Illustrated London News On 14 May 1842, 175 years ago today, the Illustrated London News, the world’s first illustrated newspaper, debuted. Founded by Herbert Ingram of Lincolnshire, the paper was a pioneer in pictorial journalism. The British Newspaper Archive is proud to hold more than 7,000 issues of the Illustrated London News across its 161-year run for you to explore. Register today and explore the Illustrated London News. From its inaugural edition, the editors were confident in their …
The weather is starting to warm up, and the last thing most of us want to do is stand in a hot kitchen cooking. This month we are taking a look at fresh, crisp salads. After starting this exploration, I realised how little I knew about the fine art of salad creation and presentation. Surprisingly, there were many full articles dedicated to salads as opposed to our other themes: cakes and biscuits. Salad creation should be taken seriously; the newspapers …
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In last week’s inaugural post for Cookery Corner, we looked at delicious cake recipes and found some that made our mouth water. This month, we have toned it down a little and are taking a look at biscuits – our favourite cup of tea companion. To begin our search, we identified a number of classic biscuits we wanted to find: ginger nut, shortbread, and digestive. Along the way, a few other types popped up. Ginger Nut Initially, a search for …
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This week for Easter, we took a look through our newspapers to find Easter traditions across the globe. The papers in the British Newspaper Archive report events from around the world as well as explore international customs and traditions. We found traditions in Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, France, and England. Easter Customs In 1933, The Sphere did a feature on Easter customs in many lands. In one image, you can see fishermen from Galilee, in present-day northern Israel. The caption tells us …
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We were thrilled with the number of people who visited our stand at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Birmingham between 6 April and 8 April. Many wanted to get to know more about the website. We also spoke to long-term users who did not know about some of the new features or wanted to know if we had any search tips. Here are the top 5 search tips we discussed with our visitors: 1. Search outside your …
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Thousands arrived at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2017 between Thursday 6 April and Saturday 8 April. Today, we are reviewing a few of the family history stories revealed during the show and we will share 5 of the top search tips discussed during the event. The event welcomed family historians and genealogists from across the country to come together to discuss their research and to find out more about the …
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This week thousands have assembled at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Birmingham to demolish those brick walls, learn new tricks of genealogy, and hear about the latest news of family history. Most of us have searched the newspapers for obituaries, but much more can be revealed about our ancestor’s lives than the memorials at their death. Today, we will take a look at the divorce courts, bankruptcy notices, illegitimacy cases, and committee minutes. The mid- to late …
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This month we are introducing a new blog theme: Cookery Corner. Whether you want sweet or savoury; an easy 30-minute meal or an extravagant four-course dinner, the British Newspaper Archive holds all your culinary desires. Each month we will dip into through the thousands of recipes found in the British and Irish newspapers while focusing on a specific topic. Sweet Cakes We thought the best way to start, of course, is with cakes! This month, we discovered numerous recipes for …
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We have reached a major new milestone in our project to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library’s vast collection of historic British & Irish newspapers. Following the addition of a newspaper from the country’s smallest county, Rutland, the Archive now covers every corner of England as, for the first time, at least one title from each of the country’s 48 counties is now available to search and explore. We have added 3,968 pages from the Rutland …
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On 15 March 1917, amid the chaos and fury of the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II, Emperor of all Russia, abdicated from the throne and ended 300 years of Romanov rule. Russians of all classes were on the streets of Petrograd (formerly known as St Petersburg), and Nicholas’ own military had joined the ranks of protestors. How did this monarch fall and a dynasty end? On the anniversary of Tsar Nicholas’ abdication, we will take a look through …