'Evening dresses', September 1845

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Described in the magazine:
No. 1. Shaded poult de soie robes; a low corsage, tight to the shape, and very deeply pointed at bottom; a row of lace stands up round the top. Short sleeve rendered full by three festooned volants. Two biais decorate the border of the skirt. The front hair is parted on the forehead, and dressed in a profusion of ringlets at the sides; the hind hair is plaited and brought round the back of the head.
No. 2. White tarlatane robe over white gros de naples; a low round corsage, trimmed with a deep berthe of the same, beautifully embroidered. Short tight sleeve, and volants worked to correspond. Double skirt: the upper one descending considerably below the knee; both are embroidered round the border. Head-dress of hair similar to the one already described.

Events of 1845back to top

Current affairs

Cardinal Newman converts to Roman Catholicism. A leader of the Oxford movement , growing in influence since the 1820s, Newman had raised doubts about the authority of the Anglican church.
Ralph Etwall, MP for Andover, demands an inquiry into the administration of the Andover workhouse, which leads to the abolition of the Poor Law Commission, and resolution of Parliament to improve workhouse conditions.

Art and science

The American poet, short story writer, critic and leader of the American Romantic movement, Edgar Allan Poe, publishes his narrative poem 'The Raven'. The poem is a supernatural tale of a mysterious talking raven's visit to a distraught lover, who descends into madness, and explores themes of self-torture and obsession.
The reconstruction of Trafalgar Square, by architects John Nash and Sir Charles Barry, is completed.

International

Sir John Franklin's expedition in search of the North-West passage, the sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Franklin took two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, and a crew of 129 men made up Royal Navy officers. The crew never returned. Search parties sent out years later discovered the ships had got stuck in frozen waters, and that all the men had died.

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