Stories
- Article
Deadly doses and the hardest of hard drugs
The invention of the modern hypodermic syringe meant we could get high – or accidentally die – faster than before. Find out how this medical breakthrough was adapted for deadly uses.
- Article
History of condoms from animal to rubber
Come on a journey from the first recorded condoms in the 16th century to the modern female condoms in the 1990s – and everything in between.
- Article
Fantastic beasts and unnatural history
Find out how a 17th-century compendium of the natural world came to present fantastical beasts –like dragons – as real, living creatures.
- Book extract
The castration effect
Discover how testosterone – or the lack of it – affects the male body, from eunuch slaves to castrato singers, and on to hormone reduction in modern prostate cancer treatment.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
English Recipe Book, 17th century
Digby, Venetia, 1600-1633.Date: mid 17th century - early 19th centuryReference: MS.7391- Archives and manuscripts
St John's Hospital (Cirencester, Gloucs.)
St John's Hospital, Cirencester, GloucsDate: Early 17th century - mid 17th centuryReference: MS.5375
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
Stanhope, Philip: volume 1
Date: Mid 17th century - late 17th centuryReference: MS.761Part of: Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)
- Archives and manuscripts
- Online
Stanhope, Philip: volume 2
Date: Mid 17th century - late 17th centuryReference: MS.762Part of: Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)- Archives and manuscripts
Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)
Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)Date: Mid 17th century - late 17th centuryReference: MSS.761-762
