Articles by The BNA

To celebrate the birth date of Alexander Graham Bell (born in Edinburgh on this day in 1847), here is a newspaper report from 1878 about the interactive demo of the workings of the telephone, given by Alexander Graham Bell to Queen Victoria in 1878.Bell’s demo by royal appointment took place at Osborne House in January 1878, and it looks as though the experiment went very well – luckily for the Queen and Bell, PowerPoint hadn’t yet been invented to amuse.Especially interesting is the

We do love the quirky stories that the Archive contains.Indeed, on almost every Archive page that we look at, our attention will be diverted as we spot a story with a quirky headline.The Scanning Team at Colindale Library are world-leading experts in spotting quirky stories, and it was the ‘Scanners’ who passed on this wonderful “shaggy monkey’s tale” to us, so we could post it on the blog.It seems that the mass break-out took place from a

Historical newspaper report on the bread riots in Liverpool in February 1855On 19 February 1855, bread riots took place in Liverpool.As can be seen from this newspaper report, the riots appear to have occurred as a result of unemployment among the corn porters and dock labourers in the city, whose usual work and wages had been affected by the frost.That said, bread riots took place in other UK cities during the 18th and 19th centuries – just do a search on

On 17 February 1909, the famous Apache warrior and chief, Geronimo, died of pneumonia (he had lain out in the cold all the previous night, following a fall from a horse) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, aged 79.Despite being a prisoner of war since his surrender in 1886, Geronimo was still known and talked about across the Atlantic in Britain. Not long before his death, the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser in 1908 celebrates the ‘Last Apache War Chief.’Manchester Courier and Lancashire General

Newspaper report from 1898 on the life and achievements of Sir Samuel PlimsollOn 10 February 1824, Sir Samuel Plimsoll, ‘the Sailors’ Friend’, was born in Bristol.The MP for Derby, philanthropist and social reformer had an amazing life, including a period of destitution in London, when he failed in business as a coal merchant.Today, he is mostly remembered for inventing ‘the Plimsoll Line’, which is a set of measurements and symbols on the side of ships indicating how much cargo can

We’re endlessly fascinated and impressed by all the different types of researchers who are gracefully prowling around the Archive. Truly, all human life is here.Just recently, Amanda Bright, an ailurophile from Toronto, tweeted to tell us about the research she is doing on the origins and history of the modern cat fancy. Amanda was already familiar with the Newspaper Library at Colindale from the time when she lived in England, and had previously carried out some research there. So

PulhamiteA review was recently printed in the Alpine Gardener of September 2012 of the book:  Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy by Claude Hitching and Jenny Lilly.This prompted reminiscences on the part of myself and my wife (a keen gardener), as we had seen in 1999 the magnificent Pulhamite garden at Waddesdon manor, which had been restored. As the Waddesdon website says: “The garden was designed to surprise and delight the Baron’s guests at every turn. In his day, a garden

Newspaper articles from February 1788 reporting on the death of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in Rome‘The Young Pretender’, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, died in Rome on 31 January 1788.Known in Scotland as ‘the King O’er the Water”, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ led the Jacobite forces in the 1745 Rising, which ended in a terrible defeat on Culloden Moor.If you’ve ever been out drinking with a Jacobite, you’ll have noticed that that when a toast is made to one of the usurping Hanoverian

On 30 January 1889, the bodies of Archduke Rudolf and his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, were discovered in the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling.The official verdict is that the star-crossed lovers died in a suicide pact after Rudolf’s father, Franz Joseph I of Austria, demanded that he end the relationship. However, there are theories that Rudolf was murdered (Mary’s body was smuggled out of Mayerling in the middle of the night and Rudolf was described as being ‘mentally unbalanced’) because of

18th Century newspaper reports about Mozart’s visit to London in 1765Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756.So to celebrate Mozart’s birthday, here are some wonderful descriptions (taken from a fascinating 2-page account, published in a newspaper in 1771) of Mozart’s famous visit to London in 1765.When not astonishing his audience with his virtuosity and composing skills, it seems the genius galloped about the room pretending he was riding a horse. Well, he was only eight!Oxford Journal – Saturday 23