History Day

Items

• 75 Years of Human-Computer Interaction and its Impact on Society
  Our report From Punch Cards to Brain Computer Interfaces: 75 Years of Human-Computer Interaction describes how HCI evolved from the early years of computing in the 1950s, when the subject was dominated by a small number of mainframes, to today’s world where we talk about Graphical User Interfaces and interactive displays used by billions of people.
• Auction Catalogues in the Paul Mellon Centre Library
  The library holds approximately 15,000 auction catalogues, mainly dating from the late nineteenth century onwards, but with some eighteenth and early nineteenth century sales.
• Brian Sewell : an introduction to the archive
  Brian Sewell (1931-2015) was an art historian, art critic, author and media personality. He lead a remarkable life: born in 1931 to a single mother, he studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art and found fame both as Anthony Blunt’s unofficial spokesman following Blunt’s exposure as a Soviet spy and later in his role as daily arts correspondent for the Evening Standard. All his life he felt like an ‘outsider’ – this becoming the title of his published autobiographies – a reference to various aspects of his character and also his sexuality (he described himself as gay). This Sewell Archive, documents almost every part of his life and this display provides an introduction to the collection.
• Damaged & Destroyed : Three Stories of Preservation and Loss from the PMC’s Photographic Archive
  In 2021, the Paul Mellon Centre (PMC) published its photographic archive online. The archive comprises more than 100,000 reproductions of paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures. The photographs, which were taken over a forty-year period between the early 1960s to the late 1990s, offer images of objects from across six centuries, and focus in particular on sixteenth- to nineteenth-century British art. This feature focuses on a selection of the damaged and destroyed works that are recorded in the Centre’s photographic archive, and uses them to suggest some of the values and limitations of such archives. It takes the form of three stories. The first offers a glimpse into the work and tragic life of the largely forgotten eighteenth-century artist Hugh Robinson; the second looks at four portraits of women associated with a titled Scottish family, the Rothes, which were totally destroyed during a high-profile warehouse fire in 1997; and the third looks at a damaged sketchbook by the nomadic Georgian artist George Chinnery.
• Darwin's letters in Kew Gardens' Archives
  Our Senior Archivist takes a closer look at Charles Darwin's letters in our Archives. They were recently added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register.
• Discover the groundbreaking multi media exhibition: Our Legacy, Our Home: Club Kali at 30
  In this virtual exhibition we invite you to discover extracts from the materials collected as part of Club Kali’s ‘Where East Meets West’ heritage project: audio and video testimonials, photographic records, archival documents and ephemera, as well as community responses. These materials showcase personal journeys and historical milestones of Club Kali’s 30 years. The original materials are deposited at Bishopsgate Institute, London, and Islington Heritage as a historical and contemporary resource preserving this rich history for future generations. The physical Exhibition was launched in August 2025 at Islington Museum, London, UK.
• Eight thought leaders give their views on where AI is taking us
  Against a backdrop of growing concern (and excitement) our industry theme for May 2023, is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and we have been exploring our archives to find out what interviewees have had to say about the technology from their careers and experience from 1960s to the present day.
• Exploring the Gavin Stamp Archive
  Gavin Stamp (1948–2017) was a British architectural historian, writer and campaigner. His archive, which is held by the Centre, illustrates a prolific career and wide-ranging interests. It includes material related to the Scott family architectural dynasty; inter-war period architecture; telephone boxes; war memorials; power stations; Victorian churches; ecclesiastical design; and colonial architecture.
• From bricks to bendables: 40 years of Mobile Phones
  It’s been 40 years since the first mobile phones went on sale in the UK and the first networks to support them were built, and in the words of Ben Wood, founder of the Mobile Phone Museum and Chief Analyst at CCS Insight: “No other invention in recent memory has shaped how we live more fundamentally than the mobile phone.”
• From woodcut to photograph: techniques of book illustration:
  This exhibition explores the history of the development of illustrative techniques from woodcuts through to photographs.
• Full steam ahead! Celebrating Railway 200 across the Archives
  To celebrate Rail 200, Archives Hub explores a fascinating range of archives relating to railways, train travel and more – all board!
