Media History Project
mediahst@umn.edu

1810-1819

  • 1810: An electro-chemical telegraph is constructed in Germany.
  • 1810: Scott’s The Lady of the Lake.
  • 1810: Postal services consolidated under uniform private contracts.
  • 1811: A printing press is powered by steam.
  • 1811: In France, the forerunner of the Havas news agency is formed.
  • 1811: Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility examines English middle-class morality.
  • 1811: Luddite riots will forever give a name to opponents of advances in technology.
  • 1812: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Eighth Symphony.
  • 1812: Pierre Laplace argues for calculating the probability of natural events.
  • 1812: Byron gains fame with Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
  • 1812: Georg Wilhelm Hegel explains dialectical reasoning in Science of Logic.
  • 1812: Brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm write their truly grim Fairy Tales.
  • 1813: Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.
  • 1813: Franz Schubert composes the first of nine symphonies.
  • 1813: Byron’s The Bride of Abydos wins praise.
  • 1813: Troy, NY, Post editorial introduces “Uncle Sam” to represent U.S.
  • 1813: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s, Queen Mab, a poem of social protest.
  • 1813: Jonathan Wyss completes Swiss Family Robinson, begun by his father.
  • 1813: Congress authorizes steamboats to carry mail.
  • 1814: In England, a steam-powered press prints The Times, 1,100 copies an hour.
  • 1814: Walter Scott publishes Waverly (and all future novels) anonymously.
  • 1814: Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.
  • 1814: In destroying Washington, D.C., British troops burn down Library of Congress.
  • 1814: Schubert creates the German “lieder” (art songs). He will write more than 500.
  • 1814: Under Napoleon, optical signal system stretches from Belgium to Italy.
  • 1814: Francis Scott Key writes The Star Spangled Banner, new words to drinking song.
  • 1815: 3,000 post offices in U.S.
  • 1815: Pigeons carry news of Waterloo; bankers make killing on stock market.
  • 1815: John Vanderlyn’s painting of a nude is condemned in New York City.
  • 1816: Post Office carries newspapers for less than 2 cents postage.
  • 1816: Book by John Hoyland, English Quaker, calls for decent treatment of Gypsies.
  • 1816: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce captures a negative image on paper, but it darkens.
  • 1816: Coleridge’s Kublai Khan, written in 1797, is published.
  • 1816: Gioacchino Rossini’s Barber of Seville.
  • 1816: Schubert writes his Fifth Symphony.
  • 1816: From Vienna to London: the waltz. Times calls it indecent touching of arms.
  • 1817: Harper & Row publishing house is founded.
  • 1817: David Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy considers economics a science.
  • 1816: American Bible Society founded; wants to put Bible in every American home.
  • 1818: In France, the first dictionary on The Language of Flowers.
  • 1818: Stamped letter paper is sold in Sardinia.
  • 1818: In England, Thomas Bowdler’s Family Shakespeare has rude words expurgated.
  • 1818: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writes Frankenstein.
  • 1818: Jane Austen’s novels Persuasion, Northanger Abbey published posthumously.
  • 1818: Lord Byron’s Don Juan is published.
  • 1818: Schubert’s Sixth Symphony.
  • 1818: Scott’s novels Rob Roy, Heart of Midlothian.
  • 1818: Arthur Schopenhauer writes pessimistic The World as Will and Representation.
  • 1818: In Sweden, Berzelius isolates selenium; its electric conductivity reacts to light.
  • 1819: John Herschel publishes work on photographic chemical processes.
  • 1819: Napier builds a rotary printing press.
  • 1819: Hans Oersted’s electromagnetism discovery; will be essential to communication.
  • 1819: Charles LaTour’s noisemaker adds to world history of warning signals.
  • 1819: In France, freedom of the press.