True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

1900 House
The premise of this reality-TV program is brilliant, and seminal, spawning
similar experiments in different time periods. 1900 House takes an
ordinary middle class family of the year 2000 and makes them live for
6 months like an ordinary middle class family of the year 1900. The
London-based producers succeed in this transformation by getting every
detail of Victorian domestic life exactly right and complete. The volunteer
family is plunked down in this old era as if by time machine, and there is
no escape. No shampoo, either. The edited 6-hour result is deep, instructive,
and totally riveting. Kids who hate history are mesmerized by it. Because
it is so visual and visceral, it changed the discussion of chores and
gender roles in our household. Better than 100 essays, this video series
reveals the notion of progress. It is now my favorite history “book.”
The other historical time survivor series are Frontier House (p.63), and Colonial
House (p.39). Of the three series, this one is the most historical, but since it revolves
around only one family, the least dramatic.
By Jonathan Barker and
Caroline Ross-Pirie
1999, 220 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
Learning to breathe while in a corset
was a major challenge. Putting one on
was a major undertaking, too. There
was time on Sunday to don a suit and
go swimming. When guests arrived for
dinner they too needed to be dressed
appropriately. Laundry day (lower left)
was a horror that the women dreaded. It
lasted all day and involved hours of very
demanding physical work. The family
finally got some ease by hiring a servant,
which brought its own troubles.