Topic description and stories

Early childhood mortality rates in 1851 (left) and 1911 (right). The highest rates are in red and the lowest in blue.

Online atlas explores north-south divide in childbirth and child mortality during Victorian era

15 May 2018

A new interactive online atlas, which illustrates when, where and possibly how fertility rates began to fall in England and Wales during the...

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Detail from William Harvey's De motu cordis (experiment confirming direction of blood flow)

Blood and bodies: the messy meanings of a life-giving substance

03 May 2018

A collection of essays explores understandings of a vital bodily fluid in the period 1400-1700. Its contributors offer insight into both theory and...

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The skeleton of the teenage girl, and the remnants of her burial, as discovered by Cambridge University archaeologists in 2011.

Trumpington Cross goes on display for the first time

01 Feb 2018

Extremely rare, early Christian gold cross, gifted to Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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“Our weapon is public opinion”

01 Feb 2018

One of the largest surviving collections of suffrage posters from the early twentieth century are housed in Cambridge University Library’s famous...

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Christmas Comes But Once A Year

Mistletoe and (a large) wine: seven-fold increase in wine glass size over 300 years

14 Dec 2017

Our Georgian and Victorian ancestors probably celebrated Christmas with more modest wine consumption than we do today – if the size of their wine...

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Decorative detail on the Billingford Hutch

The Billingford Hutch and the moonwort fern – a medieval mystery solved

10 Dec 2017

A heavy oak chest in the Parker Library (Corpus Christi College) was used to store objects left as collateral for loans of money. Its ironwork...

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Image from Newton’s own annotated copy of Principia Mathematica

Sir Isaac Newton’s Cambridge papers added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register

01 Dec 2017

The Cambridge papers of Sir Isaac Newton, including early drafts and Newton’s annotated copies of Principia Mathematica – a work that changed the...

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Annular eclipse photographed at sunset in eastern New Mexico.

Oldest recorded solar eclipse helps date the Egyptian pharaohs

30 Oct 2017

Researchers have pinpointed the date of what could be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded. The event, which occurred on 30 October 1207 BC, is...

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Exhibition highlights the untold story of Nazi victims in the Channel Islands

19 Oct 2017

The untold stories of slave labourers, political prisoners and Jews who were persecuted during the German occupation of the Channel Islands during...

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Thatcher speaking in the White House grounds during her 1987 visit to the USA

‘Don’t put yourself through it again’: Thatcher papers reveal ‘distress’ after bruising election win

10 Oct 2017

Margaret Thatcher’s third and final election victory dominates the 50,000 pages of her personal papers for the year 1987 – opening to the public from...

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Detail from plate 5 of Hogarth’s “A Harlot’s Progress”, with the protagonist, Moll, dying of syphilis.

Pox populi: Study calculates 18th century syphilis rates for first time

14 Sep 2017

The unlikely coincidence of a local hospital record and a census led by a pioneering physician has enabled the first study charting rates of venereal...

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The Parrot Hotel, Liverpool, 1908

The capital of drinking: did 19th-century Liverpool deserve its reputation?

04 Jul 2017

In his new book, geographer David Beckingham looks at the rigorous licencing regime that Liverpool’s authorities put in place to tighten their grip...

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