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'Queering the narrative' in the archival records at Bethlem Museum of the Mind Looking at the possibilities and perils of investigating same-sex attraction in the historic records of psychiatry.
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'That which never can be suppressed': LGBTQ+ history in the Royal College of Physicians collections In this lively virtual talk rare books librarian Katie Birkwood and assistant archivist Felix Lancashire explore some fascinating and potentially challenging collections at the Royal College of Physicians highlighting the long, rich and inspiring history of LGBTQ+ lives.
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'You called and we came': Windrush and the NHS This exhibition explores the contributions that the Windrush generation to NHS, as well as the racial inequality they faced
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"I am the farm worker going home at evening": gender fluidity, rural landscapes, and the Women's Land Army A common fictional narrative shows people with nonconforming identities finding self-acceptance in towns and cities. For LGBTQ+ History Month, library graduate trainee Lottie Wood explores how author E. M. Barraud found the opposite, through rural work and the Women’s Land Army.
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125 years of The King's Fund: a timeline This timeline documents the history of the King's Fund since it was established in 1897
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19th century Post Office workers records go live on the Addressing Health website This page introduces the Addressing Health Data Mapper project which offers unique insights into the health and working lives of workers in the 19th and 20th centuries
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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.
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80 years on: the V weapon attacks on Britain This blog will look at how V1 and V2 rockets were used against British soil eighty years ago and their impact on local communities and ordinary people’s lives.
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A brief history of national postal strikes This blog post explores the history of the UK's most impactful postal strikes
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A Brief History of The Archive of Market and Social Research In this video from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Mr Navnit Shah, Professor Averil Olive Mansfield, and Ruth Lester, OBE, briefly speak about their experiences working in surgery as a part of RCS England’s wider oral project on surgeons.
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A response to a New World: A brief history of the Imperial War Museum Library Slideshow giving a brief history of the Imperial War Museum Library. (Click the speaker icon on each slide to listen to the presentation).
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A warm welcome to RHS libraries: explore rare gardening books, archives, and more The RHS libraries are an invaluable resource for gardeners, offering a collection of rare gardening books, practical guides, and resources that showcase over 500 years of horticultural history.
In this video, we take you through the unique features of the RHS libraries, each with its own focus: from rare books and historical archives to gardening techniques and the science behind plants.
Discover the exclusive benefits available to RHS members, including borrowing privileges, access to e-books and audiobooks, and opportunities to join engaging library events and tours.
Learn how to navigate the RHS online library catalogue and explore beautifully digitised images from the comfort of your home.
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Absolute Units: 'Origin Story (with Adam Kozary)' [the story of the 'absolute unit' meme] In April 2018, we shared a photo of a very large sheep on Twitter with the caption 'look at this absolute unit'. Before we knew it, this sheep had changed our museum's fortunes forever.
For our first-ever episode of Absolute Units, we're joined by – former MERL social media manager from 2012 to 2019 and father of the Absolute Unit post–to revisit the story behind our most viral moment.
What did it take for a museum to go viral on the Internet? What was its role in our history? And what did it mean for our future?
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum.
Themetune by Tai Dawson.
Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan
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Absolute Units: 'Queer Rural Lives: Searching the Archives' with Tim Jerrome Queer histories of England have predominantly focused on the country's urban centres and cities - especially London. Yet queer and same-sex relationships have always existed throughout English life. Rural England is no exception.
In the first of two podcasts, Joe and Ollie welcome onto Absolute Units former MERL colleague Tim Jerrome (University of Brighton), whose PhD explores the history of same-sex relationships in rural England.
Learn about the challenges of finding queer histories in farm archives, the issues of archivist objectivity, and how museums can develop their practices to better surface and represent stories and relationships that were hidden in the past.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum.
Themetune by Tai Dawson.
Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan
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Aga Khan Library The Aga Khan Library supports research and teaching at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Aga Khan University - Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisation. Our collections support scholarly work on Islamic Studies, with particular emphasis on Ismaili, Shi‘i, and Qur’anic Studies. It also includes works on Muslim civilisations past and present, Muslim diaspora communities worldwide, and related fields, including history, religion, philosophy, literature—with a substantial range of fiction, drama, and poetry in both original languages and translations—and art. The holdings feature books in English, Arabic, French, Persian, Turkish, Russian, Gujarati, and many other languages. The Library’s collection includes more than 54,000 print books and over 1,000 rare books such as manuscripts, first editions, and out-of-print titles, some of which are fully digitised and available through the Aga Khan Library Digital Collections.
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AGRA Video Discover more about AGRA. Who has are we and what we do.
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AIDS Social History This research group documented the history of the disease as it happened and aimed to capture the response of policy makers and charity organisations to the virus.
The papers consist of reports and analysis of strategies and policies covering actions of European countries as well as the UK
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All work and all play: unconventional sciences at the Warburg Library This blog post was written by Kella Lawrinson and Simone Monti, Graduate Library Trainees at the Warburg Institute as part of a series of posts on the theme of ‘Human Discovery: Experiencing Science’ for History Day 2022.
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An Englishman in New York An online exhibition charting the life of the diplomat, turned artist and writer Valentine Lawford. Recent additions to Lawford’s papers cast new light on Lawford’s creative collaboration with his partner Horst P. Horst and the life they made together as a gay couple in the mid-twentieth century.
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An ordinary life': The King's Fund's work on services for disabled people This exhibition explores how the King's Fund has worked with, and for, disabled people over the years
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Antinous in the collection of the Institute of Classical Studies Library The blog discusses the books that have been published on Antinous, the lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian
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Archive of Market and Social Research (AMSR) The Archive of Market and Social Research is both the history of market and social research, and the UK’s history through market and social research.
The AMSR is a living, FREE-TO-USE searchable digitised archive. Drawn from the output of respected market research and social research practitioners over many decades, it forms an inspiring source of insight for those seeking to explore the dynamics of change – in the past, the present and crucially, for the future. Nearly 100 years of historical library of public behaviours and attitudes.
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Archives Hub The Archives Hub brings together descriptions of thousands of the UK’s archive collections. Representing over 390 institutions across the country, the Archives Hub is an effective way to discover unique and often little-known sources to support your research. New descriptions are added every week, often representing collections being made available for the first time.
The Hub represents a huge diversity of content, from the archives of industries, institutions and researchers to the letters and manuscripts of writers and poets.
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Archives of IT AIT is a charity founded by Information Technologist and Businessman, Roger Graham OBE in 2015 to capture, preserve and share the voices of people from the UK IT and Telecommunications industry. Its principal aim is to prevent this lived experience of the development of IT from being lost, and to share it with current and future generations.
In 2024 we conducted our 250th interview, giving AIT an unrivalled database of personal insights from those involved, mostly British citizens, in the IT industry.
While doing this we demonstrate how IT, telecommunications and engineering has and continues to change the way we live and work. We also encourage the study of the industry’s history generally and through university placements and also provide educational resources for schools that inspire young people to consider a career in IT.
Contact: Adrian Murphy, PR and Communications Manager: PR@archivesit.org.uk