British Pathe has pulled together a set of 51 short newsreel films about female football teams as part of the English FA’s 150th anniversary. They are intriguing for a number of reasons – not least because of the FA’s ban on… Read More ›
case studies
Mountain Midwives – Queens of the Wild Frontier (part one)
There’s a reckoning at the end of every war. Counting the cost of American dead after World War One caused a few to reflect on a much more disturbing statistic: far more American women had died in childbirth than American… Read More ›
Civil Service at War – the boys who didn’t come back
Government publications are more likely move you to sleep rather than to tears. But not Neil MacLennan’s excellent monograph which you can read here. It tells the stories of the 79 civil servants who appear on the First World War memorials… Read More ›
What Franco wanted us to see……
The small town of Belchite in Aragon was reduced to rubble in the course of one of the bloodiest battles of the Spanish Civil War. First taken by Republican troops on September 6 1937 it was won back by the… Read More ›
Bright spots for digital history
(This post appeared first on the allmediascotland site) Amid all the gloom that hangs over traditional news media, there’s one bright spot from an unlikely source. Digging up old stories and putting them on the web is flourishing. The fancier… Read More ›
Barclays withdraws from Society of Friends
Call me an old sentimental type, but I’m really well disposed to Barclays. As a former customer and employee I view their current misfortunes with a degree of sympathy. OK that was a student job at the Aldridge branch in… Read More ›
A treasure chest of oral histories
A key feature of digital history is its capacity to surprise. My good pal and cycling buddy, Iain Monk, who’s from Benbecula in the Western Isles, never knew his paternal grandfather, who died before Iain was born. But looking on… Read More ›
Red Sails in the Solent
An anniversary can be a prompt for a total revamp of a company’s website. This has some merit both in saving costs and integrating historical content into the main corporate story. And it is what Red Funnel, the original ferry operators… Read More ›
More Bosch – and no tosh
An update from my earlier Bosch post ….there is also some fascinating written material produced for its 125th anniversary. It isn’t that easy to find on Bosch websites but if you have an interest in the development of the automotive… Read More ›
Bish Bash Bosch – the first vital spark
Ignorance about the history of Germany abounds in the UK, although at least Misha Glenny’s series on Radio 4 is now redressing the balance. School history largely focuses on Hitler and the Nazis and far fewer children are choosing to… Read More ›
The History Company 