The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, John Ernst Steinbeck, was born in Salinas, California, on 27 February 1902. While there are scores of stories about Steinbeck in the BNA, we thought that, to mark the day, we’d highlight some of the terrific film posters/adverts that can be found in the Archive – so included below are two adverts for the classic movie, ‘Of Mice and Men’. We plan to publish more film adverts in the future, including a terrific image (we’re thinking …

We’re slowly recovering from attending WDYTYA? Live. A big thank you to everyone who dropped in on the BNA stand during the show – it was great to hear your stories and to help you with your ancestral and/or historical research. As we’ve had a fair few folk asking about the BNA wallpaper, we thought we’d post some images from the show on the blog. Amy and Grant.            

We do love the quirky stories that the Archive contains. Indeed, on almost every Archive page that we look at, our attention will be diverted as we spot a story with a quirky headline. The Scanning Team at Colindale Library are world-leading experts in spotting quirky stories, and it was the ‘Scanners’ who passed on this wonderful “shaggy monkey’s tale” to us, so we could post it on the blog. It seems that the mass break-out took place from a …

Historical newspaper report on the bread riots in Liverpool in February 1855 On 19 February 1855, bread riots took place in Liverpool. As can be seen from this newspaper report, the riots appear to have occurred as a result of unemployment among the corn porters and dock labourers in the city, whose usual work and wages had been affected by the frost. That said, bread riots took place in other UK cities during the 18th and 19th centuries – just …

Historical newspaper reports about Robert Oppenheimer’s work on the atomic bomb Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, died at Princeton, New Jersey, on 18 February 1967, aged 62. So to mark the day and to remember his massive achievements, we thought we’d post these two newspaper stories (published the day after ‘Little Boy’ had been dropped on Hiroshima) about Oppenheimer. Gloucestershire Echo – Tuesday 07 August 1945 Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE …

We’re very much looking forward to attending the Who Do You Think You Are? Live’ show, which takes place at Olympia, London, from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 February 2013. Inspired by the muse of ‘newspaper taxis’, we’re planning to have a wallpaper made out of newspapers at this year’s show. We’ve seen the drafts of this wallpaper collage and, well, tis a thing of rare beauty – we can’t wait to see the full size version of it! And …

To continue our celebrations of St Valentine’s Day, we’ve posted some newspaper images (taken from one of our favourite newspapers in the Archive, ‘The Graphic’) of that winged messenger of love, Cupid. The Graphic – Saturday 11 January 1873 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000057/18730111/012/0010   The Graphic – Saturday 15 December 1894 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000057/18941215/004/0005   The Graphic – Saturday 05 November 1881 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY …

‘A St Valentine’s Day Elopement’, ‘The Revival of the Valentine’ and ‘Stealing Valentines’ To celebrate St Valentine’s Day, here are three Valentine stories from the Archive about Cupid’s busiest day of the year. Western Daily Press – Wednesday 29 February 1860 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/18600229/037/0004   Edinburgh Evening News – Friday 12 February 1897 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000452/18970212/085/0003   Belfast News-Letter – Tuesday 12 February 1850 Image © …