Do you love a puzzle? The people in the Victorian era – both in England the United States certainly did. While preparing for the London Calling exhibition we came across three Victorian era puzzles that have us scratching our heads. Are you as clever as 19th century readers? Give these three a try:
A rebus is a word puzzle with where pictures and symbols are used to represent words or parts of words to spell out a message. In the 19th Century they often appeared in monthly magazines - with the answer in the next month’s edition. We imagine this particularly difficult (at least to us!) rebus from the December 1879 issue of Demorest’s Magazine encourages more than a few readers to order the next issue:
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Victorian Ladies were also fond of a good puzzle. This riddle in the form of a poem was intended to entertain ladies while also helping them to learn the name and meaning of various types of flowers – can you name the blooms in the" Enigmatical Bouquet" from the Lady’s Almanac 1855?
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Finally, this last item offers a puzzle on more than one level. Found in the archives of the Norfolk Museum, this pamphlet appears to be the catalog of an art exhibition held in Norfolk in 1887 on Granby St. . A closer look at the artists who created these works of art raises a few questions.
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Unfortunately, this last puzzle remains unsolved – but who knows, perhaps with a little research you can be the one to discover the truth behind these less than believable nom de guerres.
All three of these puzzling items can be found in the Library….
