Topic description and stories

The letters before they were opened and read by Renaud Morieux at The National Archives, Kew

French love letters confiscated by Britain finally read after 265 years

07 Nov 2023

Over 100 letters sent to French sailors, but never delivered, have been read for the first time since they were written in 1757-8. The letters...

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Magdalene College discovers a treasure trove of women’s intellectual history

08 Mar 2021

The collection comprises 47 books and pamphlets owned and annotated by the philosopher Mary Astell (1666–1731), viewed by many as “the first English...

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Syphilitic City: one in five Georgian Londoners had syphilis by their mid-30s, study suggests

06 Jul 2020

250 years ago, over one-fifth of Londoners had been treated for syphilis by their 35th birthday, historians have calculated.

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Joseph Priestley: theologian, scientist, clergyman and stammerer

Study unearths Britain’s first speech therapists

22 Oct 2018

On International Stammering Awareness Day (22 October), a new study reveals that Britain’s first speech therapists emerged at least a century earlier...

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