History Day

Items

• The Gathering Storm: Insights from the Lord Ironside Papers
  2024 thus marks the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives 60th anniversary. In those intervening years we have gathered the personal papers of over 800 senior defence personnel, and we thought this birthday year was a great opportunity to showcase just some of the items from the collection. This blog spotlights the Lord Ironside Papers from this collection.
• The Goldsmiths' Company
  The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Library & Archive is the UK’s largest dedicated reference library for jewellery, silversmithing and hallmarking. Open from Tuesday to Thursday in Goldsmiths’ Hall, it’s free to use and available to everyone.
• 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 Groundnut Scheme: a colonial failure
  The ill-fated Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme was planned and put into practice in the mid-twentieth century, coming to an abrupt end in 1951. The story of its collapse is a powerful example of why top-down, colonial approaches to agricultural development often struggled to produce the desired results. It raises important questions about why the voices of local agricultural workers and communities were often ignored, and how this contributed to the Scheme’s demise. This online exhibition has been devised to make sense of scattered holdings throughout The MERL collection. Together these groundnut and East Africa-related farming resources can help shed light on this infamous project and its failings. This exhibition was compiled in partnership with undergraduate History students from the University of Reading, including Charles Clemens, Rebekah Fry, Katie Crook, Jakob Longden, and others. We are also grateful for the support of Atenchong Talleh Nkobou from the School of Agriculture, Policy, and Development who provided support and expertise, and to Tim Jerrome and Dr Ollie Douglas for editorial and technical input. You can watch the 1948 film, 'The Groundnut Scheme at Kongwa' via the University of Reading's Virtual Reading Room.
• The Hall-Carpenter Archives: LGBT+ collections at LSE
  Explore our archives and other sources relating to LGBT+ history. LSE Library has been home to the Hall-Carpenter Archives since 1988. It’s an extensive collection of archives, ephemera and printed material documenting the development of gay activism in the UK since the 1950s. The Hall-Carpenter Archives at LSE continues to grow and evolve. We welcome all who wish to visit and use this unique and historically valuable resource.
• The History of IT – A Timeline
  Significant Events in the history of IT and Tech in the UK
• 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 Honourable Society of the Inner Temple - Library and Archives
  The Inner Temple Library is a legal reference library, which dates back to 1506. It supports the information and research requirements of barrister, student and judicial members of all four Inns of Court. It is not open to the general public.
• The Ismaili Special Collections Unit, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
  The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) holds a significant repository of heritage materials related to Ismaili communities and other Muslim traditions. These collections include nearly 3,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Indic and other languages, as well as coins, glass weights, medals and other historical artefacts, photographs and audio-visual materials, rare and special printed materials (including periodicals and magazines) and archival collections, among others. In 2013, the IIS established the Ismaili Special Collections Unit (ISCU) as part of its continuing endeavours to systematically preserve, develop, digitise and catalogue these collections, as well as to study and facilitate research on these materials so as to contribute to the Institute’s vision of promoting scholarship on the heritage of Ismaili communities and that of other Muslim groups.
• The King’s Fund Library Service
  The King's Fund Library service provides a unique and free source of information on health and social care policy and management. The library houses our extensive and unique collection of resources, including an archive of government publications, major journals and magazines.
• The Last Revolutionary? The Life,and Legacy of Thomas Wintringham (1898-1949)
  By John Concagh, the 2024 MA Modern History intern in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
• The Leicester Galleries and its Exhibition Catalogues
  The Leicester Galleries was a commercial art gallery that operated in central London between 1902 and 1977. It was particularly known for exhibiting British and French artists’ work and for promoting the work of leading modernist painters and sculptors. The Centre’s Library holds one-third of the gallery’s entire output of 1,400 exhibition catalogues, donated by Peter and Renate Nahum in January 2020. The collection is fully catalogued and available for research. This spotlight feature highlights some of the key artists and themes promoted by the gallery and illustrates some of the catalogues in the Library’s holdings.
• The Linnean Society of London in Burlington House
  This video explains the history of the Linnean Society, and its home, Burlington House Originally in the hands of the Cavendish family, Burlington House on London’s Piccadilly has been the location of the Linnean Society since 1856, and both the external and internal details of the building reflect the Society’s long history in the study of nature. This video gives a glimpse into how Burlington House became an integral part of the Society’s work, growth and continuing story.
