Victorian America

The Victorian Era is named after the period from 1837 to 1901, the length of the rule of Great Britain's Queen Victoria. American Victorianism was an offshoot of this period and lifestyle that occurred in the United States, chiefly in heavily populated regions such as New England and the Deep South. The name was derived from the reign of Queen Victoria, which reflected the heavy British cultural influence on the nation during the time.

As American business people of the Second Industrial Revolution created sprawling industrial towns and cities in the Northeast, the growing upper class of the Gilded Age mimicked the high society of their former mother country in dress, morality, and mannerisms. The period included various activities: the Second Industrial Revolution, the Women's suffrage movement, and Republican political domination.

Victorian America was a time of uncertainty for the Americans with "old money." Not yet sure of what it was to be an American, the wealthy often showed their uncertainty by borrowing heavily from European culture, especially French culture. Old money people ate French cuisine prepared by French cooks imported from France and drank French wines. Often, these families would buy up the entire stocks of a French vineyard for their house.

These wealthy families were always striving to keep ahead of the middle-class as the middle-class continually tried to imitate those who were wealthier. In the mid-18th century, only the rich owned private carriages, but, by the 1840s the middle class had begun to imitate this behavior. The rich then began to move to the suburbs, called "uptown," to get away from the noise, congestion, crowds, and dirt of the inner cities.

...
Wikipedia