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DigiVictorian's profile
Dr Bob Nicholson
Dr Bob Nicholson
Dr Bob Nicholson
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@DigiVictorian

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Dr Bob NicholsonVerified account

@DigiVictorian

Public Historian • Victorian Pop Culture • Tweeter of Archival Oddities • Curator of @VictorianHumour • Co-Director of @EHUNineteen • Occasionally on TV/Radio.

Edge Hill University
edgehill.ac.uk/englishhistory…
Joined January 2009

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    Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

    I've just watched the trailer for the new Dickens movie. I'm not usually bothered by inaccuracies in historical dramas, but I'd like to politely request that film makers STOP PUTTING MASSIVE HEADLINES ON VICTORIAN NEWSPAPERS.pic.twitter.com/GdOFi9u6G6

    2:03 PM - 25 Nov 2017
    • 3,551 Retweets
    • 11,648 Likes
    • Special Guest Villainess Jet Jaguar 😷عَـ ـجَـ ـلَـ ـةُ الـ ـقِـ ـيَـ ـا دَ ةِ Diego Cuevas Dolce Gorilla Librarian Lindy Marks Blissfm_kenya Karin Hacker (my good what-ye-call't)
    224 replies 3,551 retweets 11,648 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        For most of the nineteenth century, the biggest daily newspapers carried nothing but densely-packed adverts on their front page. Here are some examples from around the time this film is set...pic.twitter.com/vl6wY4midg

        42 replies 769 retweets 3,751 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        To put this is further perspective, this relatively modest 24-point headline from W. T. Stead's Pall Mall Gazette was considered innovative (and rather radical) in 1885... nearly thirty years after Dickens died.pic.twitter.com/RvKzT1gpGV

        13 replies 224 retweets 1,456 likes
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      4. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        Meanwhile, the front page of papers like The Times still looked like this in 1965!pic.twitter.com/6om15lybkM

        11 replies 180 retweets 1,393 likes
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      5. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        SURELY a sensationalist, populist paper like the Daily Mail would have news and headlines on its front page, right? Not until the 1940s!pic.twitter.com/QaXR0J33iL

        8 replies 178 retweets 1,350 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        Welcome to the smallest hill that I'm willing to die on.

        33 replies 193 retweets 4,572 likes
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      7. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        I know these props serve a convenient narrative purpose, but media history matters too! The ‘newspaper’ as we know it evolved, piece-by-piece, over many centuries and went through countless transformations on the way.

        16 replies 114 retweets 1,346 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        If we imagine the ‘newspaper’ as an unchanging institution that looked much the same in 1843 as it does today, then the imminent death of print journalism looks apocalyptic; but the migration to digital isn’t an ending, just another chapter in a long story.

        6 replies 172 retweets 1,396 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        While we're here, I should point out that not *all* Victorian newspapers looked like a wall of text. Some weeklies like the Illustrated Police News (low-brow, crime, sensation) and the Illustrated London News (high-brow, news, culture, etc) looked rather different...pic.twitter.com/fwtLY6kvG7

        26 replies 191 retweets 1,304 likes
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      10. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        You might also be surprised to learn that interviews - something we now think of as being so central to the practice of journalism - were uncommon in British papers until the 1880s. They were regarded as an invasion of privacy & condemned as an uncouth American import! (DNCJ)pic.twitter.com/JjuUhZkdDj

        11 replies 216 retweets 1,087 likes
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      11. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 25 Nov 2017

        Thanks for humouring this (admittedly *very* petty) rant about the cinematic misrepresentation historical newspapers. Join me next time as I try to sit through the trailer for the forthcoming P. T. Barnum movie without having an aneurysm.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXCTMGYUg9A …

        43 replies 36 retweets 838 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        ...aaaaaand we're back! The Greatest Showman features quite a few newspapers. The New York Herald *did* occasionally feature news on its front page as well as the usual adverts, but not headlines like this in the 1840s.pic.twitter.com/GopVFsytoe

        1 reply 15 retweets 168 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        However, unlike the British papers I posted before, the New York Herald *did* print news-related images on its front page from time to time. So this prop from the film isn't totally anachronistic.pic.twitter.com/iqVnPPRxGt

        2 replies 8 retweets 149 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        This enormous internal headline and cross-column article is a bit weird though, as is the by-line portrait. The vast majority of articles in nineteenth-century newspapers were unsigned, so it would be rare for a journalist's *name* to appear, never mind a picture of them!pic.twitter.com/w9pUxKN4Go

        1 reply 9 retweets 148 likes
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      15. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        The keen-eyed historians among you might have noticed that all of these props have had the date removed, which would normally appear centred under the masthead. One has 'New York', one 'Saturday', and the other is just blank. Real masthead in the 4th image.pic.twitter.com/ktn2W8mhyp

        2 replies 7 retweets 123 likes
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      16. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        I suspect that this is because the film (which, to my surprise, I actually rather enjoyed!) condenses, rejigs, and omits large parts of Barnum's career. They avoided pinning moments to specific dates, and generally kept the passage of time fairly vague.