• The London Archives
  The London Archives is a free public archive focussing on the history of London from 1067 to the present day. Visit us to explore millions of historical manuscripts, maps, photographs, books and films or enjoy our exhibitions, events and workshops. Whether you’re tracing your family history or researching the history of your neighbourhood, if you’re interested in London or Londoners, it is the place to visit!
• The many forms of sea sickness
  This blog explores the many diseases sailors faced at sea from the mid-16th to the mid-19th
• The Met Office and supercomputers: a timeline
  The Meteorological Office, or Met Office for short, was established in 1854 and issued its first storm warning in 1861. Today it is known as the United Kingdom’s national meteorological service and is at the forefront of critical weather services and world-leading climate science.
• The Museum of English Rural Life
  The Museum of English Rural Life tells the story of the history of the English countryside and its people. The Museum was established in 1951 to capture and record England’s rapidly changing countryside following the Second World War. The Museum’s archive collections range from papers of individual farms and large estates through the institutional archives of major countryside organisations to the trade records of agricultural firms, as well as over a million rural photographs, films relating to the countryside, tens of thousands of engineering drawings, personal records and journals of farmers, farm workers, land girls and evacuees. The Museum’s library is the most significant specialist collection of printed material in the country for the study of the history of British agriculture, the countryside and rural society. The Museum of English Rural Life is part of the University of Reading’s Museums and Collections which also include Special Collections, Art Collections, and more.
• The mysteries behind a mediaeval manuscript of “women’s ills”
  This blog explores The Sekenesse of Wymmen by Gilbertus Anglicus, a mediaeval manuscript from the 1450s.
• The National Archives
  The National Archives is a non-ministerial department, and the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. We are the guardians of over 1,000 years of iconic national documents. The records reflect the culture and heritage within Britain since the 11th century. Alongside the rich archival holdings of The National Archives there is a large, comprehensive and interesting research library that is accessible to all. It contains thousands of printed and online sources that compliment and support research into the archives.
• The Postal Museum
  The Postal Museum is an award-winning, Accredited and independent museum in London. We care for hundreds of thousands of objects and stories. Our collections tell the 500-year-old story of British postal communication and its continued impact on life around the world today.
• 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.
• The role of art and design in the Doncaster Rovers Football Museum
  DRFC will celebrate its 150th anniversary in September 2029. We are building a museum collection that chronicles that history. For many years there are gaps in the collection and we know it is likely there will always be very few 'real' physical artefacts to fill them. So we need reproductions and artworks to bring our history to life and share it with our communities. We also want our audience to get involved as artists, crafters and makers themselves. We are starting from close to zero for large chunks of our history, so almost anything which represents those periods of our timeline is valuable at this point. The process also helps spread our message online and in our mobile museum exhibitions. One day we hope to include a gallery in a permanent exhibition space alongside the museum exhibits. For now we will continue to include DRFC-related art as a ‘thing’ in our temporary exhibitions and online.
• The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
  The Royal Grammar School (RGS) Newcastle is the city’s oldest institution of learning. We are a leading co-educational independent day school, with over 1,300 students aged between seven and 18 years old (Years 3-13). We believe in inspiring young people across the region and equipping them with the tools and skills they need to achieve their aspirations. We promote excellence and are committed to increasing opportunities and raising attainment across the North East. Over the past 500 years, we have educated more than 10,000 Old Novocastrians - alumni who have gone on to shape the North East and beyond, making a lasting impact on society, culture and the economy. In 2025, we are celebrating our quincentenary and the founding legacy of RGS Newcastle. Our foundations can be traced back to the 1525 will of Thomas Horsley (1462-c.1545), corn merchant and Mayor of Newcastle. In it, he gifted his estate on his death to fund a grammar school in Newcastle. Visit the 500th website to explore our rich history through the RGS Archive as well as historical photos, items and remarkable stories.
• The Royal Historical Society
  Founded in 1868, the Royal Historical Society (RHS) is a successful learned society, membership organisation and charity with a 150 year history. Today, the RHS is the UK’s foremost society working for historians and history. In 2024 over 6,500 historians belong and contribute to the Society — as Fellows and Members active in the UK and worldwide. This makes the RHS the UK’s largest membership organisation for historians of all kinds, and from all walks of life — held in high regard by historians internationally, and a partner to many similar organisations overseas. These national and international connections are led by the historians who make up the RHS Council (Trustees), and the small central team based at University College London, which is the home of the Society. Each year, the Society supports four PhD Fellows and other recipients of its Research funding programme.