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The month of July

With summer well underway and a new month dawning, we take a look at the month of July with the help of The British Newspaper Archive. What events and holidays of significance took place in July? How have our newspapers covered such happenings? Join us as we explore the history and newspaper coverage of Canada Day, the Battle of the Somme, and Independence Day. Canada Day The national holiday celebrates the anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution Act, which

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Using newspapers to research WW1 shell shock

Suzie Grogan used The British Newspaper Archive extensively while researching her book, Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War’s legacy for Britain’s mental health. She got in touch to show us the heart-breaking story she found about her own ancestors and some of the terrible accounts about life during World War One.   **************   My book is the product of two years of intensive research into the trauma of the Great War and its aftermath. But it was a chance

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10 million newspaper pages are now fully searchable

Just a month after hitting the 9.5 million page milestone, we’re very pleased to announce that there are now 10 million historic newspaper pages available at The British Newspaper Archive. The website launched with 4 million pages in November 2011, which means there’s now 150% more to explore. If you’ve not searched the collection for a while, it’s definitely time to try again.   Search the newspapers –>   More to search and a great-value subscription It’s not just our

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The story of the 1914 Christmas Truce, as reported by WW1 newspapers

After watching Sainsbury’s Christmas advert, Kate Cole was inspired to research the real story behind WW1’s Christmas Truce. She used The British Newspaper Archive to unearth the experiences of soldiers on the Western Front in 1914.   **************   In December 1914, during first year of World War One, a remarkable event known as the Christmas Day Truce occurred in small pockets along the Western Front. 100 years later, one of Britain’s largest grocery shops has released a Christmas advert re-enacting

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Join us for a week of prize giveaways, starting on Saturday 27 December

We’ll be giving away some fantastic prizes and celebrating the different types of research our newspapers can help with next week. Simply check The British Newspaper Archive’s Facebook page at 12pm (GMT) every day from Saturday 27 December – Friday 2 January to take part.   Visit The British Newspaper Archive’s Facebook page   Win some great prizes with The British Newspaper Archive There are lots of exciting gifts on offer, whether you’re interested in genealogy, local history, studying World

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1914’s must-have Christmas gift: the ‘British-made’ toy soldier

Today’s most-popular Christmas toys include Frozen dolls and tech gadgets, but it was a very different story 100 years ago. Newspapers from the time reveal there was a clear trend for ‘British-made’ military toys in the year that Britain joined World War One.   Daily Mirror – Friday 04 December 1914 Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. View the whole newspaper page The ‘Great Miniature Battle’ of 1914, with trenches and barbed wire An

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WW1 recipes found in copies of old newspapers

You can search more than 390,000 newspaper pages from 1914-1918 at The British Newspaper Archive, with more being added all the time. Juliet Greenwood got in touch to explain how she used the collection to research World War One recipes for her novel, We That Are Left.   **************   When I first began writing a novel set during the First World War, I knew I wanted to focus on the experience of women and civilians. For Elin, the heroine

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11 unusual tales of terror from historical newspapers

What the giant monster might have looked like in 1877

The British Newspaper Archive is full of grisly stories about the unusual and the unexplained. We’ve selected some of the oddest tales, including a description of a monster with the head of a sea lion and a rumour that Germany was turning dead soldiers into explosives during the First World War. Let us know if you’ve found a story to rival these. You can comment below or post on our Facebook page. 1) 1877: A bizarre 70-foot beast A very strange creature

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Top tip: Searching newspapers from a particular date, such as World War One

This step-by-step guide will show you how to search newspapers from a specific date range (such as World War One) at The British Newspaper Archive. Watch this short video tutorial or follow the steps below:   Search the newspapers   How to search newspapers from World War One The easiest way to limit your search to a particular date range is to use the advanced search. You can get to this by clicking the ‘advanced search’ button on the homepage.

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The Manchester Courier takes a different view of World War One

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, like other British newspapers, reported that Britain joined the First World War on 4 August 1914. The Courier makes for especially fascinating reading because it reported the news in a very different way.   Manchester Courier: ‘Keep your country out of a wicked and stupid war’ Many newspapers included an advert encouraging unmarried men between 18 and 30 years old to join the Army on 5 August 1914. This example is taken from another

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