Don't forget to join us today at 4pm UK time to hear Dr Kellie Bradshaw discuss her research on 'Controlled Leisure: Women Shop Assistants in London before 1914'. You can sign up for the session here: womenshistorynetwork.org/sign-up-for-...
New Blog!
Yuemin He explores how seventeenth-century Chinese gentlewomen used lyric poetry to navigate confinement, imagination, and agency. From Zhang Siyin to Xu Yuan, their voices reveal emotional worlds far beyond the inner chamber.
Read here: womenshistorynetwork.org/boudoir-lame...
This exhibition, reminds us that archives are not just static objects - they have the power to make us feel things and to connect us to the past. ❤️
So, Love Letters comes to an end after a brilliant, buzzing closing weekend.
Thank you to everyone who made it possible!
New on the blog!
@nickbhattacharya.bsky.social explores the gendered nature of parish welfare in Devon #womenshistory
womenshistorynetwork.org/the-prejudic...
📣 New opportunity for early-career scholars!
We’ve partnered with the Women’s History Association of Ireland (@whaireland.bsky.social) to award £500 for the best first monograph in women’s/gender history
❗Deadline: 31 July 2026
Find out more & apply: womenshistorynetwork.org/womens-histo...
Join us on Tuesday, 24 March at 4pm UK time for our next online seminar. We will be hosting Dr Ellen Hope Durban who is going to discuss her research on 'Activism for Married Lesbian Mothers in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s'. Read more and sign up here: womenshistorynetwork.org/sign-up-for-...
A total joy to be at @lselibrary.bsky.social to mark 100 years of The Women’s Library. Fantastic engagement! Thanks for the opportunity to speak about our collections.
Wonderful to see so much support in the room for women’s history! 👏
We are delighted to announce the winner of the WHN Book Prize. The judges chose Female Servants in Early Modern England by @charmianmansell.bsky.social
The highly readable & engaging book, interrogates long-standing assumptions about the domesticity & constraints of women’s lives in service.
Image of the exhibition space with documents in cases.
Our exhibition Love Letters proudly centres women’s stories — perfect viewing for Women’s History Month! 💌
These letters offer a window into women’s lives and emotions across centuries.
Love Letters is free to visit at The National Archives, Kew until 12 April.
#WomensHistoryMonth #LoveLetters
Black and white image of women workers.
Join us this #WomensHistoryMonth in amplifying women’s voices past and present.
Our website is a wonderful place to start learning more. Spread the word!
womenshistorynetwork.org
#WHM2026 #WomensHistory #GenderHist
Image: Pit girl brow workers, Wigan, 1900. COPY 1/445, The National Archives.
For @lgbthm.bsky.social ❤️ 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
worth a share.
For LGBTQ History Month the National Archives are hosting an online event on Friday 27th Feb: Hidden Love: #LGBTQ+ relationships in the #archives
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hidden-lov...
🚨Still time to book for my talk tomorrow 🚨
Delighted to be speaking about queer love and defiance in government archives.
The talk is free and online — join us if you can!
27 February 2026, 14:00 to 15:00.
Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hidden-lov...
Learn more about the discovery process behind our current exhibition, Love Letters.
From structured research to serendipitous finds — three specialists and a volunteer share the thrill of uncovering heartfelt emotions centuries later: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-...
A fantastic evening with Anne Lister and Aphrodite I at Love Letters, The National Archives. 💌 💕
Come and view our exhibition after dark for this exciting late event tomorrow.
Last chance to book! 💌 🏳️🌈 💕
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/eve...
❤️
I haven’t talked about The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline That Listened yet, but it’s so good!
The archive material is rich, the authors are incredible, and it’s been a total privilege to help a little with the context.
Check it out: www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...
Very excited to be part of this late event at The National Archives! Visit the Love Letters exhibition with MC HRH Aphrodite, get involved in historical speed dating & get creative with coded classified adverts.
Still time to join us 👇
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/eve...
🖋️📜 Some #LoveLetters are written in longing. Some are written in law.
We had the chance to preview @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy's new exhibition, free through April 12. Among many incredible items on display... Anne Lister & Ann Walker’s wills! (📹: @sazwingrove.bsky.social)
Thanks Claire 😊
This is a beautiful, powerful, and important exhibition. It reminds us of how love can be found in the most unlikely sources and desperate circumstances.
So delighted to have some extended commentaries about some of the content, including from @tricksterprince.bsky.social! Multiple items on display are inspired by his wonderful work. Thank you Matt.
Our latest exhibition, Love Letters, is now open at The National Archives, revealing 500 years of love. From paupers, monarchs, queer networks & quiet acts of affection found in government records.
Very proud to have been lead curator on this one, working with so many wonderful people! 💌
New on the blog!
@harveybonehist.bsky.social and @txbatha.bsky.social share their fascinating research on the 1959 and 1974 General Elections, exploring the use of 'spousal letters' in candidate's #election pamphlets.
#womenshistory #politicalhistory
womenshistorynetwork.org/a-word-to-th...
⚡ Lightning Talks at The London Archives ⚡
Are you a student or ECR? Need feedback on your work? Can you summarise it in 5 minutes? Join us for Lightning Talks at The London Archives - a friendly event open to researchers of London and its history!
📆 Wed 11 February
🕔 5pm
A screen shot from the LRB bookshop website showing an image of Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials. There is a recommendation from David, one of the shop's managers, which reads: ‘A century ago, Seven Dials, just a few minutes walk from the shop, was a shabby, cosmopolitan working-class district, not quite Bloomsbury, not quite Covent Garden. It was also, as Matt Houlbrook shows in his powerful study, a microcosm for the tensions and conflicts that defined British society then, and continue to define it now.’
It’s lovely to see that Songs of Seven Dials is one of the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk recommended Christmas gifts.
Thank you for the kind words (in the alt-text): they have got me in the festive spirit now.
www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/collections/...
#London #history #20s30s
We are very excited to have the privilege of hosting Prof Merry Wiesner-Hanks tomorrow at 4pm GMT. Merry will be discussing her book 'Women and the Reformations: A Global History'. Please do sign up to join us: womenshistorynetwork.org/sign-up-now-...
