In the early 1900s British authorities took a new approach to education: open air schools. Inspired by methods of teaching in Germany, these open air schools were intended to provide disadvantaged city children with fresh air, alleviating their poor health and preventing the spread of tuberculosis. Daily Mirror | 28 February 1935 In this special blog, using newspapers taken from our Archive, we will investigate the open air schools of the 1900s, from their early inception, to how they continued to play a role in education even after the Second World War. ‘Nature Cure for Children’ One of the ..read more

This March at The Archive we are celebrating inspiring women from history, who broke boundaries across different fields, whether they be medical, sporting, political and much more besides. We will be highlighting those inspiring women who broke the mould, and we will be showcasing the achievements of some lesser known women along the way, who deserve recognition for their trailblazing lives and careers. The Sphere | 5 June 1920 And in this special blog, we will be looking at ten inspiring women from history who you may not have heard of, but most definitely should know about. From the first w ..read more

This week at The Archive we have added 46,718 brand new pages to our collection, with three brand new newspaper titles joining us in all. Two of our new titles illuminate the pan-Africanism movement of the early twentieth century, telling the story of the struggle against British colonial rule. Meanwhile, our new title of the week hails from London’s East End. So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles of the week, as well as to find out about Cecilia Amado Taylor, a nurse from Sierra Leone who worked at the Endell Street Military Hospital ..read more

In late 1937 in the borough of Croydon, South London, people began to fall ill with typhoid. Typhoid is a disease that is associated with contaminated water and outbreaks of the illness, at least in the United Kingdom, is something that we might associate today with the nineteenth century, before an age of improved sanitation and safe supplies of drinking water. A well at Croydon | Illustrated London News | 31 July 1937 And so, in this special blog, we will take a look at how the Croydon typhoid epidemic gradually unfolded, as news of infections and subsequent deaths reached the press, i ..read more

‘The foulest nuisance that ever disgraced the annals of a nation,’ the condition of the Thames in the summer of 1858 had reached a crisis point. Bloated with sewage and other effluence from the world’s second largest city, the Thames had become a ‘pestilential stream,’ emitting a putrid odour that was dubbed the ‘Great Stink.’ Westminster Bridge | Illustrated London News | 21 October 1843 In this special blog, we shall uncover the true state of the Thames, as it was in the June and July of 1858. Using contemporary newspapers, we shall discover what effect the ‘stink’ had on th ..read more

‘Plastic surgery, born in one war and perfected in another,’ had been practiced before the First World War, but it took this global conflict, and a second one, to develop plastic surgery as we know it today. The Sphere | 20 May 1933 In this special blog, using newspapers taken from The Archive, we will trace the development of plastic surgery, from the work of Harold Gillies in the First World War, to its move into the cosmetic mainstream in the 1920s and 1930s, and finally to the Second World War, where Archibald McIndoe and his Guinea Pig Club gave wounded servicemen new life, both ph ..read more

What began as rumours from Spain was soon to become a nightmarish reality, as the Spanish flu pandemic began to take hold in the United Kingdom, where it would go on to kill approximately 250,000 people, and 50,000,000 globally. Staff from the Michie Hospital | Graphic | 26 July 1919 In this special blog, as part of medicine month on The Archive, we will take a look at how newspapers from the time reported on the deadly disease, from those first rumours, to the devastation it was to cause. We will also look at how cures were advertised in the newspapers, and the speculation that wa ..read more

We’ve scoured The Archive to bring you some of the most dubious medical remedies from our newspapers. From magic cure-all pills to blood-letting, from cigarettes to liquorice, we take a look at some of the most bizarre cures from the last two centuries, using pages taken from the British Newspaper Archive. The Graphic | 8 April 1922 It might go without saying, but we thought we better say it anyway – please do not try any of these cures at home! Want to learn more? Register now and explore The Archive Top tip: using a simple search term like ‘medicine’ or ‘remedy’  can bring you a ..read more

In 1796 British doctor Edward Jenner demonstrated how infection from cowpox gave rise to immunity from smallpox. This led to the first vaccination in history and represented the first step in the total eradication of smallpox, the only human disease to ever be totally globally eradicated. Edward Jenner | Illustrated London News | 27 January 1923 With vaccination again hitting the headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, we set out to discover how Edward Jenner’s contemporaries reacted to his groundbreaking vaccination method, and to understand how it was reported on by the press at ..read more