Victorian Husbands and Wives



How to Be a Retronaut has a collection of portraits of married couples a hundred years back or more. Some look strangely alike, and they all look fairly uncomfortable posing for the photographer. http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/08/victorian-husbands-and-wives/ -via Everlasting Blort

Very first photo that comes up. The guy looks like a scrawny Hugh Jackman.

As for looking similiar... wonder how many of them are actually blood related.
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Dont they look uncomfortable because the have to sit completely still for like a minute or more?

I thought that was why most portraits from the time were of dead people
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I wouldn't go as far as to say "most portraits" were of dead people, but the living did have to sit still for a long exposure, so you rarely see anyone holding a smile.

LisaL, that was my first thought. Cousins.
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Looking at the photos, you can only attribute the survival of the human race thru the lack of electricity.

I can't imagine their sex lives if they had to do it with the lights on.
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Daguerreotypes took at least 10 minutes to expose. They look unhappy because they had to pose for a long time and not move an inch. There's probably a bar holding their heads straight too.
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They really weren't kidding about three or four of those couples looking EERILY alike. #2 are particularly creepy. Um, I hate to say it, but cousins never look that similar. I don't really want to think about that one... Anyway, Couple #1 manage to look happy. Was it really necessary for almost everybody else to look SO miserable??
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I have heard about that long exposure times, too. But how could they keep the kids and babies in place for such a long time?! Victorian education or shorter (MUCH shorter) exposure times after all? ;-D
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It actually wasn't uncommon for marriages to be arranged between family members, including siblings, even during the Victorian era. Marriage has a long history of being regarded as a highly efficient form of wealth management and social order. Not until the 19th century did society begin to accept a new view of matrimony. So, it's very well possible that a few of those couples that look eerily similar are actually brother and sister.
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