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mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
@mrcwarwick.bsky.social
20K followers 1.3K following 690 posts
Archives rich in social and political history from the late 19th century onwards.

Follow the MRC for highlights from our collections, details of our online resources and more!

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc
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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · Nov 20
Call for papers #CFP

Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health and Welfare in Britain and Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present

18 June 2026: 1 day conference + NUM archive exhibition

Submit abstracts / express interest at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Deadline: 25 Jan 2026
Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health and Welfare in Britain and Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present When and where: University of Warwick, Coventry, on Thursday 18 June 2026. Conference summary: This free one day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry. Held jointly by the University of Warwick's Centre for the History of Medicine, Science and Technology, and Modern Records Centre, the event will run alongside an exhibition which will explore some of the themes covered by the speakers through the National Union of Mineworkers' archives. We welcome contributions from new and established researchers, working inside and outside higher education. Confirmed participants include: - Jörg Arnold (University of Augsburg / Institute for Contemporary History Munich - Berlin), author of The British Miner in the Age of DeIndustrialization - Keith Gildart (University of Wolverhampton), Principal Investigator on research project On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry 1947-1994 and former miner - Quentin Outram (University of Leeds), Secretary of the Society for the Study of Labour History and co-editor of Coal in Victorian Britain Conference themes: Subjects that could be addressed include but are not limited to: The human cost of coal, including: - Mining disasters, their contemporary impacts and later memorialisation. - Industrial accidents, industrial diseases and workers’ compensation. - Mine safety and the improvement of conditions. - Mining and mental health. Industrial health and welfare, including: - Pre-nationalisation provision in and beyond the colliery. - National Coal Board provision, including the NCB Medical Service, housing and the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation. - Trade union campaigns and benefit schemes. - Sport and social provision as mining welfare. Coal and community, including: - Environmental impact. - Mining families and the intergenerational effects of the mining industry. - Impacts of the industry with particular reference to gender, race and ethnicity. - Coalfield communities after coal: the effects of deindustrialisation. Submission guidelines We wish to make space for dialogue between academic and community-based researchers, and welcome involvement from mining heritage and local history groups / researchers from former coalfield communities. We welcome and encourage alternative presentational styles. Possible formats for contributions could include: - 15-20 minute papers. - 5 minute lightning papers (for example showcasing a particular object or archival source, or highlighting a particular place, event, individual or experience). - Round table discussions. - Posters or displays. Submission deadline: 25 January 2026. Limited funding for travel support will be available, with priority given to early career researchers or participants who cannot draw upon institutional funding. For additional enquiries, please contact the conference organisers at archives@warwick.ac.uk
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
The MRC will be closed 24th December - 1st January. We wish all of our researchers, depositors and supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you on 2nd January. 🎄

This postcard c.1934 features in the Cyclists' Touring Club/Cycling UK collection.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/CTC/...
Colour postcard features drawings of cats racing on ordinaires. They are being chased by dogs. Caption reads 'On the road home' and 'I wish you a Happy Christmas'.
December 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Snow way we'd leave this one out!

This snowy picture of a lane in the UK was digitised from a lantern slide, one of many found as part of the Cyclists' Touring Club collection.

More can be viewed here: mrc-describe.epexio.com/admin/#/cata...

#WinterWonderland #ArchiveAdventCalendar #MRC
Black and white lantern slide showing a snowy landscape, including a large tree with bare branches bedecked with snow. From the archives of the Cyclists Touring Club.
December 23, 2025 at 10:01 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
As the cataloguing of the NUM archives nears its end, our Project Archivist writes on the Miners' Hall, Barnsley:

The completed Yorkshire Miners' Association archive catalogue is at mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/YMA

NUM catalogue (work so far completed!) at mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NUM
December 22, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
uofglasgowasc.bsky.social
Interested in conducting original research with our internationally significant collections? ✍️📚

Applications for Library Visiting Research Fellowships at @glasgow.ac.uk are open!

