occupation history | The British Newspaper Archive Blog

Blog

Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week at The Archive we’re delving into occupation history with the addition of two special employment related titles, the Licensed Victuallers’ Guardian and the Situation and London Advertiser. We’ve also added three brand new Scottish titles to our collection over the past seven days, alongside new publications from Cheshire and Northamptonshire. So read on to learn how aging licensed victuallers were chosen to be admitted to the Licensed Victuallers’ Asylum at the Old Kent Road, a building which consisted

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ten Inspiring Women From History Who You May Not Have Heard Of – But Should Know About

This March at The Archive we are celebrating inspiring women from history, who broke boundaries across different fields, whether they be medical, sporting, political and much more besides. We will be highlighting those inspiring women who broke the mould, and we will be showcasing the achievements of some lesser known women along the way, who deserve recognition for their trailblazing lives and careers. And in this special blog, we will be looking at ten inspiring women from history who you

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

This week you might just be able to witness steam coming off our presses, as we have added an impressive 343,381 brand new pages to The Archive, with 22 brand new titles joining us this week alone. Comprising of special interest titles devoted to music and the cinema, as well as to different spheres of employment, from postal work to pawnbroking, our new titles this week are an eclectic mix, comprising also the regional and the international, covering the latest from both China and

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Exploring The Daily Lives of Servants Using Our Newspapers

Just after the turn of the nineteenth century in 1901 1.5 million people across the United Kingdom worked as domestic servants. That’s 4% of the population engaged in domestic service, as butlers, footmen, valets, housemaids, cooks, scullery maids and the like. And so, as part of our investigation of the history of employment this month, in this special blog we are going to take a look at what it was like for those who worked in domestic service in the

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Seven Unusual or Lost Occupations From History

With the release of the 1921 Census of England and Wales on our sister site Findmypast last week, we were delighted to discover a range of unusual occupations returned within its pages, from knocker-ups to lamplighters, from rag and bone men to rat catchers. And so, using our newspapers, we thought we’d shine a light on some of the past’s most unusual or indeed lost occupations, and try to understand what it was like to actually be a crossing sweeper,

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker – Shopping in the Eighteenth Century

On 2 April 1748 the Ipswich Journal reported on ‘the most terrible‘ fire which had broken out at a Mr. Elridge’s, a peruke maker, in Exchange Alley, London. Rumours soon spread that a boy had left a candle near some wig boxes, which had been set on fire, and then: The Flames [had] extended themselves into Cornhill, and burnt down the Houses of Mr. Walthoe, Mr. Strahan, Mr. Meadows, Mr. Brotherton, and Mr. Astley, Booksellers; Toca’s and the Rainbow Coffee-Houses, the Fleece

Continue Reading

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,