Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Lady Feeling Like a Queen, 1875

You don't need a King to feel like a Queen!
Victorian Trends

An antique black and white illustration from 1875 that shows an elegant Victorian lady sitting on a tufted chair, wearing a very expensive looking day gown with various layers of bands, pleats, and flounces. Here is an example of a card I mde with this image:

You can download the free 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without any words or watermark here. Great for cardmaking, collage or image transfers, as well as graphic design or junk journaling projects.

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Free Vintage Illustrated Holiday Templates: Christmas Reindeer and Victorian Santa's Parade Decorative Borders for Cardmaking or Gift Tags

Well, we were supposed to go out today and get Christmas cards to accompany our gifts but a winter storm has descended with a vengeance on southern Ontario so I stayed home and prepared these Victorian Christmas cards instead. If you're housebound like me, print these on your printer for last-minute card and gift exchanges or go paperless and email them to relatives and friends!

The first card above has a Christmas reindeer decorative border on the upper part of the card and stylized Christmas trees on the bottom part of the card. To download the high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, please click here.

The second card shows a decorative border illustrated with images from a Victorian Santa Claus Parade with Santa himself, fabulous gifts and magical beings galore. To download this whimsical card without any words, please click here.

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Vintage ephemera is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Illustrated Holiday Card and Template: Whimsical Christmas Menu, 1889

A black and white illustration for a whimsical Christmas "menu" from December 1889 with the following items:
Snowy Streets, Starry Skies
Holidays; with Source of Joy
*** -- ***
Forefathers; pickled in Praise
*** -- ***
Shopping; en Masse
Cards and Banners with Greetings
*** -- ***
Stockings á la Santa Claus
Festivals; merry with Fir-trees and Mistletoe
Gifts; flavored with Love
*** -- ***
Back-Logs, served whole
*** -- ***
Peace and Good-will; dressed
with Charity
*** -- ***
Carols; Sweet :: :: Chiming Bells

I have included both the original card with the full menu, and one where I have removed the menu items in case you want to use it as a template for other projects. Can be used for recipe cards, gift tags, as a menu at a festive dinner or in scrapbooking.

To download the high-res 5" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without a watermark, please click here for the menu card with words and here for the blank Christmas card template.

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Vintage ephemera is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Victorian Fashion History Illustration: When We Were Young, 1886

The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it.
Memories need to be shared.
Lois Lowry, The Giver

An antique black and white illustration from 1886 that shows three Victorian ladies sharing a memory of their childhood. An image of the three ladies as girls is shown in the drawing below the portraits of the ladies wearing their fancy hats. Both the drawings of the ladies and of the girls are enclosed within a frame of curving leaves and grasses. From my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée.

You can download the free ready-to-print 4" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark here. Great for cardmaking, crafts or image transfers, as well as junk journaling and scrapbooking projects.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Ladies at a Winter Resort 1 (1892)

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.
The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson

An antique illustration showing a mysterious, veiled Victorian lady in an ankle-length coat checking into a winter resort with her traveling companions.From my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée.

You can download the free ready-to-print 4" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, storytelling or framed art projects by clicking here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Edwardian Travelers at a Railway Station, 1904

It is good to have an end to journey toward;
but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Edwardian illustration from 1904 shows passengers at a railway station saying their goobyes as the train prepares for departure. From my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée.

You can download the free ready-to-print 5" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, crafts or framed art projects by clicking here.

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Free Printable Victorian Fashion History Illustrations: Around the Town 1 & 2 (1886)

But the beauty is in the walking; we are betrayed by destinations.
Gwyn Thomas

Two Victorian illustrations of people walking down the street from my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. The first one shows a lady in a veil being led down the street by a young girl with a fancy folio. The second picture shows a mother and her two daughters on the cobblestoned street of what looks to be a bustling town, perhaps awaiting their carriage?

You can download the free ready-to-print 4" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, crafts or junk journaling projects by clicking here (lady with parasol and veil image) and here (mother and daughters image).

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Free Vintage Holiday Postcards: Christmas Greeting Card with Cherubs Holding a Blank Scroll

A vintage Christmas postcardcard from the early 1900s. The front shows a pair of angelic cherubs holding a long blank scroll against a snow-covered Christmas tree with a sparkling star in the background. I have also included the postally unmarked postcard back that shows the imprint of the cherubs that were embossed on the front. Great for any upcoming Christmas projects.

To download the high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without a watermark, please click here for the postcard front and here for the postcard back.

