Summary Reaching information overload means it is ever so easy to lose focus – and also miss essential details. The problem with trying to write a history of a place like Cambridge is that the sources are many and varied. Furthermore, some of the really interesting nuggets are hidden away in books that are described … More Isolating the stories within Cambridge’s town and civic history
Summary Looks like I have a very long reading list over the summer – and note some of the differences between documents covering local contemporary history vs more distant local history. I spent today in the Cambridgeshire Collection where I asked about all the academic works that had been deposited in the collection over the … More Striking local history gold after lots of digging
Summary On discovering a series of her historical columns in the Cambridgeshire Collection. This video from the Fens Museums is a nice background. And this is local historian Mike Petty MBE who worked with her. …who I met in the said building here. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Life Magazine Think of ‘Country Life’ magazine but … More Enid Porter – curator of the Cambridge & County Folk Museum
Summary …and the digitisation of long lost articles on the history of Cambridge I was in the Cambridgeshire Collection earlier today and discovered the undigitised copies of the Cambridgeshire Association of Local History‘s past publications. I browsed through about 65 years worth of records and articles – so by no means went into any detail. … More Medieval Cambridge Market Square
Summary On how historical knowledge can help inform future policy making I promised Sarah Nicmanis, one of the organisers of Cambridge’s Changing Conversations event series that I’d write a blogpost on a small workshop I hosted at their event on transport, where Nicola Terry and Emma Fletcher spoke about the problems and possible solutions. Before … More Cambridge Transport – how did we get to here?
Summary A detailed response from Cambridgeshire historian Mike Petty MBE “When the Cambridge (Daily) News moved offices from St Andrews Street to Newmarket Road most of the original glass negatives and prints were dumped. One photographer, John Carter, defied instructions by saving score of prints which he took to his home on Milton Road. I … More Cambridge’s lost photo archives
Summary Any suggestions? Ploughing through the newspaper archives in the Cambridge Central Library and the http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ has opened the world of lots of old photographs from the newspapers of decades ago. The Central Library has a digitising machine that allows you to take screengrabs of articles from their extensive microfiche collection that Mike Petty and friends must … More What happened to the photo archives of old newspapers?
Summary Eglantyne Jebb gives me another pointer In an excruciatingly tough session in the archives today due to a toxic mix of general election exhaustion and depression, I managed to re-read parts of Eglantyne Jebb’s study of social questions and cross-referenced it with a book published a year prior that she mentioned, “Housing in Cambridge” … More Housing reform in Cambridge in late 1800s
Summary Town and gown united to protest against Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement – and of conscription in the run up to the Second World War I took these screenshots from a video in the Central Library, Cambridge in their 3rd floor media unit. One of the things that strikes me about the images, as … More Cambridge May Day protests in 1939
Summary An ever-present force in the first half of the 20th Century in Cambridge, our city has much to be grateful to her for. In the days when newspapers listed the names of councillors who attended meetings, and when they quoted debates verbatim, one name comes up with incredible frequency: “Mrs Rackham”. But who was … More Cllr Clara Rackham – half a century of public service
