Category Archives: Friday feature

Posts featuring the lighter side of late 19th/ealy 20th century life

Let’s party – 1919

  My desk is a mess at the moment, but I rather like it that way, because it’s covered with pictures of women in lovely clothes. I’m looking at the Bystander annual for 1919, and it’s strikingly different from the … Continue reading

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Life after the Titanic

William Thomas Stead.  A man well known in his day: an investigative journalist, a hard-hitting social campaigner and a forthright man.  He championed women’s rights and supported the suffragettes; promoted the Poor Law, backed the labouring classes and trade unionism; … Continue reading

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Titanic in the Tower

Sunday sees the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. For the last few months we’ve been finding lots of works about the Titanic in our collection. Even today there are very few people who don’t know the story of the … Continue reading

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2012, 1944, 1913

I want to jump back in time twice today: first let’s go back to 1944. John Betjeman was broadcasting to a war-time audience, and had in fact been asked to talk about how paper rationing was affecting publishing and reading … Continue reading

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Women

There are no ugly women ; there are only women who do not know how to look pretty – Berryer. Recently, I catalogued a short book titled “Woman” [1919.9.84], which was made up of quotations from a variety of authors and … Continue reading

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Hunger is the best sauce: the British diet in war time

Here in the Tower Project we are currently cataloguing books which were published during World War One. There are plenty of handbooks and manuals offering advice to those on the ‘Home Front’, especially in the key areas of domestic economy and cookery. There had … Continue reading

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A Boy’s Book of Battleships

A Boy’s Book of Battleships by Gordon Stables, pictures by Charles Robinson. William Gordon Stables was a Scottish-born medical doctor in the Royal Navy and a prolific author of adventure fiction, primarily for boys. He wrote over 130 books. The … Continue reading

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Know your nose

The nose is the most prominent feature of the face, and the art of reading character by the nose is one of the most interesting of human studies Noses and What They Indicate is one of many books that were … Continue reading

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The Domestic Telephone Set

In our technology-crazed society it can be quite nostalgic to now and then think back to the time when communication wasn’t instant and mobile, and life seemed a bit simpler. Which is why I was fascinated to come across an advertisement brochure for ‘The … Continue reading

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Missing heirs and fanciful claims

Ever received an email asking you to help someone who was due to gain a large inheritance but just needed some funds (from you) to help claim it? You are not alone, many Victorians and Edwardians it appears did too. … Continue reading

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