#MyrtleMondays: All things Agatha!

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I am so excited to share the news that Malice Domestic has honored Premeditated Myrtle with an Agatha Award nomination! The Agathas are named, naturally, for the undisputed queen of mysteries herself, Dame Agatha Christie. Christie’s life was as fascinating as her writing, and in some ways, she was as much of a mystery.

Agatha Miller in the 1910s. Christie Trust

One of the most famous and best-selling authors of all time, Christie is best known as the creator of fictional sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her books have become synonymous with the “cozy mystery—” one where the violence occurs off the page, and the satisfaction is in the solving of a clever puzzle. (Read more about the origins of this sort of mystery here.)

For a fascinating look at Christie’s life and works–specifically her background as a pharmacy technician–I wholeheartedly recommend Kathryn Harkup’s A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie. Harkup, herself a chemist, takes a pharmacological approach to Christie’s work, focusing on the author’s favorite murder weapon: poison.

In 1926, at the height of her popularity, Agatha Christie abruptly went off the grid. Her disappearance was an international sensation, and the mystery of just exactly where she went, and why, endures to this day. The Agatha Christie Wiki has a nice overview of this incredible chapter in the author’s life.

Cover of the first edition of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced Belgian private investigator Hercule Poirot

Most of Christie’s hundreds (!!) of works are still under copyright, but a few have entered the public domain and are available to read online. These include her first Hercule Poirot novel, 1920’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

My own well-loved omnibus edition of five Christie novels

Christie’s incredible career spanned more than 50 years, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, to Sleeping Murder, published shortly after her death in 1976 at age 85. Her books, short stories, and plays defined twentieth-century mystery fiction, and their popularity endures, entertaining readers across the globe… and inspiring generations of authors to follow in her footsteps.

I am incredibly honored to have Myrtle linked to this icon of English literature! Congratulations to my fellow nominees, and a huge thanks to Malice Domestic for the recognition. The suspense will continue until July 17.

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#Myrtle Mondays: Myrtle at the VA Festival of the Book

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#MyrtleMondays is back after a brief hiatus while my computer was in the shop and I had very limited internet access (I’ve stopped hyperventilating now). I’m popping in a day early to let you know about an exciting event happening THIS AFTERNOON!

The Virginia Festival of the Book is a free, all-virtual book festival currently in progress. I was fortunate enough to be on an amazing panel, “Girls in the World: Middle Grade Fiction,” which you can watch—FOR FREE!–this afternoon, Sunday, March 21, at 2:00 Eastern time.

The festival pulled together a great group of authors, all talking about the latest installments in middle-grade series featuring fabulous female main characters. We chatted about some of my favorite topics, with an all-new slant. It was really one of the most lively, fun, and interesting conversations I’ve had the chance to participate in. Join me and these fellow panelists:

Hena Khan, author Amina’s Song; Angie Smibert, author of The Truce; all moderated by the splendid Hannah Barnaby.

The panel was pre-recorded, and will be available all throughout the remainder of the festival. It’s free (I might have mentioned), but you will need to register here.

In other recent news, last week I attended my first event for Cold-Blooded Myrtle! Every spring, Algonquin and Bloomsbury co-host a dinner for independent booksellers, featuring authors with upcoming titles. This year it was a virtual dinner (and they did feed us, vicariously, via DoorDash gift cards), and as a fun question, the authors were asked, “What food has gotten you through the pandemic?” My answer? Sour milk. No, really! Thanks to some online-grocery misadventures, we were forced to add several sour-milk-friendly recipes to our repertoire. As I told the booksellers, the biggest success was sour milk waffles—and I promised to share that recipe, so here it is:

Sour Milk Waffles at RecipeLand.com

Wouldn’t waffles be a great Sunday afternoon snack, while watching your favorite authors chat about their new books? Join us today at the Virginia Festival of the Book!

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#MyrtleMondays: Sports for Victorian Girls

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In Cold-Blooded Myrtle (coming October 6), you’ll meet some brand-new characters, including a field hockey player and some mountaineers. Contrary to the common image of 19th century girls sitting demurely in parlors with their needlework, plenty of girls were also active in all kinds of sports. Enjoy this collection of images celebrating the sporting life of Victorian girls and women…

Godey’s Lady’s Book was a popular American magazine in the 1860s, and kept on top of every trend in fashion and leisure. This athlete is dressed for a day of archery and weightlifting.

