This is another of the many great resources I have found as an author. I write a lot of historical fiction, including Steampunk. The “Age of Steam” is considered to be around 1830 to 1900, and closely associated with the Victorian Era as a result. However, lots of stuff happened in the United States at that time, as well as other countries. In America, we had westward expansion, the Civil War, the trans-continental railroad, the invention of metal, steam-powered navies, and massive industrialization. My book, The Travelers’ Club – Fire and Ash, crosses America in 1880 and I did months of research to get all of the historical information correct. A bit added here and there really adds flavor to a story. For western “slang” appropriate to the time period, I found this site:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poindexterfamily/OldWestSlang.html
WESTERN SLANG & PHRASES
A Writer’s Guide to the Old West
1860’s ~ 1880’s
Being a small compilation drawn from period newspapers, books, and memoirs
Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show Players
The thing I like most about sites like this, is that they are well researched. This one takes words and phrases from actual newspaper, books and memoirs written by westerners from the 1860s through the 1880s. You can only throw a bit of jargon at readers or they get confused, but a smattering here and there lends a great deal of authentic feel to the story. Michael Stackpole told me he likes to read journals of people during the time of his books, so he can find those rare gems of information lost to regular historical accounts. It was great advice.
At the bottom of the site are all sorts of other useful links as well!
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 