America and the Victorian Press
Bob Nicholson
Lecturer in History, Edge Hill University
4 December 2013
Time: 2:00-4:00 pm
Room: University of Westminster, room A7.3, Harrow Campus (Metropolitan 
Line, stop: Northwick Park)

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Abstract: Widespread popular fascination with America, and an 
appreciation of American culture, was not introduced by Hollywood cinema 
during the early decades of the 20th century, but emerged during the 
late-Victorian period and was driven by the popular press. By the 1880s, 
newspaper audiences throughout the country were consuming fragments of 
American life and culture on an almost daily basis. Under the impulses 
of the so-called ‘new journalism’, representations of America appeared 
regularly within an eclectic range of journalistic genres, including 
serialised fiction, news reports, editorials, humour columns, tit-bits, 
and travelogues. Forms of American popular culture – such as newspaper 
gags – circulated throughout Britain and enjoyed a sustained presence in 
bestselling papers. These imported texts also acted as vessels for the 
importation of other elements of American culture such as the country’s 
distinctive slang and dialects.
Drawing upon extracts from my doctoral research, this talk explores the 
role played by the late-Victorian popular press as a ‘contact zone’ 
between America and the British public. It also comments on the new 
methodological possibilities offered to historians by the digitisation 
of nineteenth century newspaper archives. In particular, it outlines how 
these resources have begun to break down geographic and disciplinary 
boundaries and encourage the exploration of transnational and 
intertextual connections.

Bio:
Bob Nicholson is a Lecturer in History at Edge Hill University. In 2012 
he completed a PhD on transatlantic journalism at the University of 
Manchester. His work has been published in the Journal of Victorian 
Culture, the Victorian Periodicals Review, and Media History. He was 
awarded the inaugural ‘Gale Fellowship in Nineteenth-Century Media’ for 
his innovative use of digital archives. He blogs at 
digitalvictorianist.com.

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