Sports of all kinds were popular all throughout the Victorian era. But then, as now, sports equipment (bicycles, skis, tennis rackets, mountain climbing gear) and the specialized clothing for active pursuits were costly, so opportunities for formal sports were often limited to girls whose families had the means to afford the equipment or send their daughters to schools with physical education programs. (Working-class girls and women presumably got all the exercise they needed… working.) But the health benefits of exercise did not go unnoticed by 19th century experts, even if some of their attitudes raise some modern eyebrows. For an excellent social history of 19th century girls and sport, check out the special exhibit from the Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections: Building Muscles While Building Minds 

A Bryn Mawr student demonstrating her shotput form around 1890-1900. The objects on the wall behind her are likely not bowling pins, but “Indian clubs,” which were wildly popular in 19th century gyms.

Diagram demonstrating one Indian club routine from about 1870. The weighted clubs were introduced to England by British soldiers serving in India, where they’d been used to build strength and agility for hundreds of years. (There has been a modern resurgence in Indian club interest, and you can get sets in sporting goods stores.)

Schools were often where many girls experienced sports and physical fitness:

Did your school gym have those mysterious round-runged ladders along the back wall, too? Apparently they were actually used, once upon a time! These girls at Boston’s Charleston High are climbing the “Swedish Ladders” in an 1897 gym class.

New York’s Bennet School for Girls had a well-equipped PE class. Rings, clubs, and even fencing!

The 1904 World Championship basketball team from Fort Shaw Indian Industrial Boarding School in Montana

The Samuel Huston Women’s Basketball team (early 1900s)

Colleges began offering organized sports in the late 1800s (Vassar had a baseball team in 1867!), and field hockey is one of the oldest team sports for girls in the United States.

The Moseley Ladies’ Hockey Team, 1891

Tennis might be a more familiar image of the Victorian woman at sports:

Sir John Laverty Kelvingrove “A Ralley” 1885 (Are the balls on the woman’s side of the court meant to suggest she should work on her game?)

It’s not totally clear whether this La Mode Illustree fashion artist had not ever actually played tennis, or if 1896 France had different rackets. The shape of rackets did change somewhat over the years, but these seem very unusual.

This post was inspired in part by the marvelous Victorian images of women fencing that have been populating my Pinterest feed lately. This 1898 magazine article introduces the sport to a new audience.

A cyclist poses with her bicycle in the 1890s

We’ve explored the role the bicycle played in the lives of Victorian girls here before, but cycling was a serious sport, too, as these 1896 London racers show:

This image is notable because it actually depicts female athletes in the act of exerting themselves, instead of simply posing artfully.

I don’t golf, but I can imagine how good back support could really help your drive!

Norwegian skiers, circa 1900

Several generations of hikers, around 1900

Mountain climbing has always been a sport for the elite (a modern expedition to Mount Everest can cost upward of $80,000). Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed (shown here climbing in Switzerland in 1898) was the daughter of an Irish baronet and descended from Polish nobility.

This French mountaineer treads a narrow pass in her deerstalker hat

Archery was also considered a suitable ladylike pursuit (if you ask me, it’s a natural evolution from needlework: we just love to stick sharp objects precisely at a small target) from the Regency era onward:

“The Archery Lesson,” English School, 1840-1850

As you can see, period images abound of girls and women enjoying an active and often competitive lifestyle! Check out my Pinterest board “Garb Love: Sporting & Cycling” for much more, and follow the links to learn more about the history of women’s sports.

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#MyrtleMondays: Myrtle in Germany, part 2

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I’m very excited to share the news that Premeditated Myrtle’sGerman publisher, Von Dem Knesebeck, has also picked up How to Get Away with Myrtle! To celebrate, today I’m sharing some magnificent images of 19th century German travel. Enjoy!In How to Get Away with Myrtle, Myrtle and Miss Judson (and Peony, of course) take a holiday to a seaside resort. The seaside was just as popular in Germany:

Nordeseebader means “Northern seaside resort” and Sylt was (and is) a booming holiday town

Male swimmers enjoy the services of bathing carts (and their attendants) in 19th century Norderney

A sunny beach day at Wyk auf Föhr around 1890

Norderney’s Promenade included splendid luxury tennis courts (1895)

In a more curious vein…

19th Century Dresden milk bar. 1883 engraving of people drinking fresh milk in the central hall of a milk bar (Milchkuranstalt) in Dresden, Germany. | In a world where pasteurization had yet to take hold, the appeal of very fresh milk is understandable.

