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mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
@mrcwarwick.bsky.social
27K followers 1.5K following 750 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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mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · Jan 8
Welcome to our new followers!

Looking for historical inspiration (or distraction)? 150 UK galleries, libraries, archives & museums - all active on Bluesky - are highlighted in this new pack.

Excellent and diverse collections, info about online events, heritage snark and more.

go.bsky.app/Ms7endH
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
We've been enjoying seeing some of the ways in which @rememberlop.bsky.social overlaps with our collections!

The National Union of Mineworkers archive covers the Jersey jaunt, including three files kept by Arthur Scargill, then Yorkshire Area President ( mrc-describe.epexio.com/search/all:r... )
rememberlop.bsky.social Remember LOP @rememberlop.bsky.social · 1d
Who knew that Leeds Other Paper had a Jersey correspondent? I think this was their first and last appearance, on the occasion of the National Union of Mineworkers taking its 1979 annual conference to the coalfields of the, er, Channel Islands. Yorkshire delegates were not best pleased.
LOP 108 (6 July 1979) story headlined: Bring our conference home - miners blast tax haven - from our Jersey correspondent (plus cartoon). LOP 108 (6 July 1979) front page, including story headlined: Bring our conference home - miners blast tax haven - from our Jersey correspondent (plus cartoon) LOP 108 (6 July 1979) text of story concludes on back page.
February 9, 2026 at 11:38 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
A chain of memory - 2026-1976-1945

50 years ago 'Gladrag', magazine of Birmingham Gay Liberation Front, looked at 'Gays and Fascism'. The last of the Nazi concentration camps had been liberated 31 years earlier.

The aims & context of Gay Lib - for the L, G & T - were set out inside.

#LGBTplusHM
Front cover of the April 1976 edition of Gladrag, magazine of the Birmingham Gay Liberation Front. It includes a drawing of a Nazi concentration camp, showing gay men in camp uniform behind barbed wire. Document reference: 727/4/7/2. Page from the April 1976 edition of Gladrag, magazine of the Birmingham Gay Liberation Front (GLF). It sets out the aims of the GLF movement, including examples of oppression, and sections on 'coming out', sexism, changing society, the GLF, and meetings and activities. The opening paragraph states that "In a society which does not tolerate people who fail to fit into its ideas of what is 'normal', life is made particularly difficult for gay people - homosexual women and men, transvestites and trans-sexuals." Document reference: 727/4/7/2.
February 4, 2026 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
massobsarchive.bsky.social
We're looking to capture experiences of what it means to be queer in the UK today! To do that we're collecting day diaries for 12th February. It doesn't matter what you get up to, or how you record it, we'd love to have it!🧵 (1/4) #LGBTplusHM #lgbthm26
massobsarchive.bsky.social Mass Observation Archive @massobsarchive.bsky.social · 28d
In 1982, inspired by the work of MO the National Lesbian and Gay survey began, it sought to capture what everyday life was like for queer people living in the UK. For our latest open call we're continuing the work of NLGS and asking what does it mean to be queer every day?

#lgbtqhistory
A scan of a yellow flyer advertising the National Lesbian and Gay Survey. It has a collage of different photographs of people and in the middle it reads 'so who will write the lesbian and gay history of the nineties..?' the bottom of the flyer has further information about how to take part.
February 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Another new archive account on Bluesky! 🎉

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has some fantastic archive / library collections - looking to finding out more through @lshtm-laors.bsky.social ...
lshtm-laors.bsky.social LSHTM Library, Archive & Open Research Services @lshtm-laors.bsky.social · 7d
We're thrilled to have joined Bluesky 🎉

Follow us for updates on library resources, research support, open access, including LSHTM Press and highlights from our archives.

We're looking forward to connecting and sharing with you here soon! 🙌
Users studying in LSHTM Library.
February 2, 2026 at 5:31 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
"The first time that the housewife has been considered as a person contributing to the community"

In 1943 the YWCA assessed how the proposals of the Beveridge Report would affect women - in paid and unpaid work.