        2 replies 5 retweets 120 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        The New York Tribune also makes a brief appearance. As is often the case, they get details like the masthead right - including the Tribune's taller left & right columns. We don't get a closer look though so, as far as I can tell, it's just the headline that's wrong here.pic.twitter.com/CvTZELrBUG

        1 reply 6 retweets 98 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        Finally, I also spotted a copy of The New York Times! The formatting is weird for all the usual reasons. Also: the NYT wasn't founded until 1851, a decade after Barnum opened his 'American Museum.' AND it was known as the 'New York Daily Times' until 1857.pic.twitter.com/dT3gWyk8Bp

        3 replies 9 retweets 118 likes
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      19. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 12 May 2018

        In sum: still out here dying on that hill.

        3 replies 5 retweets 212 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        "But Bob," I hear you all cry, "what about the on-screen representation of Victorian newspapers in 2016's The Limehouse Golem?" Well...pic.twitter.com/qu687Oee5S

        2 replies 6 retweets 95 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        ... they did a pretty good job! Here's their reproduction of the Penny Illustrated Paper, plus a trial-related front page from the real periodical published in the 1880s when the film was set. The caption should be below the image, but aside from that it looks okay to me.pic.twitter.com/zCXNJMlmqR

        1 reply 8 retweets 122 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        Our old friend The Illustrated Police News also makes a welcome appearance, but there are some peculiar errors here. The paper only carried illustrations on its cover at this point, so those text-heavy side column's under Dan Leno's fingers are out of place. Why add them?!pic.twitter.com/lsvTezyiN4

        2 replies 9 retweets 92 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        Let's take a closer look. Like the props in The Greatest Showman, the date has been omitted. Ackroyd's novel is set in 1880, which means that the film used the wrong masthead for the IPN. It didn't look that until May 1882. But this isn't a deal breaker, even for me!pic.twitter.com/mZcCiaatIi

        1 reply 5 retweets 87 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        Similarly, they were right to put adverts on the back page of the Penny Illustrated Paper. In 1880 these adverts were plainer and more densely-packed, but later in the decade they did start to look quite like the move prop. So maybe the film is set slightly later than the novel?pic.twitter.com/6QIGCMWTL1

        1 reply 5 retweets 87 likes
        Show this thread
      25. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        Bonus points: the Penny Illustrated Paper *did* actually carry adverts for Isaac Walton & Co!pic.twitter.com/nw4gJ0wS6r

        1 reply 6 retweets 118 likes
        Show this thread
      26. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        I also liked the incidental use of print culture in the film. The Pall Mall Gazette was (usually) a respectable gentleman's evening paper, which seems appropriate for the reading rooms of the British Museum.pic.twitter.com/s6FLBn04Ku

        1 reply 6 retweets 98 likes
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      27. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        In one scene they also depicted a poor character's lodgings with pages from newspapers and periodicals pasted onto the walls, which was reportedly quite a common practice. 👍pic.twitter.com/lLp8h4jsjc

        3 replies 5 retweets 98 likes
        Show this thread
      28. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 13 May 2018

        In summary: I thought The Limehouse Golem's tone was misjudged, the plot was too predictable, key performances were wooden, and the casting of Dan Leno was CATASTROPHICALLY bad. But the newspapers are mostly on-point, so it's a solid 4/5 stars from me.

        1 reply 8 retweets 144 likes
        Show this thread
      29. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 28 Oct 2018

        Welcome back to this ridiculous thread. I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 this weekend. Earlier today I encountered a newspaper vendor. You can probably guess where this is going...pic.twitter.com/2jMJc8zSIU

        2 replies 9 retweets 121 likes
        Show this thread
      30. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 28 Oct 2018

        I bought this newspaper in a small, mid-western livestock town called Valentine. I know what you're probably thinking: "headlines and news on the front page again?! He's going to have a heart attack!" But actually...pic.twitter.com/J3OKpTyydq

        1 reply 5 retweets 82 likes
        Show this thread
      31. Dr Bob Nicholson‏Verified account @DigiVictorian 28 Oct 2018

        ... American newspapers in this period (the game is set in 1899) often had news on their front page. Here's a broadly comparable paper from the town of Corinth, Mississipi. As you can see, the game's mixture of display adverts & news on the front page isn't anachronistic at all!pic.twitter.com/mZ8ew0juZG

        1 reply 6 retweets 97 likes
        Show this thread
      32. Show replies

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