German chocolatiers Theodore Hildebrand & Son produced a series of lively lithographs predicting Family Amusements of the year 2000:

The caption reads “Water Walking in the year 2000”

Myrtle would be more interested in this advanced police technology: an X-ray camera!

And what German holiday would be complete without a stereograph of the making of sauerkraut?

The Library of Congress has many German stereographs in their magnificent collection.

I’ll share more details of Myrtle’s German tour as they become available!

Prost!

3 Responses to “#MyrtleMondays: Myrtle in Germany, part 2”


  2. Barbara A Mischke
    I just discovered you…how fun!

    My husband is from Germany so I will share these pictures with him.

    I wonder about the year 2000…is that a mistake?

    Barbara

    Reply


    • Elizabeth C. Bunce
      Thanks for stopping by! The chocolate cards were predicting what vacations would be like in the year 2000. (My water-walking shoes are 21 years late! LOL)

      Reply

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#MyrtleMondays: Black Police in Victorian England

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Last week we talked about some of the first professional policewomen in England. This week, in honor of Black History Month, we’ll have a look at 19th century Black law enforcement officers. They’ve been protecting their fellow Britons since the very earliest days of English policing.Parish and census records from 19th century England don’t typically record race, so the contributions of many Black Britons have been overlooked (and often obscured) by history. Thanks to the diligent efforts of historians, many more of their stories are being unearthed and shared, giving us a more complete picture of life for ordinary English people in the Victorian era.

A modern painting of 1830s Carlisle constables, including John Kent (Cumbria Guides)

The modern British police force grew out of a tradition of night watches and other patrols organized on a local or parish level, alongside private services, such as the railway police we meet in How to Get Away with Myrtle. Police departments steadily grew more organized, centralized, and professional throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. London’s Metropolitan Police was founded in 1829, and many more cities added official constabularies throughout the 1830s and ’40s. By 1851, England and Wales were patrolled by around 13,000 professional policemen—including people of color.

20th century badge (worn on the helmet) of the Cumbria police, including the city of Carlisle, featuring the royal cipher of Queen Elizabeth II. (Lakeland Arts Trust)

John Kent, Carlisle

The Carlisle City Police, established in the 1820s, employed one of England’s earliest Black constables. Born near Carlisle (northwestern England) around 1795, John Kent was the son of a formerly-enslaved man from the Caribbean who worked as a sailor. Kent began his law enforcement career as parish constable for the industrial town of Maryport, before joining the force in Carlisle in 1837, where he served as constable for seven years. His lengthy career in policework included further positions as a court bailiff, parish constable, and railway policeman. Read more about Kent’s career—characteristic of the early days of English policework—here. 

SUPERINTENDENT ROBERT BRANFORD, London

2017: Representatives of the Metropolitan Police and St. Lawrence Church hold a commemorative service at the grave of Superintendent Robert Branford (photo by David Lamming, Little Waldingfield History Society)

We know the story of Superintendent Branford of the Metropolitan Police thanks in part to the 1893 memoirs of a fellow officer: Scotland Yard Past & Present by retired Chief Inspector Timothy Cavanagh. He described working under Branford in the 1840s and ’50s:

“Not an educated man: but what to my idea was of much greater importance, he possessed a thorough knowledge of police matters in general. I should say [Branford] was about the only half-caste [mixed race] superintendent officer the Met ever had.”  –Chief Inspector Timothy Cavanagh, 1893

Branford was born in rural Suffolk around 1820. No photographs of him have been found, and little is known of his ancestry. But he served as a London police officer for almost 30 years, from 1838-1866, and would have experienced—and likely even helped drive—the evolution of modern policing. He retired as a Superintendent, a senior rank. Cavanagh’s statement raises the intriguing possibility that there were other officers of color among the Met’s early ranks whose stories are waiting to be uncovered.

