To celebrate the birth of a son to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, we thought it would interesting to see how the newspapers reported the birth of Queen Victoria’s first child. So included below is a fascinating newspaper report on the birth of Victoria, Princess Royal, on 21 November 1840. We especially enjoyed reading about the royal nursery, royal baby clothes and the royal cradle. We were also struck by the use of the word ‘accouchement’ in the newspaper …

On 23 July 1858, the UK parliament passed the Jews Relief Act 1858, thus finally allowing Jews to enter Westminster as MPs. The newspaper reports from 1858 about the ‘Jew Bill’ and the amended Oath of Allegiance make for fascinating reading, with many MPs vehemently against the passing of the legislation – some of the speeches are very heated and emotional. To give you a sense of the charged atmosphere, here are three newspaper reports that were published the day after the …

John Herbert Dillinger, ‘Public Enemy Number One’, was shot dead by police outside a Chicago cinema on 22 July 1934, after he had just been watching a film about gangsters – he was aged 31. To mark the day, here is a detailed newspaper story that reports on the death of Dillinger, and also gives a summary of his career as the USA’s most ‘wanted’ man. Nottingham Evening Post – Monday 23 July 1934 Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image …

We published a blog post this morning about some of the terrific photos of people enjoying hot weather that can be viewed in The Archive. In the same post, we also set up a FREE newspaper page that shows two of the joyful heatwave photos that we’ve been finding in the old newspapers. As talking about the weather is a (or perhaps ‘the’!) specialist subject of the people who live in the UK, we decided to ask our historical newspaper …

In London on 21 July 1897, the Prince of Wales opened the Tate Gallery. It was the sugar magnate, Sir Henry Tate, who paid for the new gallery to be built, with an agreement that the UK government would pay for the other costs. Henry Tate also agreed to donate his own private collection of artwork to the new gallery. To mark this major milestone in the cultural life of London and the UK, here are some newspaper articles (with illustrations) …

At Euston-Grove on 20 July 1837, the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway (LBR) was officially opened, with a special excursion train party comprising the directors of the LBR railway and their guests. Sadly, however, the opening did not go entirely according to plan, and on the return jouney to Euston the train came to a very abrupt halt. Here’s a newspaper report that was published just two days after Euston Station opened, that decribes the accident that marred …

With the UK currently basking in glorious sunshine, we’ve been searching The Archive to find photographs and stories that show how our ancestors celebrated the arrival of hot weather. We’ve found some terrific images and reports which prove that, when it comes to carousing in the sun, nothing much has changed in the UK over the past 100 years. One thing that struck us about many of these photos was how heatwaves in the UK bring out the kid in …