This year, in recognition of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, we will showcase the lives and activities of women involved in the Suffrage movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Despite making headlines for their activities many of these women are now forgotten. In this blog post we will revive the memory of Irish Suffragette, Anna Garvey Kelly, whose support of the cause of Suffrage saw her spend a month in Holloway prison …
women’s history
This year, 2018, is the 100 year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918. The Act which gave propertied women over the age of thirty, and all men over the age of twenty-one, the right to vote. Over the course of 2018 we aim to digitise several suffragette and women’s newspapers. These papers will allow us to explore the suffrage movement, and the social sphere of the women who campaigned for the right to vote. We are delighted …
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During the First World War (1914-1918), the role of women in Britain was massively altered and the women’s sphere was enlarged in every direction. Some historians mark the First World War as a watershed moment in women’s history when women were looked at less as fragile creatures and more as robust figures. A single blog post is not enough to explore all the contributions of women during the Great War, but we have combed through The British Newspaper Archive and …
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Today, we’re looking at two events that occurred on 18 May: the Khodynka Tragedy in 1896 and Jacqueline Cochran’s breaking of the sound barrier in 1953. Khodynka Tragedy The first took place in 1896 in the Khodynka Field, Moscow. The field was the site of festivities honouring the recent coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. Thousands gathered to celebrate and to, hopefully, receive rumoured gifts of food and a commemorative cup. With growing and increasingly frenzied crowds, the police force on …
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Isabella Lucy Bird, explorer, natural historian, writer and the first woman to be elected a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society in London, died in Edinburgh on 7 October 1904 – she was 71. Included below are two, contemporary newspaper tributes that report on her remarkable life and achievements.
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Annie Besant, a leading political activist and social justice campaigner in the 19th and 20th centuries, was born in Clapham, London, on 1 October 1847. To celebrate the day of her birth, here are four newspaper stories from that offer an insight into her character, political and social beliefs.
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On 7 September 1910, Madame Curie and Andre-Louis Debierne announced they had succeeded in isolating pure radium metal. Here are two newspaper items – published on the very day that the story broke – which report on this historic discovery.
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The fact that the green, purple and white colours of the Suffragette Movement are the same colours used by Wimbledon, has sometimes been commented upon. With this in mind, we thought we’d try and find some newspaper stories that bring together Wimbledon and the suffragettes. Oh, and we found some stories! We found two reports about an incident in 1913 when a suffragette attempted to burn down Wimbledon. One from the time, in the Derby Daily Telegraph, and another from fifteen …
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Merseyside-born, Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Dod, is the youngest ever winner of the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Championship, achieving her triumph in 1887 at the tender age of 15 years and 285 days. She won the singles title a remarkable five times in total, between the years 1887 and 1893. An article in the Sheffield Independent chronicles Lottie’s first ever Wimbledon victory in 1887. About the ladies’ singles there is little to be said – only five entered as against eight last year. Miss …