You said you weren't originally interested in the Victorian era.
How did you go about it? Were you more interested in the facts and the reality of the period or in how they saw themselfs i.e., a literary approach?
I am more prone to read the fiction of that era and approach it that way. But rely on historical pieces to capture what they didn't think to include.
Second question, which I suspect I know the answer to, is there any likelihood they will attend the Paris World Fair, Exposition Universelle (1900).