By 1930 the Frontier Nursing Service had shown that childbirth was safer in a remote area of Kentucky than in most of North America – and even much of Europe. But for its charismatic founder Mary Breckinridge, it was the start… Read More ›
digital history
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 ›
The Women of Royaumont – a unique film
This gem from the Scottish Screen Archive shows the work of some extraordinarily brave women – click on the picture to view. It is intriguing in many ways – as one of the earliest documentaries, perhaps the only moving image… Read More ›
Open University history
Unlikely bedfellows – Margaret Thatcher and Jennie Lee Full marks to Rachel Garnham and the Open University team which is encouraging staff and student memories to help create an interactive online history for its 40th anniversary. It’s another innovation from… Read More ›
The History Company 