Research Links: the Victorian Era

The Sherlock Holmes stories are rich in historic detail about Victorian art, behavior, architecture, science, royalty, and geography at a time (the Industrial Revolution) when great social, economic and technological progress was made in the United Kingdom. The Sherlock Holmes "Canon" began publication in 1887 during the later part of the reign of Queen Victoria, a time marked by a great expansion of the British Empire, the foremost global power of the time.

General topics

The full 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, "The best encyclopedia ever written," is scanned with occasional missing characters on one side of the page and text that runs over into the next reference -- but it's a remarkable Victorian contemporary resource for all that.
Links to England and the Victorian era with money converters and price indexes, as well as lots of other links including detectives and Jack the Ripper sites gathered by Chris Redmond's Sherlockian.net.
An interesting Victoriana site with a "study center" devoted to topics ranging from calling cards to recipes to needlework to gardens.
The Victorian Society: Americans dedicated to the protection, understanding, education, and enjoyment of our nineteenth century heritage. They sponsor events and symposia in different locations.

History

United Kingdom and Ireland History... a group of sites of general interest and some that are particularly helpful for genealogy research.
The Victorian Dictionary ... a guide to the social history of Victorian London. A splendid resource, including maps -- Holmes would have been proud.
Victorian Web... nothing to do with Moriarty, but many topics to browse: arts, science, philosophy, politics, society, gender issues, technology, and more.

Clothing

A remarkable costume site complete with online classes -- includes hairstyle history, too.
Lots and lots of costume links here. Pictures of clothing exhibitions in museums as well as period clothing for sale.
The Gentleman's Page: a resource "for those who wish to look and act like; or perhaps better understand, the 19th Century American man."