As we move now into February we have been extremely busy here at The Archive, adding 139,438 brand new pages to our collection, with the addition of two brand new titles over the past seven days. Meanwhile, we have made significant updates to a range of our existing titles, with 26 titles updated in all. So read on to discover more about our two new titles of the week, one of which represented the interests of the various Nonconformist Protestant groups of the nineteenth …
Valentine’s Day
This week on The Archive we have added 89,160 brand new pages, covering England, Wales, Ireland and India. We continue to augment our newspaper collection with five brand new titles joining us this week, which cover the north and the south of England (Northumberland and Somerset, as well as one new title for Staffordshire), Wales and India. Meanwhile, we are adding new pages to the seminal Madras Courier and the historic Westminster Gazette, as well as adding new pages to Tipperary’s Midland Counties Advertiser. Undergoing a few name changes over …
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Over the course of its history and in its present-day iteration, Valentine’s Day has been a day fit for the writing and sharing of romantic verse. The union of romantic love and Valentine’s Day has been advantageous for aspiring poets, and the newspapers have been quick to publish such verse over the years to honour St Valentine’s Day. In the pages of the newspapers, you can find numerous poems celebrating Valentine’s Day. Here is a sampling. Discover more poems and …
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As we covered in our last blog post, the traditions and opinions surrounding the celebration of Valentine’s Day have evolved and changed over the years. But as we search through three hundred years of stories in The British Newspaper Archive, we see that the day has endured as one of celebration and, occasionally, scandal. In the newspapers, we can see a long tradition of celebrating this day, but we can also observe the emergence of a certain skepticism and cynicism …
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Valentine’s Day in its present iteration is inexorably linked to both romantic love and commercialism. It inspires strong feelings, both for and against this day of chocolate boxes and heart-shaped cards. However, the day and its traditions have not been static. In performing a simple search for ‘Valentine’s Day’ on The British Newspaper Archive, you can start to see the ways in which the holiday — and its reception — have changed (and, occasionally, stayed the same) over the years. …
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The tradition of sending and receiving Valentine’s Day cards is well documented in The British Newspaper Archive, but not all were as sentimental as you might expect. We’ve found a number of references in our historical newspapers to the unusual Valentines that were exchanged. Here’s a selection of the best for you to enjoy. 1) I saw you kiss the office boy This little rhyme about an office romance was included in the Nottingham Evening Post in 1903: 2) With …