PC James Gore, Salford (Greater Manchester)

The Salford Police service record of James Gore (date of this document is not given)

The dashing bobby whose portrait graces the cover graphic for this post is PC James Gore of Salford (a suburb of Manchester), the earliest known Black officer in the records of the Greater Manchester Police Museum. Born in either Leeds, UK, or Jamaica around 1880, before his career in the police, Gore served in the British Army’s Royal Garrison Artillery. Gore’s 30-year police career spanned the first decades of the 20th century, showing that Black constables continued to join police departments all throughout England. The GMPM has an intriguing interactive exhibit that takes viewers through the details shown on Gore’s service record (above).

The men featured above are undoubtedly not alone; in fact, records of the Old Bailey (London’s Central Criminal Court) include testimony of an unnamed “Negro Constable” in a theft trial as far back as 1746. (The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to transportation.) It’s clear that Black Britons have been a part of England’s law enforcement foundations from its earliest days.

Why is so little known of these pioneering Black constables? In part, it’s because this achievement wasn’t necessarily seen as unusual. Because official records of the era typically don’t include race, the exact Black population of Victorian England is not known, and historian Stephen Bourne, co-founder of the Black & Asian Studies Association, suggests, “In some instances there would have been less overt racism in England at that time because there were so few black people, so they weren’t yet perceived as a threat, and someone like Robert [Branford] would have been able to become a Met officer.” (Interview about Branford in The Southwark News, 2016) (This is certainly not to suggest that there was no racism, and 19th century Britain has its own legacy as a slave-trading colonial power to contend with.)

Joining the Met in 1968, Jamaican-born Sislin Fay Allen is considered to be England’s first Black policewoman —but it would not be surprising for further research to uncover even earlier examples whose stories have not yet been told.

For more information on the achievements of Black Britons throughout history, check out the following resources:

Black Presence Exhibit at The National Archives

Black & Asian Studies Association

Black History Month UK

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#MyrtleMondays: True Detectives-Real-Life Female Sleuths of the Victorian Era

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In How to Get Away with Myrtle, Myrtle is surprised and overjoyed to meet a professional female investigator, fellow railway passenger Mrs. Bloom. We’ve discussed the literary history of fictional female detectives here, but what about their real-life counterparts? Were there any?

Contrary to what you may have heard on recent television programs from otherwise eminently respectable sources (coughMasterpieceTheatercough), there in fact were professional female private detectives working in the Victorian era in England and the United States. Quite a lot of them, too!

Portrait of Kate Warne, the first female detective employed by the Alan Pinkerton National Detective Agency, 1866. Chicago History Museum

In England, private investigation became a booming enterprise in the middle of the 19th century, thanks in large part to 1857’s Matrimonial Causes Act. Prior to this, obtaining a divorce took an act of Parliament and was essentially impossible. Afterward, men could sue for divorce based on adultery, and women on adultery combined with abuse. Double-standard aside, this meant that unhappy spouses now only needed proof of their partners’ indiscretions—and there were all sorts of professionals lining up to provide it. It took both male and female operatives to observe their targets’ movements and get the goods. Female agents were lauded for their sensitivity and discretion, vital qualities in an era concerned with scandal and respectability.

Historians Clare Clarke, Nell Darby, and Lucy Worsley have individually uncovered some of the stories of these pioneering female sleuths. Among the most celebrated (or at least the most visible) of Victorian detective agencies, Henry Slater’s London agency boasted their female staff in 1890s advertisements:

Marketed to lawyers, issues of The Solicitor’s Journal featured adverts for Slater’s Lady Detectives, alongside ads for brief-bags, safes, and bookcases—suggesting that a private detective was a crucial accoutrement to a law practice of the day. (1897)

If the advertisements are to be believed, Slater’s (sadly unidentified) agents “have proved a wonderful success… in preventing wrongdoings in business and domestic matters,” and “can arrange for… any character in life, from a crossing-sweeper to a princess.” (One suspects that the princess bit might be an exaggeration; they keep pretty good track of their royal family in England.)

American Pinkerton agent Kate Warne has become well-known for her role in preventing an assassination attempt against newly-elected President Lincoln in 1861. By that time, Warne had been a Pinkerton for several years, investigating everything from embezzlement to espionage to murder. From the first female Pinkerton agent, Warne went on to work as Superintendent of Female Detectives, coordinating the efforts of those who followed in her footsteps.