More sources on Beveridge & the British welfare state at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Front page of 'News for Citizens', news sheet published by the Young Women's Christian Association in March 1943. It is a special edition on the Beveridge Report and includes a cartoon showing some of the different categories of people affected by the proposed welfare reforms (wage earners, self-employed, the 'housewife', 'the man of means', the schoolboy and grandfather). The rest of the page provides information about the background to the report and the proposals. From the archives of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), document reference MSS.243/1/9/3/2.
February 2, 2026 at 2:45 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
As the General Strike centenary gets closer, we've been boosting our digitised content!

560 original documents have now been digitised & are free to access, including strike bulletins, radio transcripts, union communications & more... #GeneralStrike100

cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...
Leaflet issued during the May 1926 General Strike in support of the government: The General Strike. MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER. Constitutional Government is being attacked. Let all good Citizens whose livelihood and labour have thus been put in peril bear with fortitude and patience the hardships with which they have been so suddenly confronted. Stand behind the Government, who are doing their part, confident that you will co-operate in the measures they have undertaken to preserve the liberties and privileges of the people of these Islands. The laws of England are the people’s birthright. The laws are in your keeping. You have made Parliament their guardian. The General Strike is a challenge to Parliament and is the road to anarchy and ruin. STANLEY BALDWIN. Front page of the Daily Graphic, 13 May 1926. It includes photographs of strike breaking activities, including medical students and soldiers moving goods. The Leeds Citizen, a special strike bulletin published on behalf of the local strike committee. This edition dates from 8 May 1926 and includes the Trades Union Congress' statement that the General Strike was an industrial dispute (rather than a revolutionary challenge to the constitution), information about the local situation, and a report on debates in the House of Commons. Leaflet issued by the Trades Union Congress during the May 1926 General Strike: TRADES UNION CONGRESS CONSTITUTION NOT CHALLENGED The General Council of the Trades Union Congress does NOT challenge Constitution. It is not seeking to substitute unconstitutional government. Nor is it desirous of undermining our Parliamentary institutions. AN INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE The sole aim of the Council is to secure for the miners a decent standard of life. The Council is engaged in an Industrial dispute. THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS. THE ONLY ISSUE In any settlement, the only issue to be decided will be an industrial issue, not political, not constitutional. Printed and Published by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, 33 Eccleston Square, London, S.W
January 30, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
peoplespapers.bsky.social
Save the date! Join us for an online archival workshop with @gpadmoreinstitute.bsky.social and @irrnews.bsky.social to explore the materials and histories of Black activist publishing in the UK from the 1970s: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archival-w...
January 28, 2026 at 2:03 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
📚 Do you lend books out & never get them back? Are friends hoarding your literary stash? 📖

In 1938 John A. Gormley found the ultimate passive-aggressive solution, combining MASSIVE WRITING IN CAPITALS on the cover with a custom-made ink stamp imprinting his ownership across many, many inside pages.
The cloth-bound front of a book of leaflets and pamphlets published by the Liberal Party in and around 1918. It is being held up to show a date, name and address that has been written in massive capital letters using black ink (26th February 1938. John A. Gormley, 313 Kingsland Road, Hackney, London, England E8). Document reference: 1356/10. Catalogue entry at https://mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/EMP/10 The same book, open at a page which shows part of the index and the cover page of a pamphlet on 'Liberal policy in the task of political and social reconstruction', first published in 1918. These pages (along with loads more in the book) have been repeatedly stamped with a custom-made ink stamp which says 'STOLEN FROM JOHN A. GORMLEY', together with the date he acquired the book (26 Feb 1938). Document reference: 1356/10. Catalogue entry at https://mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/EMP/10
January 28, 2026 at 2:11 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
An excellent new resource from @uoscollections.bsky.social!

