Nowadays, we tend to think of Halloween as a thoroughly modern phenomenon, an American Hallmark holiday. But using newspapers from the Victorian era, accessed through The Archive, we will discover in this blog how Halloween is a thoroughly ancient phenomenon. We will look at the ancient origins of the October festival, and explore its traditions, some of which have lasted through to this day, like bobbing for apples, and others that have fallen by the wayside, for example the day’s …
Blog Posts
We are taking a deep dive into the work of Una Marson. Marson was one of Jamaica’s most influential poets, broadcasters, and activists. She was a feminist pioneer and the first Black woman employed by the BBC. She was also the first Black woman to have her play performed in the West End and the first Black woman to attend the League of Nations. One blog post cannot do justice to her incredible career, but we hope to use The …
Tags
Over the past seven days at The Archive we have added 117,702 brand new pages, with eleven brand new newspaper titles joining us over this period alone. We have added three new local titles (from Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire and Kent respectively), with eight of our new titles this week coming from the British Library’s Heritage Made Digital programme. So read on to discover more about all of our new newspapers of the week (which include amongst them four Victorian illustrated papers), as well as to find …
Tags
…the credence in the phenomena of Spiritualism is very general. In fact, it is popular. Belief is common. It is widespread. It exists amongst all sorts of people, from the highest to the lowest. You find it in Mayfair and you find it in the remotest village. from ‘The Popularity of Spiritualism,’ The Globe, 29 December 1919 By the end of 1919, belief in Spiritualism was ‘spreading like wildfire.’ Spiritualism is defined as a relatively modern religion that is based on …
Tags
This week at The Archive we have been busy adding 178,016 brand new pages for you to explore, with the addition of eight brand new titles this week, which cover a range of specialities, from sport to religion, from illustrated news to military information, whilst also covering the counties of Kent, Surrey and Middlesex. We’ve also updated a wide range of our existing titles, with eighteen titles on The Archive gaining new pages this week. So read on to discover more about all our new and …
Tags
With spooky season now upon us, we thought we’d scour the pages of The Archive to find some of the most spine-chilling ghost stories ever published in our newspapers. So settle in and prepare to be scared by tales of ghostly armies, inexplicable apparitions and portents from the afterlife, all of which have been featured in the pages of the newspapers to be found on The Archive. Want to learn more? Register now and explore The Archive 1. An Army …
Tags
This week at The Archive we have added another 51,790 brand new pages to our collection, with one very special new title joining us this week, which helps us to unlock Black British history and beyond. Meanwhile, we have made extensive updates to six of our existing titles. So read on to discover more about our brand new title of the week, The Keys, our updated titles of the week, and to find out about a very special cricket match which took place in …
Tags
Quarterly journal The Keys was first published in July 1933, with Jamaican-born Doctor Harold Moody as its editor. ‘The Official Organ of the League of Coloured Peoples,’ it aimed to address ‘the racial misunderstanding’ that was prevalent in society, both in Britain and beyond. Arriving onto the turbulent political scene of the 1930s, with issues of race coming more and more to the fore with the rise of Nazi Germany, The Keys set out to impart an understanding between races, …
Tags
On Tuesday, October 24, 1933, between 8 o’clock and 8.10 p.m., Mrs. Violet Kray, wife of Charles Kray, dealer, gave birth to twin boys in their little two-up two-down house in Stean-street, Hoxton…These boys were later to create an empire formed by fear, extortion, protection, torture and finally, murder. This March 1969 Daily Mirror article of course refers to the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, the most notorious British criminals of the 1960s. Feted by celebrities, chased by authorities, the Kray twins were …
Tags
This week at The Archive we are celebrating reaching another incredible milestone – we now have over 45 million pages available to search, with 134,854 new pages being added in the last week alone. If this wasn’t enough, we have also added eight brand new titles this week, spanning London, Liverpool, Nottinghamshire, Kent and Cornwall, whilst we have also updated 15 of our existing titles. So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles of the week, as well as to discover more about a …