In 1919, the Women’s Metropolitan Patrol began admitting women to the ranks of Scotland Yard’s forces, but it took a few more years for them to gain full independent policing powers

Official law enforcement agencies were slower to catch on to what female operatives had to offer.  According to Nell Darby, Scotland Yard (the London Metropolitan Police) employed an “anonymous female detective” in the 1870s to pose as a nurse with families suspected of crimes, but women would not be hired on as full officers until 1919. The Old Police Cells Museum in Brighton has a splendid look at what police work was like for these early female coppers.

The daughter of the St. Louis police chief, Phoebe Couzins was not only the first female U.S. Marshall, she was one of American’s first female attorneys. Myrtle would be impressed!

In America, the title of “first professional female law enforcement officer” is harder to pin down, with women from Chicago to California carrying badges in the late 1880s and ’90s. It’s telling that these opportunities opened up primarily in the Western U.S., where many people went to redefine themselves… and America.

Sanitary Inspectors circa 1900 (Wellcome Library)

Women worked as professional investigators in other capacities, as well. Cities employed health officers to investigate housing and environmental conditions that affected public health; insurance firms (some founded by women) needed to prevent fraudulent claims; hospitals checked up on discharged patients. Many of these roles were taken up by women.

Victorian women might not have worked side-by-side as constables with their brothers in blue—but there was nothing stopping them from setting up shop as private detectives, and making a thriving career as investigators.

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#MyrtleMondays: Myrtle & The Rue Morgue

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Why yes, I have been wondering how I might work that title in to the series somehow—and last week, Mystery Writers of America gave me the perfect opening. I am beyond excited to share the thrilling news that Premeditated Myrtle has been nominated for an Edgar Award!

This is the highest honor an American mystery writer can receive, and past Edgar honorees have included Phyllis Whitney, Richard Peck, Willo Davis Roberts, Virginia Hamilton, Joan Lowry Nixon, Nancy Springer…. All those amazing authors whose mysteries I loved growing up (and still do!). The boxed set of Willo Davis Roberts mysteries my big brother and I shared was a prized possession in our house. (And I have it now, nyah-nyah-nyah...) You might also be familiar with some of the honorees for adult mystery fiction, like Ellery Queen, Patricia Highsmith, Mary Stewart, Ken Follett, Stephen King…. Yes, an august company, indeed! (An Auguste company, perhaps?)

Why “the Edgar,” you ask? It’s named, of course, for 19th century author Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is well-known now as the quintessential master of horror, having given us such indelibly haunting works as “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit & the Pendulum,” and one of my favorites, “The Cask of Amontillado.”

Posthumous portrait of Edgar Allan Poe by Friedrich Bruckmann, 1876, which has a story as fascinating as everything associated with Poe

But Poe was also a pioneer of detective fiction, one of the earliest writers from America—or anywhere else—to establish the time-honored elements of the genre. Poe introduced such features as the amateur sleuth, the chronicling narrator, the focus on police procedure, and the uncanny observational skills of the detective. The oft-quoted claim that Poe was writing his detective tales before the word detective entered the English language is not quite true, but it wasn’t yet ubiquitous. Poe called them stories of “ratiocination” (which rolls off the tongue so euphoniously, it’s amazing we don’t still use it).

Many laudable candidates have been put forth as the “first” modern mystery (including Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone from 1868, or Charles Dickens’s Bleak House from 1853, among others), but Poe was ratiocinating even earlier. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is clearly in the running for first American detective story.

By the time Byam Shaw illustrated his 1909 edition of “Rue Morgue,” the story was already a classic on both sides of the pond.

Published in 1841 in Graham’s Magazine, edited by Poe himself, the story still has the power to captivate and stump even the most attentive reader. Once you’ve read it, you will never forget the culprit of the gruesome titular crimes, and while you’re reading it, you’ll never guess whodunit. Poe’s crime-solver, intellectual dilettante C. Auguste Dupin, is much cleverer than you. But along the way, you’ll be treated to some of the earliest and most brilliant examples of the mystery tropes we have come to love and even expect, nearly 200 years later.

Here, for your reading pleasure, courtesy of The Poe Museum, is the reason there is not only an Edgar Allan Poe Award, but the literary field of American mysteries. Click the purple links below:

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe 

Or listen to it here at LibriVox.

Arthur Rackham’s madcap illustration from 1935 belies the horrors yet to be discovered in “The Rue Morgue”

Enjoy!

