Advertisement for 'Keapot Urns' made by Sumerling & Co., Ltd. Features a drawing of a wheeled trolley with an urn, mugs, milk jug and bowls.

Advertisement for the 'Tea Infusing Apparatus' capable of making '400 pints of tea in thirty minutes'.

We're not saying that the MRC staff drink a lot of tea but....

'A problem solved'

Why is #NationalTeaDay a month before National Biscuit Day? Everyone knows you can't have one without the other!

Photograph of MRC exhibition space, with four cases containing original archives relating to the 1926 General Strike.

Photograph of the University of Warwick Library lobby, showing some of the display boards about the 1926 General Strike.

Photograph of the MRC exhibition space, looking towards a back wall covered with images of archives from the General Strike. A couple of the display cases (containing original archives) can also be seen.

Photograph of MRC exhibition space. It's taken at an angle that looks a little as though the photographer is in the process of falling over, but shows some of the contents of a display case on the 'Coalfield Roots' of the 1926 General Strike.

Cases filled and exhibition ready!

'Nine Days in May: Remembering the 1926 General Strike' will run until 5 June - featuring archives on the strike, its causes and consequences

Want MORE General Strike content? Our digitised sources and resources are free online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Image of Georgian country house with text: ‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’ RHS Lecture at the University of Warwick. With Professor Sasha Handley (University of Manchester). Part of the visit by the RHS Council to the University of Warwick. 5.30pm, Friday 1 May 2026.

On Friday 1 May, the Society's Council is at the University of Warwick to meet with historians from the region.

The day closes with a public lecture (5.30pm) by Sasha Handley on ‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’ bit.ly/4tnpwRa All welcome.

Excellent Alpine shelving there!

Photograph of archive boxes on shelves in one of our strongrooms.

Photograph of archive boxes at our external store.

What's not to love? #ArchiveStorage #Archive30

Archive Social Media Plan B

Photograph of two men working a massive computer the size of a room. One bloke is fiddling with knobs on a three sided desk console. The other has opened a door and is looking confusedly at wiring.

MRC staff trying to turn Bluesky on and off again

Photograph of portrait of Mann as a working engineer. 10 May 1924. Tom Mann remarked ‘the painting of which this is a photograph was done by an artist who had not seen me; he took it from photographs […] He’s given me a nose like Tolstoy eh?’ Included in the correspondence between Tom Mann, to his wife Elsie Mann, mainly from Russia. 'Papers of Tom Mann (1856-1941), trade union leader and socialist' Reference MSS.334/3/6/20

Trade unionist and activist Tom Mann was born in Coventry #OnThisDay in 1856

- Leader of the 1889 London dock strike
- President of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union.
- Founded the British Communist Party in 1920.
- President - International Transport Workers' Federation.

The Black Diamond and Beyond: Hidden Hands and Healing Lands

Have you seen our new education resource?

It's designed to inspire learners to explore the industrial past, present, and future of Wales.

It’s available to download from our website: bit.ly/47jcStC

Colourised lantern slide showing a woman dressed in 'peasant' clothing, including headscarf, holding a bowl which contains a small amount of food. Her face is lined with age and she looks gaunt.

Colourised lantern slide showing a Russian street scene. A man in a fur hat is sitting on the pavement. The lower part of his legs have been amputated and he is using a four wheeled trolley to move. The crowd also includes soldiers, children and a well-dressed woman who is looking down on the amputee.

Colourised lantern slide showing bundles of pro-Bolshevik leaflets or other publications being unloaded from a decorated propaganda train.

Colourised lantern slide showing the vast head of a statue of Alexander III, upside down and removed from the rest of the Moscow statue. Two men are adjusting the ropes that have been used to lower it.

Scenes of a revolution

These tinted slides show Russia at a time of revolutions and civil war

Produced in the USA by the Victor Animatograph Company, they were used for Henry Sara's UK lantern lecture tours

See more Sara slides at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

#Archive30 #ColourfulArchives

Photograph of a woodworking workshop in the first Borstal, c.1902. Teenage boys in Borstal uniform are being trained in carpentry. A uniformed guard is pointing at the boy closest to the camera. The image is one of a series relating to the juvenile prison in the archives of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The first Borstal Boys

Named after the village of Borstal, Kent, the first in a system of youth detention centres opened in 1902, intended to separate children from older convicts in adult prisons

Photos of the 1902 Borstal are included in the Howard League archives warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Really looking forward to presenting at this conference in June!

I’ll be discussing pit women’s experiences of disability and caregiving through the pit head baths debate.

Thanks for offering to contribute! It sounds a really interesting perspective on the subject and we're looking forward to hearing more.

'Famous people say...let Robeson sing'. Photograph of Paul Robeson on the cover of a booklet publicising the Paul Robeson Conference and Concert to be held in St Pancras Town Hall, London, on 26 May 1957. It includes comments in support of the campaign from public figures including Trevor Huddleston, Augustus John, Benjamin Britten, Kingsley Amis and John Betjeman.

