In this special guest blog, David Musgrove, content director for BBC History Magazine and HistoryExtra, considers the amazing life of the now-forgotten Victorian showman, athlete, and wheelbarrow pedestrian Bob Carlisle, and how his clever manipulation of newspapers marks him out as a 19th-century influencer. Did the Victorian period have influencers? Yes, but rather than using social media and camera phones, they employed letter-writing and wheelbarrows. I’ve been researching the story of a forgotten 19th-century minor celebrity whose life was widely …
sport history
Baseball is one of the quintessentially American summer sports, but did you know that the sport of baseball has a fascinating history in Britain? From the 1870s onwards, American players visited Britain to try and raise interest in the game. It was a slow start, but by 1938 the game of baseball had taken such a hold in Britain that a British team beat an American one at the inaugural Amateur World Series tournament. So read on to discover more …
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Mercedes Gleitze (1900-1981) was the first British woman to swim the English Channel, and the first person to swim the Straits of Gibraltar. In an amazing career that spanned the 1920s and 1930s, Mercedes captured the imagination of the British public and became a household name. Born to German parents in Brighton, Mercedes was one of three sisters. Skilled in languages, she moved to London where she worked as a secretary and stenographer. Whilst living in London she began swimming …
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After taking a well earned break last week, our presses have been working overtime to bring you 114,554 brand new newspaper pages from across Britain and Ireland, as we tell the story of the opening of Manchester United’s ground Old Trafford in February 1910. So read on to discover more about all of our new and updated titles of the week, and to learn about an important moment in football history. Register now and explore the Archive Our one and only, and therefore …
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As part of Black History Month this October, we have taken a look at the extraordinary life of Learie Constantine (1901-1971), a cricketer from Trinidad who would go on to become the United Kingdom’s first ever Black peer. The first player to take a Test match wicket for the West Indies, and described as one of the best all-round cricketers the world has ever seen, Learie Constantine’s career extended beyond sport, as he fought tirelessly against racial discrimination, as he became a writer, broadcaster, and even …
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This week at The Archive we have reached the milestone of 53 million pages all now available to search, after 305,433 brand new pages joined us over the past seven days. Moreover, we are delighted to welcome to our collection this week five new newspaper titles from England, Scotland and Wales, whilst we have made updates to 94 of our existing titles, all the way from Accrington to Wokingham. So read on to discover more about all of our new and updated titles this week, as …
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This week we’ve added 320,174 new pages to The Archive. We have added a baker’s dozen, 13, brand new titles. We are delighted to have added new titles for England and Ireland this week. We’ve added to our Sports Titles with the Football Gazette (South Shields), the Sports Gazette (Middlesbrough), and, for Ireland, Ireland’s Saturday Night which covered football, cycling and athletics. As always we’ve added more pages to our existing titles, both old and new. Forty-nine titles have had …
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150 years ago this March, on 16 March 1872, the first ever FA Cup final was played between the Wanderers and the Royal Engineers. Register now and explore the Archive In this special blog, we will take a look at this historic match, which was played at Kennington Oval in South London, using newspapers taken from the time, as well as a very special account that was written some 66 years later. The Association Challenge Cup Final Tie On 13 …
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To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, and as part of our look at the history of football this March, in this very special blog we will be taking a look at pioneering early women footballers. Register now and explore the Archive From those who took to the pitch in the eighteenth century Bath, to those who played in the first international match in 1881, we will look at the women who disrupted the status quo in order to play …
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Bedford, November 1726 – On Wednesday the 23d Instant, a most obstinate and hard Match at Foot-ball was play’d near Great Harwood in this County, between 7 Men of the Village of Ranse, and the like Number of Great Harwood; which last had challenged the whole Kingdom to match them. The Contest was so great between them, that one of the Harwood’s Champions dropp’d down dead on the Spot, whose Brother being engaged on the same Side, would not leave …