Kaoru Mori has a bit of a Victorian England obsession; she has stacks of pictures and information and references on the period, and it shows in her work. Unfortunately, most of it is easily lost on the rest of us.

To help out, Mori has also published the Emma Victorian Guide, a companion reference to the series. And for those of us not fluent in Japanese, the IIChan Translation Group does their part with "Whisper's Guide to Emma's World." It's a short feature after every episode, and two pages after every volume, explaining references.

For easy searching, I've pulled out the manga-page extras and listed the tidbits explained on each; the anime follows the first part of the manga closely, so the historical notes are the same.

See Crumpets and Corsets for more historical references.

Volume 1 notes 1
  • The Crystal Palace/Great Exhibition
  • Mudie's Library
  • Coming Out balls
  • Board school
    Volume 1 notes 2
  • The new aristocracy
  • Fox hunting
  • The mail
  • Maids (general background)
  • Lighting
    Volume 2 notes 1
  • Morning calls
  • Harrods Department Store
  • Eton College
  • Dinner party
    Volume 2 notes 2
  • Card games
  • Maids (lady's maid, parlormaid)
  • Flower girls, orange girls
  • Midland and Great Northern Railroads
  • Hansom Safety Cab
    Volume 3 notes 1
  • The Industrial Revolution
  • Incomes
  • Arthur Schopenhaur
  • Cooks
    Volume 3 notes 2
  • Dances (quadrille, polka, waltz)
  • Banbury Cross
  • Servants' dress
  • New money vs. old money
  • Japonaiserie art
    Volume 4 notes 1
  • The Derby
  • Gretna Green (elopements thereto)
  • The Barber of Seville
    Volume 4 notes 2
  • Debrett's and Burke's (directories)
  • Rotten Row
  • Big Ben
  • Corsets
    Volume 5 notes 1
  • First names
  • Chaperones
  • London's atmosphere
  • "Mrs. Trollope"
    Volume 5 notes 2
  • Hair decorations
  • Hats
  • The guinea
  • Operas