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#MyrtleMondays: A Sneak Peek at Cold-Blooded Myrtle, coming October 6

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This week, I got to experience one of the most exciting parts of publishing a new book: seeing the proofs (or typeset pages) of Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries Book 3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle! If you are a Myrtle fan, you already know how beautiful the first two books are. Designer Carla Weise continues to do an amazing job on this series, helped along with some lovely interior artwork by Brett Helquist.

I can’t show you everything, but I am dying to share a little glimpse at what Book 3 is bringing. Enjoy this sneak peek at the Cold-Blooded Myrtle layout and design, and don’t forget to pre-order your copy here. (If you do forget, don’t worry: I’ll remind you again.)

The pithy H. M. Hardcastle returns with all-new epigraphs

The spot motifs (small illustrations) accompanying each chapter are drawn directly from the text, and ever since the fleur-de-lis key of Premeditated Myrtle, we’ve kept an eye out for what little object in the story might be the perfect pick. You’ll have to wait and find out what that little sprig signifies…

Peony fans will be anxious to see her latest portrait, as well. (It might be my favorite so far!)

Whose little white paws might those be?!

I do a lot of image research for the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries. Here’s some of my inspiration for Cold-Blooded!

I’ll be sharing more details as they become available. Stay tuned!

…And in crazy quilt news, I have finished the embroidery on the two blocks I made in January. Leo would like to show them off to you.


Myrtle, Peony, their crazy quilt, and their first cold case will be hitting bookstore and library shelves everywhere on October 6!

One Response to “#MyrtleMondays: A Sneak Peek at Cold-Blooded Myrtle, coming October 6”


  1. Deborah Ford-Salyer
    Can’t wait to see it! Thanks for the peek. Love the quilt and behind the scenes research.

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#MyrtleMondays: The Girl Detective, part I

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If you read this blog, chances are you’re a fan of the girl detective. Whether you just discovered Myrtle Hardcastle or grew up with Nancy Drew, you are enjoying a breed of sleuth that has been entertaining readers and outwitting criminals since the earliest days of detective fiction.

Like many things we’ve discussed on #MyrtleMondays, it should be no surprise to learn that girl detectives are an invention of the Victorian era.  The first young detective—at least in name—was 1866’s Ernest Keen, Boy Detective, who starred in dozens of penny dreadful adventures, although his actual crime-solving was minimal. As detective fiction gained in popularity, female detectives—usually professionals—soon joined the game, with their younger counterparts to follow.

William Stephens Hayward’s Mrs. Paschal was one of English literature’s first modern detectives–of any gender. Check out that scandalous peek of petticoat (not to mention the cigarette)! 1864

As historian Lucy Worsley explains in The Art of the English Murder, these female detectives allowed girls to explore identities that may have been out of reach in a real life that expected girls and women to stay at home while their brothers were gallivanting about in the world.  They also present the perfect subterfuge. Easily dismissed or overlooked, girl detectives can take their criminal foes (and police colleagues) by surprise, uncovering clues the men have missed, and making the comeuppance all the more satisfying for the reader.

I like to think this 1875 French fashion plate shows two detectives training their young apprentice.

I have several of these early sleuths to share with you in the coming weeks! You’ll see that they’re very much the products of their era, yet still offered their readers an escape into a world of high adventure.

Today I’ll introduce you to one of the earliest girl detectives, New York Nell.

New York Nell, the Boy-Girl Detective by Edward Lytton Wheeler hit the pages of American dime novels in 1880. Irrepressible teen Nell Niblo cheerfully disguises herself as a boy and unravels a scheme to defraud the heir to a fortune. In true penny-dreadful/dime novel fashion, Nell races up and down the east coast, from Philadelphia to New York, brandishing pistols and even re-disguising herself as a proper young lady of quality when necessary. Nell’s versatility allows her to move between the rugged street and refined drawing room—while also rather overtly commenting on the “unfeminine” nature of girls involved in the gritty world of crime.

You can read New-York Nell: The Boy-Girl Detective here at the Dime Novel Library at the Northern University of Illinois.

Enjoy!

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#MyrtleMondays: Read All About It-The Victorian News Cycle

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Are you a 24-hour news junkie? Even if you’re not, you’ve likely been glued to CNN, NPR, Facebook, or TikTok this week, watching historic events at the US Capitol and their aftermath unfold. The passion for the latest updates on current events is one that stretches back to the earliest days of the 19th century. The Victorians had the very same hunger for news, and just like today, there was no shortage of sources to satisfy them.

