The Foundling Museum, located in Bloomsbury, London WC1, tells the story of London’s first home for foundlings which was established in 1739 to care for destitute and abandoned children. Three major figures in British social history – philanthropist Thomas Coram,…
Category: Source
From the TUC Library Collections
“Housewives! Please finish travelling by 4 o’clock”. This poster was issued by the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Labour and National Service c.1940. The TUC Library Collections have a large research collection relating to women living and working…
Letters for Help!
This postcard was sent to the Archbishop Byrne of Dublin in 1922. It reads ‘May it please your grace to give me £5 to release my clothes out of the pawn shop you have helped me when in [illegible] your…
Social Networks are go!
The Women’s History Network is now on Facebook and Twitter– check us out, friend us, like us, tweet your favourite blogs posts and more! And, while we’re discussing online resources, here are some more for you to check out: 50 fascinating…
Women’s History Month: The Hmong Nurses
The Hmong are agrarian people who emigrated from China to the mountainous regions of Northern Laos following centuries of persecution. They are an indubitably independent people, geographically and culturally separate from the rest of Laos, but they have a long…
Women’s History Month: Travelling Women
In 1774, the Scot Janet Schaw went on a trip to the Caribbean. She wrote this letter home to her family while in Antigua. Last Saturday was Christmass which we had engaged to pass with Mr Halliday, but our good…
Women’s History Month: from the TUC Library Collections
A Soviet Union trade union delegation visited Britain 30 December 1941 -9 February 1942, touring factories and other workplaces around the country. This photograph shows their visit to a cotton mill in Lancashire. In London, the delegation met the Prime Minister…
Women’s History Month: Gossip and Scandal
Just like today, the nineteenth century public loved a good scandal. Here is one taken from the Connaught Journal, 3 September 1832. The peace of two families and the feelings of their relatives, who are highly respectable, have been painfully…
Women’s History Month: Spare Rib
It’s hard to over-estimate the impact of Spare Rib. Launched in 1972 it caused an immediate sensation. Newsagents across the country, including WH Smith, refused to stock it. Spare Rib was seen as subversive, as indeed it was – a…