Acutely aware that I haven’t written a blog post for some time, I was wrestling to find a suitable topic. It has certainly been an eventful few months, with many ups and downs. Having completed my PhD – and leaving aside the difficulties of the post-doctoral job market – I have been lucky enough to …
This is a ‘before and after’ comparison of two of my three original (1858-60) volumes of the Illustrated News of the World. You’ll see that, for the most damaged volume, it was necessary to have an entirely new spine made. What this has demonstrated to me is the importance of traditional artisan skills. The fabulous …
It has been a momentous week for me. Four years on from starting my PhD, my thesis has been submitted for examination. What a journey it has been to reach this point. My higher education began at Newcastle University (quite a few years ago). At that time, my route to postgraduate study met a financial …
Just over a week ago, I returned from Chicago, USA, where I had the great pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RA4VP) at Loyola University. The theme of this year’s gathering was ‘Voices and Visions of the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press’. This was my first time abroad in over …
It’s not unusual to see facsimile newspapers as props in period dramas, both on television and in film. Quite often, these don’t make any serious attempt to emulate the form taken by papers of the relevant era. This is something of a bugbear for cultural historians, though presumably the producers, as creators of fiction rather …
The Liverpool Heroes Memorial, Abercromby Square, Liverpool. Image by Bill Sergeant. * One hundred and sixty-nine years ago today, 29th January, Queen Victoria introduced a new military medal to honour acts of conspicuous valour in the Crimean war. Today, the Victoria Cross remains the highest military honour that can be awarded (jointly with the George …
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=bugle&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image I was doing some work recently on a Victorian newspaper with an undeniably laudable social purpose. It was called the Fonetic Nuz (Phonetic News) and appeared in January 1849. It was the brainchild of one Alexander Ellis – a polymath who, having graduated in Classics and Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, was enabled …
TO FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Lady! in our England’s story There are names we proudly say – Names of women writ in Heaven, With us still, and passed away; But in all the shining record Which the angels love to read, Few can claim the earnest homage By our hearts to thee decreed. Lady! when to weeping …
I’m currently suffering with my first cold of the year. It has hit me quite hard. I think one of the unfortunate consequences of the necessary arrangements made during the Covid-19 pandemic is that many including me, by acting to avoid spreading Covid, avoided other regular viruses. So, my system is less prepared and working …
Perhaps more than any other commodity, newspapers have a wide range of secondary, mostly unintended uses. Of course, two hundred years ago, papers were relatively expensive – especially the less common daily ones. Although manual printing presses were not expensive to operate, the various taxes levied on newspapers, which operated both as revenue-raising and an …