Five Ways to Embrace Your Inner Edwardian

By Melinda Narro
Fort Bend Museum Intern

The Fort Bend Museum's newest exhibit, Progressive and Prosperous: The Moore Family During the Edwardian Period, follows the lives of John and Lottie Moore and their children in the years between 1901 and 1914. With the exhibit in full swing from now through the end of the year, here is a list of ideas for embracing your inner Edwardian and getting into fine turn-of-the-century spirits: 

1) Take a deep breath: …and appreciate the fact that you can! Women’s torsos had yet to escape the rib-crushing squeeze of corsets at this time. Even when the well-defined “wasp waist” fell out of favor after 1907, the new vogue for longer dresses with slim silhouettes caused corsets to increase in length, making sitting comfortably a challenge.

2) Eat a sweet treat: Take the edge off the blistering Texas heat with a scoop or two of ice cream heaped atop a freshly-rolled waffle cone. Although ice cream itself had been enjoyed in the U.S. as far back as the Founding Fathers, the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis is credited with popularizing the cone format among the masses.

3) Work up a sweat: Interest in exercise as a way to improve health surged during the late 1800s, with teachers and doctors leading the charge for school physical education programs and gym facilities. Theodore Roosevelt, who served as U.S. President from 1901 to 1909, was a vocal proponent of what he dubbed the "strenuous life.” His personal regime incorporated boxing, hunting, hiking and weightlifting.

4) Curl up with a good book: With television still many decades distant and radio barely in its infancy, novels helped fill the leisure hours of Edwardian-era Americans. Lottie Moore, a prodigious reader, would have had plenty of great books to choose from—works published during this time period include Call of the Wild, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and multiple Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

5) Get reacquainted with Jack and Rose: Pop in a DVD of Titanic to marvel at the posh accommodations enjoyed by wealthy passengers aboard ocean liners. While the Titanic sank to a watery grave in 1912, other technological innovations of the early 1900s revolutionized transportation for generations to come—namely, the Wright brothers’ airplane (1903) and Henry Ford’s Model T automobile (1908).

Interested in learning more? Progressive and Prosperous runs through December, so make a point to stop by and see the exhibit for yourself!