'Famous people say... Let Robeson Sing'

Booklet publicising the Paul Robeson Conference and Concert to be held in St Pancras Town Hall, London, on 26 May 1957.

Included in the papers of Clive Jenkins
mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/CJE/...

Online exhibition
warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health & Welfare in Britain & Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present This free one day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, libraries, archives, museums and community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry. Conference programme: Panel 1: Disasters, safety and commemoration Oaks Colliery Disaster, 1866 Paul Darlow, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Paul Hardman, former NUM National Executive Officer The Safety Men: the Colliery Deputies union in the British Coal Industry Professor Peter Ackers, Loughborough University (Emeritus) Welcomed to Wrexham Sarah Castagnetti, The National Archives The 1959 Auchengeich Disaster: class, community and commemoration in Scotland’s coalfields Professor Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow Chair: Dr Jörg Arnold, Universität Augsburg Panel 2: Health The Violent Realities and Multiple Temporalities of a Miner’s Life Liv Robinson, Northumbria University ‘A wonderful difference to the home life’: pithead baths, pitwomen, and disability in twentieth-century British coalmining communities Lucy Jameson, Durham University Pneumoconiosis, Environment, and the Politics of Coal Miners' Health in Twentieth Century Britain Dr Andrew Seaton, University of Manchester A Special Case? Miners’ Health, Wage Relativities and the Fall of Heath’s Government Robert Rayner, University of Birmingham Chair: Professor Mathew Thomson, University of Warwick

Panel 3: Welfare “Feeding on the job?” Pit canteens in 1940s Britain Dr Ariane Mak, Université Paris Cité & IUF The Warmth of Home: Concessionary Fuel and Domestic Energy in British Coalfield Communities, 1945-1995 Dr Kathy Davies, Northumbria University Class, Culture and Democracy: the Miners Libraries of South Wales John Pateman, University of Leicester Deindustrialisation and the recreational provision of the nationalised British coalmining industry (1950s-1984) Dr Marion Henry, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Chair: Dr Quentin Outram, Society for the Study of Labour History Panel 4: Legacies Now The Dust Has Settled James O. Davies, Historic England 'The Big K: The Pit that shaped a community' Its legacy, a decade after closure. Judi Alston, One to One Development Trust Union Poorhouse to Union Leader - Herbert Smith, President of the Miners Federation of Great Britain 1922-1929. Kathryn Stainburn, Castleford Civic Society The Afterlife of Coal in Barnsley: Youth, Community, and Intergenerational Legacies Dr Kat Simpson, The University of Huddersfield Chair: Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton Showcase of exhibitions, displays and posters: On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry 1947-1994 Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton Coal: a record of an industry Gary Winter, Historic England Poster of Mrs Sheila Truman Daniella Law, Historic England Glamorgan’s Blood: Dark Arteries, Old Veins – Exploring the Coal Collections at Glamorgan Archives Rhian Diggins, Glamorgan Archives When Coal was Clean: Soap and Smoke in Nineteenth Century Britain Oliver Marshall Mining Disasters in the Village of Worsbrough Maureen Gennard, Peter Fairham and David Bullock, Worsbrough Library Heritage Group

🚨 Conference booking open 🚨

Blood is the price of coal: Coal communities, health and welfare in Britain from the 19th century to the present

18 June 2026, University of Warwick

Booking form and additional information about the programme available at
warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

View of an exhibition case with archival documents in. It's about to be closed with what looks suspiciously like a cat-burgling tool.

New exhibition incoming...

#GeneralStrike100

The RHS have recognised the challenges facing Independent Historians by inviting us to meet them on 1 May at Warwick. To let them know how they can help us, we have set up a pre-meeting discussion:
Thurs. 16 April 6pm on Zoom
Meeting Link. www.bit.ly/INDY-HIST-ZOOM
All welcome.

Black and white photograph of University of Warwick Library circa 1970. A field, trees and haystacks are in the front. The Modern Records Centre will be built in front of the Library.

Colour photograph of building site. The photograph shows the foundations of the Library extension, which will house the MRC.

Colour photograph of the front of the MRC which is obscured by trees. The photograph was taken in the early 1990s.

Home Sweet Home! It's hard to believe there was a time before the MRC #ArchiveBuildings

Before, during and after the creation of the Modern Records Centre. That's us behind the trees!

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/UWA/...

Some of the archives we'll be using for this strand of the project include...

📜Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social
📜Warwick Modern Records Centre @mrcwarwick.bsky.social

...plus oral history interviews 🗣️🎙️

Telegram sent by Sam Kyle of Belfast to Walter Citrine of the Trades Union Congress on 11 May 1926: "Emergency committee have taken control of Belfast situation dockers have ceased work cross channel goods being conveyed to dockside by railwaymen wire instructions." From Trades Union Congress file MSS.292/252.62/124.

