The oldest surviving book owned by English speakers was a book made in North Africa. Alison Hudson traces how these radical fragments reveal that immigrants and cultural exchange have always been fundamental to British economies, culture, and communities.
Hull’s mural depicting Lillian Bilocca, the ‘headscarf revolutionary’ who led a campaign to improve safety conditions on board North Sea trawlers in the 1960s.
What can eighteenth-century ceramics tell us about empire? Elisabeth Grass examines how fine china tea cups and saucers became fashionable commodities that represent some of the many ways in which empire appeared, and was normalised, in British homes.
A record of suffering: curator Janette Martin examines a report published shortly after the Peterloo Massacre which memorialises the injuries and identities of the victims.
In an exploration of Patty Ortiz’s art with DACA migrants to the US, Irina Popescu argues that performance art can encourage empathy and political responsibility.
What can history tell us about the politics of monetary innovations like cryptocurrencies? Rebecca Spang looks back to the era of the French Revolution to explore “billets de confidence” – local, decentralised bills of exchange.
Penny Streeter examines the emotional history of sweetheart brooches; tokens of love and loss kept by the families of soldiers in the First World War.
How did an American comic book publisher become a crusader in the fight against HIV/AIDS? Frances Reed unearths the forgotten story of Eclipse Enterprises and its collectable AIDS trading cards, currently on display at the Royal College of Nursing.
The Poster Workshop was the first of the radical screen-printing workshops in London, and its posters offer a mirror to the political preoccupations of the times.
A handmade wooden gun confiscated by the British during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya made its way into Birmingham’s museum collection.
