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The 19th century

Industry, invention and voices for change.

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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6 illustrated stories · growing daily
An imagined 1893 suffrage petition table with women’s hands, ink pens and a white camellia.World events

Women win the vote in New Zealand: September 19, 1893

On September 19, 1893, New Zealand’s Electoral Act received assent, making it the first self-governing country to establish women’s right to vote in parliamentary elections. The achievement followed years of campaigning, although nationality restrictions remained and women could not yet become members of Parliament.

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Black Brazilian residents share news from an unlettered paper on a nineteenth-century Rio street.World events

Brazil’s Golden Law Abolishes Slavery on 13 May 1888

Brazil’s Law 3,353, signed on 13 May 1888 and known as the Golden Law, abolished slavery immediately. Its brevity made the legal change unmistakable while leaving the social and economic future of freed people largely unaddressed.

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A woman addresses attentive women in bonnets and shawls inside a modest nineteenth-century chapel.World events

Opening of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

Beginning on July 19, 1848, the Seneca Falls convention used the language of American independence to expose the gap between a promise of equality and women’s restricted rights.

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A young giraffe and its keepers walk through a Paris garden gate as visitors watch in early nineteenth-century clothing.World events

The giraffe's arrival in Paris on 30 June 1827

A female giraffe reached the Jardin des Plantes on 30 June 1827 after walking from Marseille. Sent as a diplomatic gift by Egypt's ruler, she became France's first living giraffe and the focus of an extraordinary wave of public curiosity.

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A hand rests beside a quill and a founding document on a table stacked with books in early-nineteenth-century Lima.World events

San Martín's decree creates the National Library of Peru

On 28 August 1821, José de San Martín decreed the creation of Peru's National Library. The project connected independence with public knowledge, although the institution required further organization before its inauguration in September 1822.

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Printers operate a wooden hand press and lift a fresh sheet in an early nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro workshop.World events

The Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro launches under royal censorship

The Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro first appeared on 10 September 1808. Its launch established newspaper production within Brazil, while the royal printing office's control showed that expanding print technology did not automatically bring editorial freedom.

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