Victorians believed that a woman’s proper and only place was to be within a household environment. The women were expected to marry, have children, and keep a nice household. Those were the only acceptable roles for women during that era.

Victorians. The Victorian era takes its name from Queen Victoria, who ruled between 1837–1901. There were nine British prime ministers during the Victorian era.

They didn’t marry young. At the end of the 18th century, the average age of first marriage was 28 years old for men and 26 years old for women.

Women in the Victorian society had one main role in life, which was to marry and take part in their husbands’ interests and business. Before marriage, they would learn housewife skills such as weaving, cooking, washing, and cleaning, unless they were of a wealthy family.

Rich Victorians always had servants. Cooks, butlers, gardeners, housemaids, nannies and governesses were employed by this social class. The middle class families did not usually have as many servants as the upper class families.

The people of the Victorian era had a very specific fear: poison murder. This fear was driven partly by obsessive newspaper coverage of sensational poisoning cases, but as Linda Stratmann makes clear in her new history, The Secret Poisoner, it also played perfectly upon the anxieties of the age.

One of the richest men who ever lived, Cornelius Vanderbilt or ‘The Commodore’ was a magnate and philanthropist who earned his wealth through shipping and railroad building.

Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, may be hip hop’s first billionaire, but he didn’t make his fortune off his music career alone. Jay-Z also has a private art collection worth $70 million, a stake in Uber worth $70 million, and he owns $50 million in real estate, according to Forbes.