We're looking forward to exploring the catalogue and developing links between the Arthur Scargill Archive and the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers archives (full NUM catalogue available in the next couple of months!)
uoscollections.bsky.social Uni of Sheffield Special Collections, Heritage and Archives @uoscollections.bsky.social · 13d
🚨NEWLY CATALOGUED COLLECTION🚨

We are delighted to announce that after a 2-year project, the Arthur Scargill Archive is now available for research in our public reading room!🎉

More info➡️ tinyurl.com/cz3s5dxk

Browse the catalogue➡️ tinyurl.com/vn4xvdd6

@mrcwarwick.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social
The Arthur Scargill Archive
Following a two year cataloguing project the Library is pleased to announced that the Arthur Scargill Archive is now open to all researchers.
tinyurl.com
January 27, 2026 at 3:53 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
'We cannot stay silent' #HolocaustMemorialDay #HMD2026 #LightTheDarkness

From the papers of Aaron Rapoport Rollin (1885-1972), trade unionist and Jewish activist.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/ROL/...
Drawing of a Jewish family clinging to each other, amongst the dead and injured. Two German soldiers are in the background, one is aiming a machine gun at the family.
January 27, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
lynnmarriott.bsky.social
The Warwick Network for Parish Research announces a call for Papers for the PARISH DATA Symposium - We now invite proposals for 15-minute papers:

24th Warwick Symposium on Parish Research
Saturday 16 May 2026 - University of Warwick, Central Campus, Coventry (hybrid).

1/2
2026 - Parish Data
The Twenty-Fourth Warwick Symposium on Parish Research takes place on Saturday 16 May 2026 at the University of Warwick (in hybrid format). It is co-organized by My-Parish with the Institute for the H...
go.warwick.ac.uk
January 26, 2026 at 12:43 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Work with the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers continues...

Today our project archivist has been unrolling National Control Room notices which last saw daylight 41 years ago (and easing off the brittle remains of the Blu Tack)

mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/NUM/...
View of a desk showing a box with posters and notices in, kept flat by a snake weight. The document at the top of the pile is a map of Britain showing the deployment of pickets. Another small pile of notices is upside down next to the box. The top one has four big, dry lumps of brittle Blu Tack pressed into the back.
January 23, 2026 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
rwldproject.bsky.social
Fab looking conference from @mrcwarwick.bsky.social - Blood is the price of coal.

Call for papers open until Sunday - have a look!

18 June for the event itself - hoping to be a part of it!

warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Call for papers
warwick.ac.uk
January 22, 2026 at 2:44 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Engaged in community heritage work and looking to develop your skills? These £1,000 training grants from the National Archives are well worth a look...
uknatarcsector.bsky.social UK Archive Sector Leadership @uknatarcsector.bsky.social · 19d
The Spaces, Places and Belonging: Community Hub has awarded its first round of skills bursaries. Congratulations to Dr Lee Karen Stow, Sheffield Feminist Archive, Perry Wood Primary School & Colonel Scott L. Pileckas!
Read about their projects here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/community-hu... (1/2)
A person stands in a small office, directly in front of an overhead camera tripod with two large lights extending out to illuminate whatever the camera is capturing.
January 21, 2026 at 5:26 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Déjà vu?

'The fight against Fascism. The fight against war. The fight against Imperialism'. #AntiImperialism #AntiFascism

So many topics covered in 'A New Hope for World Socialism' by the International Bureau for Revolutionary Socialist Unity in 1938.

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/MSH/...
Cover of 'A New Hope for World Socialism'. Produced by the International Bureau for Revolutionary Socialist Unity in 1938. Subjects in the pamphlet include 'The fight against Fascism', 'The fight against War' and 'The fight against Imperialism'.
January 21, 2026 at 10:52 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Fantastic new museum account to follow 💥

@devilsporridge.bsky.social is now here on Bluesky to share the story of the world's largest munitions factory in #WW1 and the women and men who worked there
devilsporridge.bsky.social The Devil's Porridge Museum @devilsporridge.bsky.social · 20d
Hello. We're new here. 👋

Wondering what devil's porridge is? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle coined the phrase to describe the explosive materials he saw munitions workers at H.M. Factory Gretna mixing in large pans. They were making cordite.

Please don't eat devil's porridge. 💥
#DevilsPorridge #WW1history
Two munitions workers mixing cordite in large nitrating pans inside H.M. Factory Gretna. This is a black and white archive photo from the past.
January 20, 2026 at 1:03 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Some really engaging looking papers already in and a programme starting to shape up nicely!