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Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Lady in Visiting Costume 1 (1875)

A black and white fashion engraving from my collection of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine, December 1875 issue. Here is the description from the magazine:

Nos. 1 and 2 are illustrations showing the front and back of a visiting costume. The demi-train skirt is of olive-green faille, with the lower portion of the triple-plaited back-breadths trimmed with a deep half-plaited flounce, with a heading of small puffs and a stand-up ruffle, the sides and front-breadths being crossed with three gathered flounces -- the two first ones surmounted with rouleaux, and the third one with a succession of narrow folds. The long paletôt is of basket-woven plaid cloth of the same shade; the pointed fronts, trimmed with silk revers with velvet-faced corners, are confined by mold-covered buttons. The short back terminates under a bow and ends of wide sash ribbon, and the neck is decorated with a heart-shaped collar of silk, having a stand-up collar of velvet and velvet corners, from which depend two tassels. The sleeves are coat-shaped, with a deep flaring revers cuff of faille and velvet, and on each hip is a square-trimmed pocket. Three and a half yards of cloth, one yard of silk, a half a yard of velvet, and three yards of fringe will make this garment. Hat of olive-green velvet, trimmed with a silk scarf, a wing and flowers.

You can download a free 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for cardmaking, collage, crafts or simply print and frame for wall art.

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Free Vintage Real Photo Postcard (RPPC): Caroline with Holiday Greenery (Vintage Christmas Greeting)

Christmas is not a date on a calendar. It’s more than a state of mind.
It’s a condition of the heart.
Toni Sorenson

A vintage, hand-tinted French real photo postcard (RPPC) from 1912. It shows a young Edwardian lady holding branches of holiday greenery with the words "Joyeux Noël " at the top left corner of the card.

You can download the high-res 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark here for holiday cardmaking or Christmas scrapbooking projects.

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Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Young Edwardian Ladies in Party Dresses 1 (1904)

Conversation. What is it? A Mystery!
It's the art of never seeming bored,
of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles,
of being fascinating with nothing at all.
Guy de Maupassant

A vintage fashion illustration from 1904 showing a trio of young ladies (teenagers) gathered round for a conversation during a party. From my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée.

You can download a free ready-to-print 8.5" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for holiday nvitation cards, party announcements, reception menus or incorporate it in a collage or junk journal.

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Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Ladies Setting the Table, 1875

A black and white fashion engraving from a fall 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine. The following is a description from the publication:

"Nos. 1 and 2 are illustrations of the front and back of a dinner dress of rose-colored poult de soie. It consists of a train-skirt, trimmed with one deep scantily gathered flounce, edged with a knife-plaiting four and a half inches in depth, set on to form a heading. The overskirt is composed of clusters of upstanding folds, two in number, each cluster being strapped on either side with a fine shirred band, and are each connected behind on the train-breadths of the skirt by tied sashes of pink silk with fringed-out ends. These two clusters of folds are each edged with a fine knife-plaiting, giving the appearance of a double tablier. The corset is of the cuirass shape, trimmed with piped folds, and the neck is decorated with a fichu of plaited crêpe de Chine, edged with a fluting of the same. For the making of this dress thirty yards of poult de soie will be required."

You can download a free ready-to-print 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any words for cardmaking, collage or DIY wall art projects by clicking here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Edwardian Ladies' Capes (Eaton's Catalog, 1901)

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Imagine being able to pay $3.50 for a black brocaded satin cape (with plainer trimmings) and a mere $12.00 for a black brocaded silk cape, lined with India silk, and trimmed with lace and silk ruching. Those were the good old days, right?

Here is an ineteresting page advertising ladies' capes in a 1901 catalog from T. Eaton Co., later known as Eaton's, a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country.

You can download this catalog page as a free ready-to-print 9" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage or DIY wall art projects by clicking here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

19th Century Public Domain Poetry: Twilight by Augusta Hancock

TWILIGHT
by Augusta Hancock
(originally published August 19, 1893)
In the tender hush of twilight,
When the summer day is o'er,
And the little waves are rippling
On the golden-tinted shore,
Comes the western wind's soft dream-song
With sweet echoes evermore.
Come amid the gathering shadows,
As they linger long and low,
Visions fair and fancies fleeting,
From the misty years ago;
With the old-time memories stealing
Ever softly, to and fro.
Comes again a loving echo
Like a lingering refrain,
From those voices in the gloaming
With their gladness and their pain;
And the never-failing sweetness
Of that long-remembered strain.
Comes the dewy breath of comfort,
Comfort for the souls that weep, For the hearts that faint with sorrow
'Mid the shadows long and deep;
For the twilight brings the rest-time.
And to God's beloved, sleep.
Featured paintings, from top to bottom:
(1) Evening by the Lake by Max Nonnenbruch (1857 - 1922)
(2) Autumn Sunset by Jakub Schikaneder (1855 - 1924)
(3) Scirocco, 1885 by Ralph Wormeley Curtis (1854 - 1922)
(4) Never Morning Wore to Evening but Some Heart Did Break by Walter Langley (1852 - 1922)
(5) An Evening by the Sea by Alfred Stevens (1823 - 1906)