Apply here: gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

Closing date: 5/01/2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
Image showing leather binding with gold tooled cover with text box containing information about the fellowships being open to support scholars to work with our collections and the closing date of 5/01/26.
December 19, 2025 at 10:53 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
As it is the season for Christmas dinners, we thought we'd share you this picture of an RAF Christmas Dinner from our archives - taken in December 1944.

A great reminder that even in the darkest of hours, the spirit of Christmas keeps going.

#ArchiveAdventCalendar #ChristmasParty #RAF
Black and white photograph of an austere looking room decorated with bunting and festive signs. The room is filled with long tables set for Christmas dinner. Rows of men in Royal Air Force uniform are sitting alongside the tables, waiting for dinner. Photo from the archives of Jack Plymen (b.1915), Scientific Officer, Royal Air Force, Operational Research Section (MSS.335/PLY/12/11).
December 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
No elves on our shelves, but they did sneak into 'The Land Worker'in December 1920 #ArchiveAdventCalendar #ArchiveElves

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/AAW/...
Poem 'The Christmas Elves'. The Christmas elves are out to-night, While all the land is veiled in snow; They deck the trees with hoar-frost bright, And bid the yule-fires warmly glow. They build ice-bridges o'er the stream, Hang icicles from roofs o'erhead, And make the holly branches gleam With stores of berries rich and red.
December 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Another entirely normal Victorian Christmas for today's #ArchiveAdventCalendar

The Cyclist in 1888/9 shouts 'Festive' with its vision of Professor Gorilla, dressed only in red pants, painting the #ChristmasColours of a swampy St Paul's Cathedral through an arch decorated with bicycling pharaohs
Front cover of the 1888 Christmas edition of the Victorian magazine 'The Cyclist', incorporating a year book for 1889 (document reference: MSS.328/C/5/CYCX/5). The illustration on the front cover is of a reclining gorilla in a pair of red pants, painting a landscape that is visible through a massive arch decorated with images of ancient Egyptian figures riding bicycles and tricycles. The landscape through the arch is a post-apocalyptic swamp which contains some broken pillars and the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. A red sun is either rising or setting behind the swampy view. The caption on the front cover reads 'Professor Gorilla's report being the Cyclist 'Xmas No. for 1888 and year book for 1889. Iliffe & Son 98, Fleet St., London & Coventry. Price One Shilling'.
December 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
wiltshiremuseum.bsky.social
A BlueSky welcome to Oxfordshire Museums Service!
oxonmuseumservice.bsky.social The Oxfordshire Museum Service @oxonmuseumservice.bsky.social · 9d
Spotted by Valerie during her work experience this Victorian medicine cabinet contains a variety of potions offering potential remedies.

It is typical of what might have been found in a middle class home during the period. For further information visit www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/oxfordshire-museum.
In a display case a wooden cabinet containing draws and little hollows for bottles containing different pills and other things is visible. At the forefront is a pair of shoes and to the left is a label describing what is in the display.
December 17, 2025 at 1:40 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
#ArchiveAdventCalendar #Bells The National Cycle Archive way.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NCA/...
Advertisement for 1889 featuring bicycle bells and clip.
December 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Christmas cheer from the back of a van!

Members of the Women's Land Army receiving festive gifts 🎁 during the Second World War, in this seasonal view from the Young Women's Christian Association archives

(more info at mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/YWC/...)

#ArchiveAdventCalendar #WrappingPaper
Black and white photograph of a group of women giving and receiving Christmas presents. The gifts are being handed out to members of the Women's Land Army from a highly decorated van.
December 15, 2025 at 2:30 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
In the aftermath of the office Christmas lunch, we're taking festive hat inspiration from the archives

This collection of unposed looking seasonal revellers featured as part of the Brewers' Society's long running 'Beer is best' ad campaign

