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16 results
  • Article
  • Article

How ritual creates meaning

| Victoria Adukwei BulleyMaïa Walcott

In a world that encourages us to quash our sense of wonder, ritual can help push away apathy and nurture life-enhancing creativity and imagination.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

How chloroform shaped the murder mystery

| David Jesudason

Find out how a sweet-smelling liquid anaesthetic captured the public’s imagination and changed pop culture for ever.

  • Article
  • Article

The relationship between science and art

| Victoria Kingston

Often seen as opposites, science and art both depend on observation and synthesis.

  • Article
  • Article

The men who meddled with nature

| Allison C Meier

The ‘acclimatisation societies’ of the 19th century sought to ‘improve’ on the natural world by releasing non-native species into the wild. The effects were disastrous.

  • Podcast
  • Podcast

Wetland

In this episode, JC and her contributors invite you to rethink the idea of of boggy marshlands, and see the ecological health, biodiversity, and carbon capturing benefits of these misunderstood spaces.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

Dark Matter responds to ‘Epidemic threats and racist legacies’

| Dark Matter

Animated-collage artist Dark Matter brings his unique combination of live footage and archive imagery to respond to a text suggesting that the field of epidemiology emerged in the 19th century imbued with the doctrine of Western imperialism.

  • Article
  • Article

Sharing Nature: Parks for people

| Danny Birchall

Paula Broom’s photograph of Sydney’s Centennial Park shows the complexity and joy we find in urban greenery.

  • Article
  • Article

Coleridge’s hypochondria

| Mike JayNaki Narh

An intense focus on his own bodily sensations led poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge to self-medicate with narcotics. But this fascination also put Coleridge ahead of the medical sensibilities of his day.

  • Article
  • Article

Louis Wain’s cryptic cats

| Bryony Benge-Abbott

Once famous for his quirky cat illustrations, today Louis Wain is often portrayed as a ‘psychotic’ artist whose illness can be mapped out through his drawings. Here Bryony Benge-Abbott takes a more rounded view.

  • Article
  • Article

The work of wet-nursing

| Alev ScottVicky Scott

Many of us know that in the past, babies were sometimes nourished by wet-nurses. But, perhaps surprisingly, the practice continues today – and the milk recipients are not only babies.

  • Article
  • Article

When skin bleaching goes wrong

| Ngunan AdamuAmaal Said

Warnings about permanent health damage don’t deter those using skin-bleaching products for years on end. Read the story of one woman who suffered from liver failure after years of striving to be paler.

  • Article
  • Article

Drugs in Victorian Britain

| Louise Crane

Many common remedies were taken throughout the 19th century, with more people than ever using them. What was the social and cultural context of this development?

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

“Above resistant pavements, I floated”

| Iain Sinclair

In this extract from ‘Living with Buildings and Walking with Ghosts’, walk with Iain Sinclair through the streets of London.

  • Article
  • Article

Rediscovering a love of the game

| Lara GoodwinCarolina Altavilla

Sexism and homophobia in football prompted Lara Goodwin to stop playing the sport at 19. Today, while discrimination in the game is still rife, Lara has found hope – and like-minded players – in an inclusive east London club.

  • Article
  • Article

The birth of Britain's National Health Service

| Cal Flyn

Starkly unequal access to healthcare gave rise to Nye Bevan’s creation of a truly national health service.

  • Article
  • Article

Uncovering experiences of dementia

| Millie van der Byl Williams

Focusing on three 19th-century women’s case notes, Millie van der Byl Williams explores how our definition of dementia has changed.