Page of letter sent by Sam Kyle of Belfast to Walter Citrine of the Trades Union Congress on 5 May 1926. It gives an update on the position in Northern Ireland. From Trades Union Congress file MSS.292/252.62/124.

Second page of letter sent by Sam Kyle of Belfast to Walter Citrine of the Trades Union Congress on 5 May 1926. It continues to give an update on the position in Northern Ireland. From Trades Union Congress file MSS.292/252.62/124.

Letter from James Larkin, General Secretary of the Workers' Union of Ireland, Dublin, to Arthur Pugh of the Trades Union Congress. He gives information about support for the General Strike in the Irish Republic. From Trades Union Congress file MSS.292/252.62/124.

To some extent the map shows the limitations of our collections. There's surprisingly little on 1926 Northern Ireland in the TUC archives, with more correspondence with Dublin than Belfast during the dispute.

These sample letters give an idea of the level (or lack) of detail on the local situations

Screenshot of the MRC's 50th anniversary exhibition. The document (partly) on view is a photograph of a painting of Tom Mann, shown in heroic pose as an engineering worker. Tom Mann sent the photo to his wife, with a letter from the Soviet Union.

#Archive30 starts today! Use the hashtag throughout April to find posts of varying levels of tenuousness on the themes of the day

For #YourArchive we're introducing ourselves with the MRC in 58 documents (should have been 50 but we got overexcited)
warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Flyer advertising the No Poll Tax Demo, 31 March 1990 in London. The march was organised by the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation.

Illustrated page showing designs for Anti-Poll Tax t-shirts, sold by the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation. Slogans include 'stuff the poll-tax' and 'the poll tax is a dead end for Thatcher'. Illustrations include the Kray twins, Spock and the Blues Brothers.

On 31 March 1990 over 100,000 people attended an anti-poll tax march in London. The protest resulted in over 400 arrests and 113 people being injured.

Papers from the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation can be found in our papers from The Socialist Party.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/MIL/5

It makes it much more tangible when you can make those sorts of personal connections - it's still just about recent enough to do that. The eight month lockout was harsh on mining communities, with no wages or access to 'official' welfare for the families.

Map of Britain made from early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps. It includes pins which link to digitised documents and links to a timeline.

New 1926 General Strike map online!

Using early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, the online resource shows strike events (through archive sources) in their contemporary landscape.

Explore the map, digitised sources and more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Cover of a Unity Theatre programme. Features a colour illustration of a sinister looking man's head overlooking the head and shoulders of two innocent looking young women. Costumes appear to be Victorian. Background of trees and fields.

Inside cover of theatre programme. Text states that Unity Theatre is a new and vital force in the theatre. It's work has won wide recognition, and associated groups are carrying it's message into every part of the country. There is an outline of how people can help by becoming a member or working with the theatre.

'Innocence outraged' #WorldTheatreDay

The Bristol Unity Players' Club developed from workers' amateur dramatics clubs in the early 1930s.

The club co-operated with left wing organisations, including the Left Book Club's Theatre Guild and London Unity Theatre.
mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/BUP

Satirical £16 note. It includes a picture of Margaret Thatcher in a hard hat with a 'Dole Not Coal' badge, wearing a 'Woman Opposed to Women Against Pit Closures' t-shirt; a drawing of John Harris's famous image of a mounted riot police officer hitting a woman with a baton at Orgreave; and the text 'The Capitalist State promises to withhold from each miner the sum of Sixteen Pounds. London From the N.C.B. and H.M. Government M. Thatcher Chief Executioner'.

'Dole Not Coal'

The effects of the 1984/5 Miners' Strike are still felt in former coalfield communities

Campaign material from the dispute, including leaflets, pamphlets and other publicity material produced by community groups and the NUM, is online at cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

We are delighted to be able to offer small grants to support exciting research!

Trades Union Congress

Thanks! You might have already found it, but this source by a son of a lace industry outworker is a really evocative (and simmeringly angry) description of the system and his mother's life within it - wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Black and white photograph showing a workroom in a factory. All the visible workers are women, dressed in overalls. They are pausing from their work - soldering together sheets of tin to make boxes. Piles of finished boxes of different sizes are stacked around the room. A wooden Peek Freans box is being used as a side table on the right of the image. All the women are looking at the camera, some have turned round to do so. None look particularly enthusiastic about being photographed. It is likely that this was taken as a publicity photograph for the company.

1909: Bermondsey women stop work and stare down the photographer

Women workers in the soldering section of Peek Freans' factory, making boxes for biscuits

More on the often dangerous work of tin box makers in our 'sweated trades' digitised collection at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

We’re delighted to welcome @blmedieval.bsky.social to Bluesky 👋

Follow for fascinating insights into medieval manuscripts, music, and history from the British Library’s collections.