#ArchiveAdventCalendar #FestiveClothes
1935 Brewers' Society advert for the London evening papers. It includes the slogan: 'For a merry Christmas we all agree that beer is best', and a photo of five slightly inebriated looking people with pints and party hats.
December 12, 2025 at 3:12 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
New Bluesky archive account to follow 🎉

(Festive) welcome to @arundelcarchive.bsky.social!
arundelcarchive.bsky.social Arundel Castle Archive @arundelcarchive.bsky.social · 14d
On the 1st day of Christmas my archive gave to me…
An illustrated late 19th century selection of Christmas tales including the quintessential A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. #archive #Christmas #Arundel #Christmas2025 #history #archives #books #bahhumbug #scrooge #Dickens
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Suspend belief and imagine if Trotsky was an early adopter of #ChristmasJumperDay

The less embellished original photograph from 1932 or 1933 appears in the 'Papers of Henry Sara (1886-1953), Trotskyist'

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/SAR/...
Photograph of Leon Trotsky from 1932 or 1933. Colourful decorations and jumper added by MRC staff.
December 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
We're opting for a traditional Victorian Christmas this year, so BRING ON the penny farthing racing cats

"Merry and happy may your Christmas be"
With cats cycling, cheering and sitting precariously up a tree

#ArchiveAdventCalendar #ChristmasCards
One of a series of late 19th century Christmas cards which follow the sometimes troubled progress of road racing cats on penny farthing bicycles. This card shows a close finish as the leading two cats push for the finishing line, with a third following just behind. The race finish is being viewed by an enthusiastic and entirely cat-based crowd, including a bookie and one lad up a tree. All the cats are clothed, this is the 19th century after all.
December 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
sslh.bsky.social
We have a new guide to archive sources for #co-operative #history on the website. You can download the 35-page PDF here
sslh.org.uk/2025/12/07/s...
Sources for Co-operative History in the UK
Click to download. The Society for the Study of Labour History has created a guide to sources for co-operative history in the UK. Compiled by the Society’s Archives and Resources Committee, the gui…
sslh.org.uk
December 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
#CfP Call for Papers

Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick:

Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today

Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick

Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026

Submit to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk
Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today We invite papers for a workshop entitled “Between Thompson and the Global: Rethinking Labour History Today”, to be held at the University of Warwick on 26-27 June 2026. This workshop will seek to bring together historians of labour to collectively reflect on a large historiographical shift that has taken place over the last two decades, from the social history of labour (in national contexts) to global and trans-national labour history. The social history of labour “from below” is a tradition initiated by E.P Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class (1963), and extended over several decades by a robust tradition of politically engaged left-wing historical studies of the working classes: a tradition most powerfully entrenched in British historiography (but with many imprints elsewhere, ranging from the United States to Brazil to South Africa to India). The global history of labour, which revised and questioned many of the features of “Thompsonian” history-writing, has sought to overcome “methodological nationalism” in the writing of labour history, to investigate specific labour histories within a global frame, and to enable trans-national histories of workers and work. It has emerged as an increasingly dominant frame of reference for contemporary studies of labour around the world. This workshop seeks to place these two historiographical traditions in conversation with each other, to examine the stakes of the passage from the older, “Thompsonian” tradition to the “global turn”, and to think about the changed meanings of “doing labour history” today. Participants are urged to explicitly reflect on the methodological and conceptual issues at stake in the practice of labour history. We would like to invite submissions that address (but are not necessarily limited to) the following themes: 1. To what extent has the global labour history tradition that has flourished over the last 20 years drawn upon or rejected the methodological and conceptual approaches of Thompsonian social/labour history? What other methodologies and concepts have been deployed and proven fruitful? 2. How do we address the burgeoning critique of Thompsonian social/labour history as parochial and Anglocentric (Bressey, 2015; Satia, 2020), and how have historians responded to this challenge and reshaped British labour history accordingly? What can historians of British labour learn from broader global trajectories of workforce formation and labour movements? 3. How might integrating histories of consumption, environment, and reproduction enrich our understanding of labour and its global entanglements? 4. In what ways can collaboration between historians of Britain and the global south generate new analytical frameworks or unsettle established narratives of class, race, and empire? 5. What kinds of politically-engaged global social and labour history can best respond to the contemporary challenges of rising global inequality and the appropriation of class politics by some sections of the populist right? 6. The legitimacy of 'radical' forms of labour-history writing initially arose from politics, from the apparently established centrality of the industrial working class both in society and in projects of social emancipation. That centrality has now been in precipitous decline for a long time. In this context, how might we think about what the ‘politics of doing labour history’ actually implies today? 7. What has been gained and what has been lost in the shift from a labour history dominated by “history from below” to one dominated by global history? Please send abstracts to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk
December 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
exploreyourarchive.bsky.social
✨Get involved!✨

