News
Join the revolution!
July 10, 2018 - Anna Husband
Can you suggest a great item from a museum, gallery or private collection to add to our Revolutionary collection? One that can tell a story of new ideas, change, uprising, invention? If so, we would love to hear from you! The Age of Revolution focuses on the period 1775 – 1848, a time […]
Pondering Wellington’s Monument in Guildhall
July 2, 2018 - The Chairman
Last week I was in Guildhall for the election of sheriffs and this year there was a real competition for the election of the Aldermanic Sheriff. It all took a very long time so my mind wandered to the magnificent marble memorial to Wellington sculpted by John Bell. There are three figures; the main one […]
More on Colonel Harris
July 2, 2018 - The Chairman
I have discovered more about Captain Harris whose coateee was recently DNA tested. Having been wounded he was left in the open on the battlefield overnight and was only found by his Brigade Commander, Hussey Vivian and his cousin Clement Wallington. Harris was so weak he could only whistle quietly but this was enough to […]
The Waterloo jacket of Thomas Harris
June 20, 2018 - The Chairman
An interesting item has come to the fore, and again on the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. A jacket worn by Thomas Harris – who was Hussey Vivian’s Brigade Major – was bought at auction by his descendants. A very good effort by them – they took it to Cranfield University to see if […]
Napoleon’s Hat… Again
June 19, 2018 - The Chairman
Would you believe it but another one of these has cropped up in the news. The last one I wrote about some time ago in 2014 had been bought by a South Korean for £1.5m, no doubt to put on President Trump’s head one day! However the illustration below is a part of our own […]
Captain Cook voyages through The British Library
June 13, 2018 - Richard Moss
The British Library follows the journeys of the man who opened up the world during the Age of Revolution in James Cook: The Voyages Captain James Cook’s name has always been synonymous with exploration and adventure, but even in the 1770s when the American Revolutionary War was underway, such was his fame that none other […]
Stephenson’s Rocket heads back up north to Manchester
June 13, 2018 - Richard Moss
The iconic Stephenson’s Rocket, which was built to run on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world’s first inter-city passenger railway line, will be on display at the Museum of Science and Industry from September 22 2018 until April 21 2019. Rocket secured its place in railway history after winning the Rainhill trials, in 1829. […]
Jeremy Bentham’s papers digitised online
June 13, 2018 - Richard Moss
Some 95,000 images from collections at Univeristy College London and The British Library have been captured in digital form, making them accessible to interested readers around the globe. Bentham is perhaps best known for formulating the ethical theory of utilitarianism: the idea that society should be organised to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest […]
The Surgeon’s Blade: An Amputation at the Hip Joint
June 11, 2018 - Mick Crumplin
In his latest medical blog, Mick Crumplin discusses one of the most difficult and dangerous medical procedures of the Napoleonic wars Sometimes we must marvel at how far human endurance can be stretched. This operation is an extremely stressful one, performed 200 years ago, 31 years before the discovery of anaesthesia. It entailed removal of […]
The Surgeon’s Blade: Battlefield head wounds and trepanning
March 29, 2018 - Mick Crumplin
For his latest medical blog Mick Crumplin discusses head wounds on the battlefield and the ancient medical practice of trepanning Of all wounds inflicted in warfare, roughly 20-25% of them are head injuries. With modern day treatment, about 80% or more patients will survive to serve a ‘useful’ life. The bony skull or cranium protects […]
