #scienceillustration #scienceillustrations #historicalillustration #sciencehistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJWpdjHBtH/?utm_medium=tumblr