Want to get involved and be part of connecting schools and archives? Show your interest via email: eya@archives.org.uk

#ExploreYourArchive
Navy text on a green, orange and pink background: Archi've Learnt EYA is looking to connect archives and secondary schools across the UK. Let's build a future generation with a love for preservation!: Get Involved Join a Teams work sprint on: 27th Jan, 9am - 12pm 3rd Feb, 9am - 10.30am
December 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
When you wish you hadn't volunteered to put the star on the top of the Christmas tree....
#ArchiveAdventCalendar #Tree

'Snow on pines - Knockholt, Kent' features in the Cyclists' Touring Club 'collection of historic photographs'

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/CTC/...
Black and white photograph of a huge pine tree covered in snow with a ladder propped against it.
December 5, 2025 at 10:19 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Bah, Humbug!

As part of the #ArchiveAdventCalendar, we have found this promotional poster for 'A Christmas Carol' being held in the Warwick Arts Centre in 2003.

It also highlights our powerful scanners as part of #EYADigital!

#ChristmasCarol #Victorian #Archives #WarwickArtsCentre #MRC
December 4, 2025 at 11:01 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Can we combine all of today's archive hashtags in one post? Yes we (tenuously) can!

We bring you 'Help', Railway Dog of England & absolute Bestest Boy, in 1883, collecting for orphans of railway workers, amongst boxes and a bow-clad child

#EYAPets #BoxesAndBows #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Engraving from 'The Railway Review', 26 October 1883. It shows Help, a black and white collie type of dog, getting out of the guard's carriage of a train with a heavily bearded, uniformed guard following him. A woman and child are looking enquiringly at Help, who has a metal plate with his name on around his neck. A basket and box can be seen on the railway platform. The child has a vast bow around the waist of her dress.
December 3, 2025 at 2:29 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Less than a week to go!

Interested in joining us (and our excellent archives) at the MRC? Get your application in by 7 December!
mrcwarwick.bsky.social Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · Nov 10
🚨 Archive Job Alert 🚨

📜 Fancy working with our fantastic archive collections?

We're looking for a *new* MRC Manager to lead our service!

Could this be YOU?

Find out more about the role at warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

More about the MRC at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Five photographs of the Modern Records Centre: Two students walking outside the main entrance. A view down the aisle of one of our strongrooms. A student looking through a photograph album in our seminar room. Digitisation Assistant at work scanning a volume. A view of our searchroom, with an Archive Assistant handing out a document to a researcher.
December 3, 2025 at 10:08 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
For an "alternative" take on carol singers and #FestiveLights (or lanterns)

'Coventry News', a political newspaper from the 1980s, had a slightly different take on festivities.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/ANC/...
Cover of Coventry News featuring a drawing of unhappy carol singers. The text reads: God rest you merry councillors, Let nothing you dismay; Remember NUPE cleaners, You tried to cut their pay. To save the rates for Heseltine; We won’t forget next May! Oh, tidings of gloom and despair, (Are the drinks there?) Oh, tidings of gloom and despair!
December 2, 2025 at 10:01 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Here’s a question for you: why would a medieval manuscript be reprinted almost 400 years after its conception?

As part of #EYAMedieval, we have uncovered the oldest item in our collections, a present from a mysterious Mr. R. Hill.