With a closing date this Sunday, there's one more week to stake your claim to a place on the bill...
mrcwarwick.bsky.social 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
January 19, 2026 at 11:01 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
'The Wonder of the Underwear World'

A bold claim from Royal Fleece Vests & Pants!

The Railway Review contained a range of ads targeting railway workers, alongside news, opinion pieces & cartoons. Most editions between 1880-1920 have been digitised & are online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Advert for Royal Fleece Vests and Pasts, optimistically described as "the wonder of the underwear world". The ad targets railway workers and includes an engraving of a train and various fully clothed railway operatives. It includes the statement "Underwear for Railway Workers. You are out in all weathers - at all hours - doing heavy work that has to be done in spite of the fogs and frosts, rains and gales of winter. Underwear that suits the clerk is useless for the railwayman." From The Railway Review, 18 Oct 1912 [document reference: MSS.127/AS/4/1/19].
January 16, 2026 at 1:34 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
#OnThisDay 15 Jan 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, founders of the Communist Party of Germany, were executed by Freikorps forces following the failed Spartacist revolt. Their deaths marked a violent suppression of leftist uprisings during post-war German political turmoil.
Cover of a manual issued by the Young Communist League of Great Britain for the Young Communist International. The illustration is of Karl Liebknecht with the date of his birth 1871 and date of his murder 1919. From the Maitland Sara Hallinan collection. 'A Polish prison photograph of Rosa Luxemburg'. One photograph is face on and the other is in profile with her prison number 317 1906 shown on her shoulder.
January 15, 2026 at 11:59 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
The Spanish Civil War through contemporary eyes

Faced with a fascist coup and polarising conflict, an international aid effort was launched - our digitised collection on the Spanish Civil War, 1936-9, contains 4,000+ archive sources freely available

Find out more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Front cover of a pamphlet with the title 'Aid for Spain', promoting the International Solidarity Fund. It includes an image of a food bowl being passed from one hand to another, with the ruins of a destroyed building in the background.
January 14, 2026 at 1:23 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Oooh - new library and archive account incoming...

Welcome to @rialibrary.bsky.social and their medieval little guy!

#SpeirGorm
January 14, 2026 at 9:40 AM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
Mining the Past.

Sarah Hughes joined the Modern Records Centre in July 2025 as Outreach and Education Co-ordinator on the Mining the Past project. Here she shares some of the fantastic outreach, engagement and connections she has made since then. #MiningThePast #NUM

warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Photograph of Sarah with Steven Wyatt, Chair of Dodworth & District Miners’ Memorial Group at the NUM (Yorkshire Area) Miners’ Memorial Day Service.
January 13, 2026 at 4:12 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
A Bluesky challenge!

We've got so many great heritage/GLAM accounts here now, that some are flying under the radar

From national organisations to niche collections, these active accounts are all (at time of posting) under 500 followers-lowest at 9-how many can we get over 500?

go.bsky.app/U16Nwsw
January 12, 2026 at 3:52 PM
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
The Land Worker, journal of the National Union of Agricultural Workers, used striking images - photos, engravings & cartoons - to help get their message across.

On Plough Monday, this short 🧵 shows just a few examples of the plough as a symbol of rural life through the pages of The Land Worker...
Part of the cover page of 'The Land Worker', March 1923. It includes an engraving of a rural scene, with farm, motorised tractor, horse-drawn plough and crows pecking on the ground.
January 12, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
lselibrary.bsky.social
Latest @historyworkshop.org.uk with Indy Bhullar and Chelsea Collison (LSE), Peter Fisher and Jenny Yu (TUC Library) @londonmetuni.bsky.social and historian Laura Schwartz (Warwick Uni) discussing trade union history. @tuc.org.uk

The Exhibition is open until 31 Jan. www.lse.ac.uk/library/what...
historyworkshop.org.uk History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · Jan 8
What does a new exhibition on 200 years of British trades union history reveal about the tumultuous story of workers organising for change?

Marybeth Hamilton sits down with historians and archivists to discuss the exhibition and the unexpected stories that it unveils.
Reimagining Trades Union History
What does a new exhibition on 200 years of British trades union history reveal about the triumphs and challenges of collective action?
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
January 9, 2026 at 8:58 AM