He’s the man I walk past every day but never get to see up close. That’s because he’s 140 feet up in St Andrew Square – easily the tallest statue in Edinburgh. Far, far above His Royal Highness (William IV)… Read More ›
digital history
Scotland goes tapestry bonkers (3)
Number three of the great tapestries to come out of Prestonpans is the one stitched by the Scottish communities across the world. As such, the Diaspora Tapestry offers a very different historical perspective than the previous two – for the… Read More ›
Dustbin of history – a brief Hogmanay rant
What did history do to merit the dustbin tag? You don’t hear about things being consigned to the cesspit of chemistry, morass of mathematics or sewer of sociology. But “dustbin of history” is now in common usage. Mark Liberman has… Read More ›
Polish women soldiers in Gullane
One of the great pleasures of wasting an idle hour looking at archive film is the electric jolt of surprise that causes you to fall off your chair. In my case it was this clip of around 100 female… Read More ›
Archie Cochrane, father of evidence based medicine
This wee gem shows Archie Cochrane, the father of evidence-based medicine, in his prime. He is the narrator so you see him from the start in a 1970s-style pullover. Then it cuts to scenes from the 1950s – some of… Read More ›
How the Chest was Won
Professor Jimmy Williamson, who died in June, was the last surviving member of the Edinburgh group which found the first 100% cure for tuberculosis. In 1954 he was the last consultant to join Sir John Crofton’s team in Edinburgh. As… Read More ›
Health, the Highlands and Tony Benn’s dad
1913 was anything but a quiet halcyon year, a point well illustrated in Michael Portillo’s recent Radio Four series Two important Scottish centenaries also came out of it. On August 15, royal assent was given to bill setting up the… Read More ›
Highland Doctor – the Hebrides and Goebbels (part 2)
Stand by for a treat – if you haven’t already seen it, Kay Mander’s Highland Doctor from the Scottish Screen Archive is an absolute delight. Click on the image to watch…. It tells in around 20 minutes the story of the… Read More ›
Early women’s football films
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 ›
War turns into Peace – the 1914 Christmas Truce
British propaganda said the First World War would be over by Christmas 1914. It wasn’t. But peace of a different kind broke out on the Western Front when soldiers on both sides found their common humanity instead of the senseless… Read More ›
The History Company 