Seaweed Collecting

Back in the Victorian era, this was apparently a popular hobby. From Collectors Weekly:

Affluent Victorians often spent hours painstakingly collecting, drying, and mounting these underwater plants into decorative scrapbooks... Part of the appeal was what a seaweed collection said about the collector. Anyone could appreciate and collect flowers, but painstakingly obtaining, preserving, and mounting seaweed specimens demonstrated patience, artistic talent, and the refined sensibilities necessary to appreciate the more subtle beauties of nature. Queen Victoria herself made a seaweed album as a young lady.

And yes, the seaweed did smell bad. But Collectors Weekly reminds us that the Victorian era was "a more pungent time."

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Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 18, 2015
Category: Hobbies and DIY | Nineteenth Century

Comments

I'm more into "land weed" 😜 collecting. If anyone wants they can send me some seed samples. Spring is in the air and it's time to plant.

Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 04/18/15 at 09:09 AM

So if a suitor smelled ye olde fishy smell it was the seaweed collection right? :lol:

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 04/18/15 at 10:02 AM

@Patty - I think someone like Catherine the Great said back then "I bathe once a year whether I need it or not"

Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 04/18/15 at 11:35 AM

It was a more pungent era. Dead seaweed and all... I understand Queen Victoria, in her career, despite all the talk of conservative Victorian morals, had many a young lower ranking nobleman or army officer as company at royal estates as overnight company, as riding instructors and such. Quite the Cougar of the times. One invitation not to refuse. There is talk that she kept a black book of such describing size, endurance, technique with an over all grade of performance. Refusal or poor performance could lead to a assignment to a remote empire outpost such as the Falkland Islands as a third vice-assistant secretary of bird droppings.

Posted by Gator Guy on 04/18/15 at 08:51 PM

Gator Guy: I've got to respect the professionalism of Vicki's visitors; she sported bloomers with a 52-inch waist. That would defeat me. I'd take the Falklands posting.

Posted by Harvey on 04/19/15 at 12:45 AM

I've heard, Harvey, that that 52in waist was one of the major causes of the Great Flour Shortage of 1989.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 04/19/15 at 01:15 AM

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