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 ›
gems from the archive
Mountain Midwives – Queens of the Wild Frontier (part two)
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 ›
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 ›
No doves in Dovecot and Bayeux not a tapestry – shock
A new exhibition in Edinburgh celebrates the centenary of the Dovecot tapestry weavers. The idea of hanging your history on the wall started well before 1066, but the Bayeux Tapestry not only made the news for England but still fashions… Read More ›
CoI RIP, but Joe and Petunia live on
The Central Office of Information (CoI) passed away on March 31 – virtually unnoticed. It had a long and eventful life – nearly a century if you include its early years as the Ministry of Information. Thousands of talented journalists,… Read More ›
The Hebrides and Goebbels
This British Council film is fascinating in many ways. It’s visually sumptuous – the first time I think the Hebrides, previously captured by sharp-eyed photographers like Werner Kissling in monochrome, was portrayed in glorious Technicolor. It weaves a simple dramatic… 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 ›
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 ›
Just another football post
Manchester United in 1905/06 Image via Wikipedia Football has always been about finding the net. And there is no doubt that it has found it over the last five years with an explosion in newly-digitised historical material. Digital history is… Read More ›
Who was the real RS McColl?
Another gem from British Pathe – featuring Robert Smyth McColl, co-founder of the sweetie shop and newsagent chain which bears his name to this day. Click on the image to view. He was one of Scotland’s greatest players, scoring a… Read More ›
The History Company 