• History in the Making – Beilby Porteus and the Abolition of Slavery
  This blog post was written by Dr Karen Attar, Curator of Rare Books and University Art at Senate House Library, University of London.
• HIVstory Project
  The NHST's HIVstory is an innovative three year outreach programme that travels around the UK informing a diverse selection of community groups about the history of the AIDS pandemic through an exciting programme of events, including: Exhibitions Presentations Heritage Training Opportunities Volunteering Film Screenings Inspiring Arts based projects
• New Books in the IHR Library: Queer History
  This blog post was written by Lara Short, Graduate Trainee Library Assistant at the Institute of Historical Research, in March 2025, in connection with LGBTQ+ History Month.
• Peace and Internationalism
  This page highlights LSE Library's collections on peace and internationalism
• Special Collections at the Institute of Ismaili Studies
  This post is from the Ismaili Special Collections Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) for History Day 2024. In celebration of History Day, we explore blogs, podcasts and videos, most of which were created by ISCU (Ismaili Special Collections Unit) team members in 2024.
• Special Collections at the Institute of Ismaili Studies
  In celebration of History Day, we explore photo-galleries, upcoming conferences, podcasts, articles and exhibitions which were created by ISCU (Ismaili Special Collections Unit) team members in 2025.
• Stories of the Internet from the pioneers who made it happen
  Looking through our archive we can map many of the internet’s significant developments from initial ideas to tests as well as its commercialisation, initial uses and benefits and risks to society. Pioneers Vint Cerf, Peter Kirstein and Jim Norton have all been recorded by AIT about their work on packet switching and the emergence of the internet and A Michael Noll on its commercialisation. We also have interviews with internet entrepreneur Eva Pascoe, who encapsulates the pioneering spirit of the first internet teachers and users and with Professor Bill Dutton, who was the founding director of the Oxford Internet Institute, a research centre focusing on the societal opportunities and challenges posed by the internet.
• Storytelling from the Kate Adie Collection - University of Sunderland
  The Kate Adie Collection has now been catalogued as a result of funding from Archives Revealed. This has allowed us to discover, uncover and tell the story of Kate's career in journalism, witnessing and reporting from some of the key global events of the second half of the twentieth century. The stories Kate uncovered and which her archive tells are already inspiring research, community projects and interest in archives and recent history.
• The great leveller: humanity’s struggle against infectious disease:
  This exhibition outlines the efforts of various medical practitioners to eradicate a selection of infectious diseases, reflecting the leading role which King’s has long played in medical research and, more recently, in the history of medicine and science.
• The history of the Wardian case in Kew Gardens' collections
  This video features our Assistant Archivist and our Economic Botany Collections Manager discussing the history of the Wardian case and its role in plant transportation.
• The printed page
  This exhibition explores the development of the printing press and printing techniques.
• The Radical Rhetoric of the Common Wealth Party in Political Literature, 1942-1945
  Hello, I’m John Concagh, the current MA Intern at the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Over the last few months, I’ve been working on the Archival Collection of Tom Wintringham, the radical writer, activist, politician, and Spanish Civil War Veteran. Within the collection are papers covering Common Wealth, a radical political movement he formed a key part of.
• Their Finest Hour Interactive Map
  Their Finest Hour's newly launched interactive map allows you to follow 100 personal journeys through the Second World War, across Britain and the globe. From military service and internment to evacuation and everyday life on the home front, each journey reveals a unique perspective on life during the Second World War. Use the keyword filters to tailor your exploration, and adjust the date slider to focus on specific moments in time. View photographs, letters, and personal objects linked to each story, trace individuals' journeys across the globe, and explore wartime geography using historic overlays and Second World War-era map boundaries. Each point on the map opens a story panel where you can explore a personal account in more detail and access a direct link to the full contribution in the Their Finest Hour Online Archive, which holds over 2,000 stories and 25,000 digitised items shared by members of the public between 2022 and 2024.
• View Everyday Technology Firsts (#TechFirsts) from the collections
  Share your memories, pictures and stories of how new technology has transformed people’s lives on this Padlet or on Twitter, using hashtag #TechFirsts.