History Revealed

For many people, the Edwardian period conjures up images of elegantly clad women taking tea on the lawn – the stuff of historical dramas like Downton Abbey. But look beneath the genteel facade and you will find an era of great uncertainty, a time whe

“Who’s going to run this school –black students, white students, or you?” berates one mother to the principal, as other parents and some students look on. George Washington High School in Manhattan, New York, had been closed for two days due to distu

One of the smallest casualties of the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has been found by experts working at the ancient city of Pompeii: a pregnant tortoise. The remains of the 14cm-long animal and her egg were covered in volcanic ash and in the ruin

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN HISTORY, ESPECIALLY ARCHAEOLOGY? I have always been fascinated with archaeology and there have been a number of key moments in my life that have shaped my desire to work in museums – from visiting my first one, to

Captain John Keay desperately waited for a tugboat to take his ship, the high-speed clipper Ariel, up the Thames and into dock at London. Victory in that year's tea race, and the prize money that went with it, was within his grasp, but a rival had be

WHAT ARE THE BENIN BRONZES? The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3,000 decorative pieces from the Kingdom of Benin (in modern-day Nigeria), which existed from the 1100s until 1897 and should not be confused with the current West African co

Wealthy Roman women did not usually breastfeed their own children. Instead, they handed them over to a wet nurse – usually a slave or hired freedwoman – who was contracted to provide the service. Soranus, the influential author of a second-century AD

Dr John Jacob Woolf answer questions about the Edwardian era on the HistoryExtra podcast: historyextra.com/edwardians-qa DR JOHN JACOB WOOLF is an author, historian and co-writer of the Audible series Stephen Fry's Edwardian Secrets and Stephen Fry's

Q: When was the Edwardian era and how long did it last? A: Technically, it was the period when Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, ruled as King of Great Britain and Ireland, from January 1901 to May 1910. Most historians, however, talk of

Coming after the inherent social conservatism of the long Victorian age, the Edwardian era offered something of a breath of fresh air – from a rollerskating craze that swept the nation to the invention of ping-pong. However, it wasn't all fun and gam

When 59-year-old Edward VII came to the throne in January 1901, he couldn't have been more different to his late mother, Queen Victoria. The king and former Prince of Wales was the complete opposite of the Victorian ideal of propriety; he lived for l

If Edwardian Britain was slowly emerging from Victoria's long reign and unsure of its new, developing identity, the writer HG Wells was already gazing far into the future. For while his nonfiction output was impressively prolific, it was his science

“Iam here as a soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle in order to explain – it seems strange it should have to be explained – what civil war is like when civil war is waged by women.” These words, spoken by prominent women’s suffrage ca

1 IN 8 The proportion of children who will die before their first birthday <1% The percentage of people born in this year who will reach 100 1.1M The number of people born in England in 1908 12 The legal school leaving age <10,000 The number of Peopl

During the coronation celebrations of King Edward VII and his queen, Alexandra, In August 1902, more than 2,000 representatives from the British empire's colonial forces took part in a procession that lined the streets of London. Among them was a con

As acts of futility go, the task that a magistrate named Stuart Deacon was asked to perform on 13 August 1911 takes some beating. Deacon was charged with reading the riot act to a vast crowd of strikers that had descended on the area around St George

The steamship slowly drifted across the harbour, as quietly as the paddlewheels slapping against the water and the chugging and grinding of the engine allowed. A fog helped to hide them, and those on board knew it was imperative to stay inconspicuous

The wide, unblinking throng of corpse-like figures crowding out of the canvas of Edvard Munch's 1892 work must surely have unnerved viewers when it was exhibited at the Berlin Secession in 1902. Indeed, the Norwegian artist had form when it came to s

When we imagine a medieval or Tudor feast, one of the first images that springs to mind may be of a jester: the wise fool running among the guests telling bawdy jokes or juggling while the minstrels strum their lutes. They may be pictured wearing col

This is not an uncommon question; historians have chewed it over for more than a century now. At its heart is the notion that had the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, not been shot dead by Gavrilo Prineip on 28 June 1914

SHORT ANSWER The historic African city is honoured in the name and flag of a country. Take that, Europeans LONG ANSWER A once-magniflcent city, the sprawling ruins of Great Zimbabwe serve as an important monument to the people of Zimbabwe today. Not

Torn: A Narrative History of Fashion BBC Radio 4, Monday 22 August The idea that clothes can be ephemeral is intrinsic to fashion. A shirt or dress that’s all the rage this year can look horribly dated just a few months later. No wonder we don't alwa

PAID ENTRY National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth, until 16 April 2023, nmmc.co.uk Today, the popularity of tattoos is on the rise and the artform is firmly part of the mainstream. But while getting inked wasn't so widely accepted by past genera

By Marina Amaral and Dan Jones Head of Zeus, £30, hardback, 432 pages When Marina Amaral and Dan Jones were working on 2018's bestselling The Colour of Time, the duo note in the foreword to this new book, they were struck by how few women featured in

As a recently retired prison governor, I read with interest your Essential Guide to Crime and Punishment (July 2022) and found it fascinating, particularly the section on the conditions that prisoners endured in the past. I did note the mention of th

Discover the fascinating history behind one of the world’s most famous ancient cities – from the lives of its residents, to the volcanic eruption of AD 79 and beyond PLUS… WOMEN’S HISTORY IN COLOUR SPOTLIGHT ON J EDGAR HOOVER THE SUEZ CANAL CRISIS HO

The date is 15 August 1945: Victory over Japan Day (or VJ Day), when the Japanese surrender finally ends World War II. In London, the news is met with jubilant celebrations, with Piccadilly Circus especially packed with revellers, both civilian and m