Young newspaper vendors in New York pose for a photographer

“The newsagent’s was well stocked, and I spent a few moments fortifying myself for the next fourteen hours. I selected the Times, The Strand, and Illustrated London News…. Mindful of Miss Judson’s eyes on me, I dutifully added a copy of the Girl’s Own Paper, in which to conceal the others.” —How to Get Away with Myrtle

In the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, my heroine Myrtle is an enthusiastic consumer of the news. Like Myrtle, I grew up surrounded by journalism: my father was a journalism professor at Iowa State University, and weekly family TV viewing was bookended by “60 Minutes” on Sunday evenings, and “20/20” on Friday nights.

We often hear that the twenty-four/seven news cycle is a product of the cable news boom of the late 20th century, but in fact it’s always been with us. By the 1820s, there were more than 50 daily and weekly newspapers in London (compared to 13 in 2020), and circulation only increased during the century, as printing costs and taxes went down, incomes rose, and the British population became more urban. Some of our most familiar and respected modern newspapers had their origins in the Victorian era—or earlier—including the Times of London, which has been supplying Londoners with their daily news since the 1700s.

A characteristically dense issue of the Times from 6 July 1863. Is the Battle of Gettysburg in America covered somewhere in all that text?

During particularly busy news days, readers did not have to wait until the morning edition for the latest updates. Newspapers put out “extras,” or special editions to keep their readers apprised of up-to-the-minute developments on things like sensational crimes and hotly-contested elections.

This November 7, 1860 analogue of the cable news “Big Board” gave anxious readers the latest updates on the US presidential election. (Spoiler alert: Lincoln won.) See more of this historic election coverage at Smithsonian Magazine

Newspapers took immediate advantage of advances in telegraphy and photography, sharing the latest scoops from news agencies overseas and supplementing their artists’ renderings with easily reproduced “halftone” photographs.

On October 6, 1869, the Canadian Illustrated News featured the world’s first newspaper photograph, of HRH Prince Arthur, who would later become Governor General of Canada. The prince was on a military tour of Canada at the time.

Then as now, celebrity news and sensational crimes featured high among the interests of readers. And the most popular celebrities of the day? The royal family, of course.

Queen Victoria’s first train trip was front-page news in the early days of the railway industry.

The prolific coverage of crime and scandal is nothing new, either. The Victorian era had its own version of “Vengeance: Killer Lovers” and “How it Really Happened:” the broadsheet. The most talked-about crimes of the day were written up, set to music, and sold on street corners from Sussex to Scotland.

One of the early 19th century’s most sensational crimes, the 1828 murder of Maria Marten by lover Robert Corder made news all over Great Britain. This broadsheet was a standalone publication, sold at Corder’s public execution, detailing the crime and purporting to include his “gallows confession.” Naturally, since these so-called confessions were said to occur moments before the execution and the broadsheets had to be printed up in advance to supply the eager audience, their veracity is dubious at best, and more likely downright fictional.

The public’s morbid fascination with the most minute details of crime and scandal struck many social observers—especially among the middle class—to be far from a respectable interest. But these naysayers had no effect on the popularity of sensational news stories, which only grew during the century, culminating in the media explosion surrounding the gruesome 1888 murders of several women in London’s Whitechapel neighborhood. For weeks that autumn, British and international readers were glued to the coverage.

The Illustrated Police News of October 13, 1888 remains one of the most recognized images of Jack the Ripper’s crimes. This weekly newspaper was one of 19th century England’s most successful tabloids, known for its lurid coverage, sensational (and sometimes improbable) stories, and vivid illustrations.

And while the free press has long been one of our most cherished institutions, that hasn’t always—or even usually—meant the impartial press. From their earliest days, newspapers (and their offspring, radio and TV news) have been established to represent the interests and publish the views of particular social and political groups. It’s important to recognize the viewpoint of a given news source, in order to judge potential bias in the reporting. The University of Michigan Library offers guidance for readers and researchers about how to determine ways in which a news outlet may be biased toward a particular interest group.

The Manchester Guardian was founded in 1821 in the wake of labor protests, aimed at an audience of business owners and manufacturers.

The next time you find yourself tuning in to see if there are new updates on the latest global crisis (even when you know there won’t be), remember that you’re taking part in a centuries-old human pastime: the ravenous consumption of news.

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