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Forty years of documenting the Great Sphinx of Giza
Forty years of documenting the Great Sphinx of Giza In 1979, Mark Lehner and James Allen started work on the first comprehensive mapping of the Sphinx. They studied its structure and geology and documented every detail they could, from the ancient masonry layers and...
read moreAncient Egypt – Cheapskate Coffin Makers
Ancient Egypt - Cheapskate Coffin Makers About 3,000 years ago, a man named Nespawershefyt, working in the temple of Amun at Karnak (in modern Luxor), commissioned a set of coffins for himself, consisting of an outer coffin and an inner coffin – the smaller of the two...
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A Labour in Vain – The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte Augusta
Princess Charlotte Augusta Princess Charlotte August was in labour for more than two days before she died on 6th November 1817. Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (1796 – 1817) was the only child of George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and Caroline of...
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Cabinets of Curiosities
Cabinets of Curiosities Julia Herdman is fascinated by 18th-century cabinets of curiosities because they show a love of learning and the natural world. The 18th century saw a huge growth in the public interest in science and medicine. Cabinets of curiosities were a...
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Dress to Impress Princess
In 2013 novelist Hilary Mantel wrote in an article in the London Review of Books. The subject of the article was giving a book to someone. The book she chose was published in 2006 and was by the cultural historian Caroline Weber. The book was called Queen of Fashion:...
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Nabobs of the North
The Dundas Family This blog is about the Dundas family.; a family that would make it big in 18th century Scotland and yet they would always be outsiders. Bankers and men of property are some of the richest men on the planet today. Their relationship with governments...
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Sarah Wilson – Queen Charlotte’s Fictitious Sister
I am delighted to welcome Geri Walton as my guest today. Geri is a history graduate and writer. Her first book, Marie Antoinette’s Confidante: The Rise and Fall of the Princesse de Lamballe, examines the relationship between Queen Marie Antoinette and Marie Thérèse,...
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A Ghost Story for Christmas
The Nanny - A Ghost Story For Christmas It was November and the war had been over for more than a year when I took Rosamond Furnivall to live with her great aunt in Cumbria. Like me, Rosamond was an orphan. On a clear summer's day in 1944, a V2 fell silent, dropped...
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The Man Who Transformed the Health of Londoners
Edwin Chadwick is the man who transformed the health of Londoners. In a time when diseases like smallpox, cholera, and TB were insatiable in their taking of human life Edwin Chadwick used his position to persuade the government to invest in public health. Chadwick...
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10 Things That Turn a Character Bad
10 Things that turn a character bad All great stories have baddies. Baddies or antagonists are the characters who get in your hero or heroine's way. They create conflict and problems – all the things readers love. Evil villains help create a story that is exciting and...
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Whistle-blower in the Maternity Ward
Key Words: Whistleblower, Maternity Ignaz Semmelweis was the Hungarian obstetrician and a whistle-blower who spoke out about bad practice in maternity wards. The work done by Semmelweis all but removed puerperal fever, commonly known as Childbed fever, from the...
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Princess Anne – The Princess Who Married a Hunchback
This is the story of Princess Anne, the Princess Royal was the eldest daughter of George II. Princess Anne was born into what we would call a dysfunctional family in May 1709. (For more information about her grandmother and the House of Hanover read my blog on 15th...
read moreSex and the City
Women and Sex There were two ways for a girl to get on in the 18th century and they both involved sex and the risk of disease followed by the likelihood of an early death. The choice for most women was either wife or city prostitute. Prostitution was the riskier...
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Princess Sophia Dorothea the Uncrowned Queen of Britain
This is the history of the shocking case of a Princess who was married against her will, spurned by her husband, divorced, and then imprisoned for 33 years. Princess Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick- Lüneburg did not have a good start in life; she was born illegitimately;...
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A Room of One’s Own – A History of Letter Writing
The history of letter writing is part of women's history. Writing letters to family and friends was one of the new pastimes enjoyed by 18th-century middle-class women. Although the Post Office had been open since 1660 it was not until the 18th century that the use of...
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The Portland Vase – An 18th Century Obesssion
The story of the Portland Vase encapsulates so much about the 18th century. It is a story of fascination with the classical world, the acquisition of antiquities and of technological and artistic excellence of British manufacture. The vase that is known as the...
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Princess Dorothea von Lieven and Metternich – The Prince and the Swan
Princess Dorothea von Lieven (1785 – 1857) was the lover of Klemens von Metternich. She was the wife of Prince Khristofor Andreyevich Lieven, Russian ambassador to London from 1812 to 1834. Considered cold and snobbish by London Society Dorothea was not an instant...
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Against the Grain – 18th Century British Art
British art has always been slightly different from that of mainstream Europe. Perhaps it's because we're an island. European painting in the eighteenth century is generally conceived as radiating from Paris. There was a strong move during the course of the 18th...
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