We’re pleased to confirm that we will be giving everyone free access to our digitised collections very soon, but it’s taking our amazing digital team a bit of time to make it happen. (1/2)
Remember, remember...
On the night of 4/5 November 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. He had 36 barrels of gunpowder. In the following days, he confessed to the plot and named the others involved.
#OTD
#BonfireNight
📁 : SP 14/216 Pt2
#OTD
in 1888 the match girls employed by the company Bryant & May in the east end of London went on strike.
These women were taking action based on their appalling working conditions, which were having serious health implications on them.
📷: WikiCommons
Imagine being the first person to open a letter written 250 years ago. We're partnering with The University of Oldenburg to digitise and catalogue the
#PrizePapers
- around 160,000 undelivered letters seized from captured ships in the 17th-19th centuries.
They’ve been paid out of the public purse to preen, sleep and hunt in the corridors of power.
They are the government’s cats.
On
#InternationalCatDay
read more about the cats at the heart of government:
Apparently, Bono - the lead singer of U2 - is addicted to visiting archives.
When asked why he hasn't addressed this addiction, he replied:
'But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.'
In the 1920s and 1930s queer clubs & spaces were vulnerable to police raids.
Makeup was seen as a sign of effeminacy & therefore homosexuality.
Police would use blotting paper to test for powder & rouge.
📷: CRIM 1/1041
Farrokh Bulsara fled to England from Zanzibar in 1964 as a refugee to escape the violence of the revolution for independence. He's more widely known as
#FreddieMercury
, lead singer of the band
#Queen
. This is his registration of British citizenship from 1969
#RefugeeWeek
Imagine being the first person to open a letter written 250 years ago. We're partnering with University of Oldenburg to digitise and catalogue the
#PrizePapers
- 160,000 undelivered letters seized from captured ships in the 17th-19th centuries.
#IAD18
It is the 10th October, 1903, and you are Rose Larkin, a 22-year-old factory worker from London.
You work long hours in poor conditions to survive.
You wonder if women will gain the vote? If women deserve the vote? What it might take to secure it?
They’re facing similar challenges to the rest of the world with regard to connecting to our various technical systems while working from home, and many of them are also juggling childcare duties. Stay tuned for an update soon! (2/2)
Remember, remember the 5th of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
The declaration of Guy Fawkes, 9th Nov 1605.
Look closely and you’ll see his faint signature, written after torture.
📷: SP 14/216 Pt1
How to pull the wool over someone's eyes! James Gibbs was sentenced to transportation for life in 1837 for sheep rustling. His friends sent in crime scene drawings including diagrams of the moon's rays to prove his innocence. Miraculously it worked & James received a full pardon!
To the person sitting in our reading room wearing headphones, we heard you singing along to Aretha Franklin.
We've nothing to add, but you have our
R - E - S - P - E - C - T
It's not every day that you discover a 200-year-old handknitted jumper...
Last week a vibrant Faroese-knitted jumper, fine stockings, coins and grain were found in a parcel from a cargo ship seized in 1807, part of our
@Prize_Papers
project
Learn more:
We’re pleased to confirm that we are planning to re-open our reading rooms on Tuesday 27 April. We will offer over 100 reading room places per day, five days a week, and visits will need to be booked in advance. See our news story for full details:
Today marks 200 years since the birth of nurse and social reformer
#FlorenceNightingale
In the first of a two-part blog, shining a light on her incredible life,
@Laur_Mainwaring
tells her story through records in our collection
📷: COPY 1/11/34
To mark
#TolkienReadingDay
we're excited to share some recently uncovered letters found in our own version of Middle-earth.
Hidden, as the best treasures always are, inside the pages of an archived document, one of our volunteers found these letters written by Tolkien in 1945.
#OTD
in 1952 George VI died in his sleep during the early hours of the morning whilst at Sandringham, aged 56.
He was acceded to the throne by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrates 70 years on the throne today.
#PlatinumJubilee
#HM70
📷 : HO 290/60
Imagine being the first person to open a letter written 250 years ago. We're partnering with The University of Oldenburg to digitise and catalogue the
#PrizePapers
- around 160,000 undelivered letters seized from captured ships in the 17th-19th centuries.
OK, we'll admit it, this find got us pretty excited ‼️
Imagine this scene.
It's the middle of the 1630s and you're aboard The Abraham of London, and you're following this recipe.
What are you making?
'The syrup of marchmallows [marshmallows]’.
📷: HCA 30/636/7
Anyway, the good news is that quill will be encapsulated and kept with the document forever more.
As the collection care team said: we consider it to be part of the document’s history
Anyone else let out a little squeal of excitement or do a dorky dance after making an archival discovery, only to remember you’re in public and immediately pretend like you didn’t just do that?
Are we the only ones?
ARE WE?
This document surrendered a nunnery to the crown during the dissolution of the monasteries. As part of the surrender, each nun had to sign their names. We hold hundreds of these poignant surrenders (E 322) as religious houses literally signed their lives (as they knew them) away.
To mark 100 years since some of the first women were given the vote through the Representation of the People Act , we have launched a dedicated web portal to help you explore our suffrage records and resources
#VOTE100
Wow - what a response! 🙏😅
Just to clarify, we’re referring to digitised collections that are available on our website (and usually chargeable) – at this stage, this doesn’t extend to our collections on other sites.
Some followers have suggested that we make our online digitised records free, while we’re closed to visitors and researchers. Please rest assured that we're considering it and looking at options, and hope to provide an update soon. (1/2)
Remarkably, the quill still contained ink in its tip!
And all of this led us to ask:
We wonder how long that poor scribe spent looking for his lost quill?
Every time a reader collects their documents and heads to the reading room, a member of staff whispers:
'May the source be with you. Always.'
#StarWarsDay
Today is the
#WinterSolstice
the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
We have these series of aerial photographs of Stonehenge, taken from a balloon in 1906. These are the first known aerial photographs of an archaeological site.
📷: COPY 1/500 (148) (2)
🗞️ WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS🗞️
Today we can announce that the 1921 Census for England and Wales will be published online by
@findmypast
on 6 January 2022.
Find out more in our latest news story:
📷 : RG 27 9