Friday 3-minute Fun Fact A History of the Steampunk Aesthetic Steampunk is a retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by the Victorian and Edwardian eras, blending 19th-century steam power with imaginative, futuristic technology. Its roots come from early science fiction writers like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley, who envisioned advanced machinery, exploration, and scientific wonder long before modern technology existed. The term steampunk was coined in the 1980s by author K.W. Jeter, des