New Years Eve, London, 1899?

October 21, 2009 11:33 AM

How can I find out what sort of New Year's Eve events and festivities were held on December 31, 1899? I'm specifically interested in London, but other places would help too.

I know 12/31/1900 was technically the start of the 20th century, but I'm specifically interested in 12/31/1899 - I'm assuming there were celebrations then too, like in 1999.

posted by gottabefunky to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Have you tried going back to newspapers that were written that week? This link, from 1999, has some interesting quotes that might be worth checking out.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:37 AM on October 21, 2009

I would go to a library with a journalism section and look at microfilms of london papers from around that date
posted by Think_Long at 1:25 PM on October 21, 2009

"Since 1900 was sensibly considered to be the last year of the old century and not the first year of the new, January 1900 was welcomed with ample appreciation but without dawn-of-an-era fanfare. It was, after all, still the 19th century. Rhetorical ruffles and flourishes would not be sounded until a year later, on Jan. 1, 1901, when a headline on the front page of The New York Times proclaimed "Twentieth Century's Triumphant Entry."" NYT

The celebrations held on 12/31/1899 were probably not that much different that 1898 or 1897. From looking at articles in the Times on 1/1/1900, they all refer to it as the start of the new year and not once reference the century.

Here's another look back to the build up to 1/1/1901 from ABC.
posted by yeti at 2:56 PM on October 21, 2009

1/1/1901 NY Times article referred to above lists some types of celebrations. [PDF]

The Times in London is behind a paywall, but on 1/1/1901 there's an article called "The New Century". Googling around I found a description of it here, starting with "What of abroad?"
posted by yeti at 3:14 PM on October 21, 2009