Stories
- Article
The birth of Britain's National Health Service
Starkly unequal access to healthcare gave rise to Nye Bevan’s creation of a truly national health service.
- Article
The secret lives of Britain’s first Black physicians
Dr Annabel Sowemimo explores the web of connections between early Black British doctors, the role of empire in West Africa and the pernicious reach of scientific racism.
- Article
Booze and bad behaviour
Our love of alcohol is like a party that’s lasted nine centuries. But there are signs that the demon drink is losing its appeal.
- 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.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
Unsigned paper arguing for lower duties on medicinal plants imported from the East to Great Britain
Date: Late 18th century - early 19th centuryReference: MS.7226/1Part of: Medicinal Plants: miscellany- Books
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House of Lords. Richard Beckford, Esq. - - - Appellant. William Beckford, Esq. - - - Respondent. The Respondent's case. Upon the Appeal against an Order of the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, made the 18th of July, 1782.
Beckford, William, 1760-1844.Date: 1783]- Books
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Military memoirs of Great Britain: or, a history of the war, 1755 - 1763. With elegant copperplates. By David Ramsay.
Ramsay, David, of Edinburgh.Date: 1779- Books
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The new universal geographical grammar: wherein the situation and extent of the several countries are laid down according to the most exact geographical observations, and the history of all the different kingdoms of the world, is interspersed in such a manner, as to render the study of geography both useful and entertaining. Under these three Heads: I. A Compendious System of Astronomy. II. The Geographical Definitions, Problems, and General Divisions of the Earth, necessary to be understood as an Introduction to this Grammar. III. A particular description of the Countries contained in each quarter of the World; their Cities, chief Towns, respective forms of Government, Forces, Revenues, Taxes, and History. Together with An Account of the Air, Soil, Produce, Traffic, Curiosities, Arms, Religion, Language, Universities, Bishoprics, Manners, Customs, Habits, and Coins, in use in the several Kingdoms and States treated of. Illustrated with a New and Correct Set of Maps of the Countries Described. The whole being an improvement and continuation of Mr. Salmon's grammar. Brought down to the present time by J. Tytler.
Salmon, Thomas, 1679-1767.Date: M.DCC.LXXVIII. [1778]- Books
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The new annual register, or general repository of history, politics, and literature, for the year 1797. To which is prefixed, the history of knowledge, learning, and taste, in Great Britain; during the reign of King Charles II. - Part I.
Date: MDCCXCVIII. [1798]