Untold Stories of England’s Militant Suffragettes – Atlas Obscura

Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger-strike medal. © MUSEUM OF LONDON

Almost a hundred years ago, in February 1918, English women were granted the right to vote. To celebrate…

via Untold Stories of England’s Militant Suffragettes – Atlas Obscura

The Roman girl buried beneath a London landmark | Flickering Lamps

30 St Mary Axe – better known by its nickname “The Gherkin” – is one of the most distinctive skyscrapers in London.  It stands on the site of the old Baltic Exchange, which was badly damaged by a Provisional IRA bomb in 1992 and subsequently demolished.  It was during excavations taking place prior to the construction of the Gherkin that, in 1995, the skeleton of a Roman Londoner who had lain undisturbed for 1,600 years was discovered.

On Bury Street, on one side of the skyscraper, there is an open paved area with seating and sculptures.  On the side of one of the low, smooth walls that double up as seats is a quite unexpected…

Source: The Roman girl buried beneath a London landmark | Flickering Lamps

DNA study finds London was ethnically diverse from start – BBC News

A DNA study confirms London was an ethnically diverse city from its very beginnings, BBC News has learned…

Source: DNA study finds London was ethnically diverse from start – BBC News

Exhibition Review: Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom (Museum of London Docklands) | Enough of this Tomfoolery!

Originally posted on Enough of this Tomfoolery!.

In Inventing the Victorians, Matthew Sweet observed that the advent of technology allowed more women to go into work and not just in the traditional farming and cottage industry sectors but into the white-collar sector that was previously the domain of men. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, typewriter and adding machine provided employment opportunities for women to the point when certain jobs such as telephone operator, typist, secretary, bank teller and bookkeeper became female dominated and seen as “women’s work”. Owing to their nimble fingers and dexterity, women were seen as the ideal gender to operate and manipulate these pieces of machinery.

In the same way, technology also allowed women to pursue hobbies other than the usual sewing, drawing, painting, music and others that were deemed appropriate to their gender. Photography is one example and with the invention of the hand-held camera, many men and especially women took to taking photographs with enthusiasm. Queen Alexandra of Britain and the four daughters of Czar Nicholas II of Russia were examples of women who enthusiastically embraced the wonder of photography, becoming proficient with using a camera and it is through them that we have had…

via Exhibition Review: Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom (Museum of London Docklands) | Enough of this Tomfoolery!.

At the Museum of London, the City That Sherlock Holmes Knew – NYTimes.com

LONDON — A riveting exhibition here at the Museum of London has capitalized on the full-blown Sherlockmania that seems to have seized the Western world, judging by a new spate of movies, television shows and books.

Unexpectedly, the show, “Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die,” which has drawn record numbers to the museum and continues until April 12, does not focus on the stories about Holmes or his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, though an opening section shows some early notebooks and illustrations as well as a rare portrait of the author in his 30s.

“We deliberately didn’t want to make it a text and manuscript-heavy library exhibition,” said Alex Werner, the lead curator. “It’s about the character, and although I had a bit of trepidation about putting on an exhibition about a fictional being, we tried to set him firmly against the real city of London in which the stories…

Continue reading: At the Museum of London, the City That Sherlock Holmes Knew – NYTimes.com.