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Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

19th Century Public Domain Poetry: Sadness by S. E. Everett

Painting ia titled "Symphony in Green"
by Alfred Stevens (1823 - 1906)

SADNESS
by S.E. Everett
(originally published 1867)

My heart is filled with strange unrest;
I'm sad, I know not why;
This world seems all a weariness,
From which I fain would fly.
It is not that I envy those
By fortune more caressed;
Nor is it strife with worldly foes,
That brings this wild unrest.

My friends are true, the world is kind;
My wants are well supplied;
Nor can my wishes be defined,
Or tell what I'm denied.
Yet strange it is, my heart is sad;
The days are long and drear;
And oft I wish their measure had
Fulfilled their courses here.

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Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Illustrated Templates: Edwardian Lady Travelers Journal Pages (Set 2)

Why do you go away?
So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.
Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Two pre-made templates featuring antique illustrations of Edwardian lady travelers from my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée. The first template shows a lady in a dress of emerald green trimmed with wide bands that feature sparkling stars. The second template shows two ladies in heavy jackets and skirts that are stylish yet sturdy enough to withstand travel on dusty roads. These templates can be used as travel journal cards, invitation cards or other general announcements.

You can download the high-resolution 11" x 8.5" @ 300 ppi JPEGs here (lady in green) and here (ladies in monochrome).

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19th Century Public Domain Poem: A Halloween Frolic (Poetry for Kids)

See link for printable poem at the bottom of this post.

Here is a sweet little Halloween poem (titled "A Hallowenn Frolic") written by Helen Gray Cone and originally published in a late 19th century issue of St. Nicholas Magazine.

The poem in full reads:
A little witch in steeple hat
Once tried a merry spell,
To make the hares come pit-a-pat
From dingle and from dell.

And pit-a-pat, beneath the moon,
The shy hares peeping came;
The little witch in buckled shoon,
She called them each by name.

"Come, 'Fairy-foot' and 'Sparkle-eyes'!
Come, 'Fine-ear,' 'Bob,' and 'Bun'!"
They gathered round in mild surprise,
But glad of any fun.

And when she told them what she willed,
They stamped and leaped in glee,
And all their velvet noses thrilled
With laughter strange to see.

What was the prank, do you suppose,
And what the merry spell? ―
The sleepy owlet only knows,
And she would never tell!

High-res 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. Lovely to hand out with Halloween candy but can also be used in altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects.

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Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Tears at Twilight, 1857

Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness.
They are a sign of a pure heart.
José N. Harris, MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love

Hand-tinted colour illustration in an issue of Peterson's Magazine from 1857, showng two ladies in a garden at twilight. One of the ladies, wearing a richly beaded blue ball gown, is crying while the other lady, in a white gown adorned with roses, is trying to console her.

You can download a free ready-to-print 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, collage, craft or framed art projects by clicking here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Illustrated Holiday Template: Halloween Invitation Card with Edwardian Lady in Blue

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

A pre-made Halloween invitation card template that shows an Edwardian lady hurrying away from a spooky castle in the background. You can download the high-resolution 7" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without any words here or with the words "All Hallows Invitation" here.

Below is the original image scanned from my personal collection of La Mode Illustrée.
You can download the high-resolution 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for any other craft or graphic design projects here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Young Victorian Ladies at a Masquerade Ball 1 (1886)

Pretending can be a bold form of experimentation and inventiveness.
In pretending joy or happiness, we may discover or enhance our capacity for it.
Harriet Lerner

A black and white illustration from 1886, originally published in La Mode Illustrée showing a trio of young ladies (teens) at a masquerade party.

You can download a free high-res 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG without any watermark for cardmaking, mixed media collage art or craft projects by clicking here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration: Victorian Hairdressing Styles by W.J. Barker, 1875

A page from Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine from 1875 showing the newest hairdressing styles (mostly consisting of elaborate braids) by W.J. Barker located at 36, Twenty-Ninth Street (four doors west of Broadway) in New York City.

To download a free, high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, please click here.

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All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.