Hey Steampunk! What's With the Goggles? Victorian Automobile-Wear

Steampunk is a fiction genre that has it's origins from classic author Jules Verne who wrote future novels at the turn of the century and envisioned the future from a Victorian perspective. At the turn of the century America was in the middle of a technological revolution and many people spoke of the new era of the modern world being upon us. Just imagine Y2K but the 1900 version.

photo credit: Stuck in Customs via photopin ccMost technology at the time was powered by steam, so Victorians envisioned the future having a lot of steam powered technology. Hence Steampunk. Steampunk though is the modern take on this future so the machines are way more sci-fi inspired and everyone is wearing a much sluttier or cool looking version of Victorian garb.

So the question of the hour - what's with the goggles?

Although the Victorians weren't really worrying about the major machinery you read about in those Steampunk novels, they were trying dealing with what to them was a very advanced technology of the day - the motorized automobile.

Prior to this time, people rode around in the very slow horse-drawn carriage. They weren't used to going very fast. The first cars were open like a buggy and usually didn't have a windshield. All of sudden, people were having to deal with getting smacked in the head with a bug! Or getting a spec of dirt in their eye and swerving off the road.

So they created their own protection-wear. Goggles, netting hats that looked like bee-keeper hats, gloves, and full coverage overcoats made of warm leather or wool were worn. Coats were usually the color of mud because they were often splattered during driving. Passengers often rode with blankets as well.

Only the wealthy could afford an auto-mobile at this time and many of the lower classes enjoyed the fact that the wealthy looked mighty silly driving around in their bee-keeper outfits!

photo credit: How I See Life via photopin ccI tried really hard to find an image online of some Victorians wearing their protective gear, and I was only able to find one illustration. There probably isn't much out there because Victorians would remove the gear for photos or paintings. Since they looked quite silly, they may have also avoided wearing it when in the city where they would be driving slow anyways, but on a long country drive, they'd want to be warm and bug-free.

Here is the best I could find to show you guys what I am talking about. Image of Victorian woman wearing automobile protective-wear. The original photo is on the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum Webpage.

If you guys find any photos, please feel free to share in the comments.

So this is why Steampunk has all these people with goggles. Victorians wore them with their newest technology - the automobile. I guess the bee-keeper veil hats were too silly to incorporate into Steampunk. =)