#Presents #ArchiveAdventCalendar #RareBooks #EarlyModern
December 1, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
simpep.bsky.social
Excited to launch, with @callingdrjones.bsky.social, 'History in Practice' - an informal space to collectively share, reflect, and collaborate on all things related to history teaching in universities

Some excellent pieces to begin with, please do get involved!

www.history-uk.ac.uk/history-in-p...
History in Practice
‘Doing the Readings’ – Will Pooley ‘Escaping the Lecture: Using game-based learning to engage History students’ – Rebecca Andrew and Sam Chadwick ‘Using Fo…
www.history-uk.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 2:30 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
The late 1950s through children's imagination - pop culture, aspirations, tea and sudden death

The 'Lollard Children's Magazine', linked with the Lollard Street adventure playground, gave Lambeth kids a space to express themselves on the page #HistChild

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/LAH/...
Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of a 'Teddy Boy' with accompanying text: "This is a real Teddy boy. There are lots of Teddy boys in Lambeth. I think they look smart. They have all sorts of styles in their hair. They are all stuck up, but quite stupid in their ways. I am never going to be a Teddy boy. David Jones." "Once a Teddy boy and a Teddy girl were walking along the road when they met each other and they said to each other, "Where are you going?" and they said, "I'm not going anywhere". Then the Teddy boy said, "Come to a dance at the Royal Log hotel". When they were there, they said, "Will you marry me?" So the next week they got married and they weren't a Teddy boy and Teddy girl any more because they liked to live ordanairy." "THE TEDDY BOY. Once there was a Teddy boy and he was a little shrimp but he could fight very good. He used to go and show off. One day he broke into a bank and took a thousand pounds. He was chased and caught and on the way he killed a man and he was caught and got hung. Leslie Presley." Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of five children doing the 'Six five hand jive' and text: "Rock 'n Roll. I'm crazy about Pat Boone, He just sends me like a balloon. Maureen Sullivan." "When I grow up I want to be a typist and type fast at the typewriter. I go to Walnut Tree Walk School. I want to get ten guineas from work and work over London somewhere. When I've got all that money I will spend it on clothes then take a holiday. Then I will spend the other that I have left. I will spend it for food and things. Carole Brookman." Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of the head of a 'Teddy Boy' with accompanying text: "The Teddy Boy. I saw a 'Teddy Boy' last night. His great big razor gave me a nasty fright. His turned-up velvet collar And his jutting out cigar Made him look like a villain His drain-pipe trousers And his awkward looking shoes Made me hurry away - Hurry, before he did chase me If he did choose. A. Pritchard." "My Birthday. My birthday was on Sunday And I am ten years old I have got six birthday cards And four birthday presents. A bucket bag, A tin of toffees, Seven and six, And a box of handerchiefs. But I did not have a party I could not have a party For my baby sister's illl. Anne Sweeny." "Rain Rain! Rain! Rain! Fall upon the house tops Fall upon the green grass Hang like beads On the flat leaves But don't rain on me please! Maureen Sullivan" Page from 'Lollard Adventure Magazine', written by Lambeth children in the 1950s. It includes a drawing of a country cottage in a field, with smoke coming out of the chimney, and accompanying text: "Trip to the country I went to Sevenoaks on Sunday to see some lady and I came home at 7 o'clock and I went at 3 o'clock and it was a nice day down there and I had tea with Mrs. Rook. Billy Long." "The Red Spotted Car One fine Spring day, a car drew into our village of Townsend. It was a bright yellow car with red spots on - quite an unusual car. It stopped outside our house and out stepped a queer looking little man. He got up onto the top of his car and started ringing a bell. Everyone came running out of their houses to see what was happening. When everyone was quiet, the little man began to speak. He said, "I wish to marry our Queen Caroline. If she refuses to marry me I will bring disaster to your town and everyone will be killed." Then he got down and back into his car and drove away."
November 28, 2025 at 2:48 PM