Reading and writing fill in the blanks

As a historian who’s always fightingsearchingaccountingopting searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past, I’ve become preoccupied with looking for telegraphsphotographsplateenlargement photographs that show our Victorian ancestors smiling (what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?). I’ve found quite a few, and – since I started posting them on Twitter – they have been causing quite a stirrowlotproblem stir . People have been surprised to see storyguaranteefactevidence evidence that Victorians had fun and could, and did, laugh. They are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us pullpushfadewithdraw fade away through our common experience of laughter.