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  • Article

Why we no longer keep our dead at home

Today in the UK we rarely sit with, touch, or perhaps even see our loved ones after they’ve died. Past practices were very different and, Claire Cock-Starkey argues, were more helpful for those grieving.

  • In pictures

Advice for (medieval) old age

Whether it was an abstemious, pious preparation for death or drinking gold in the quest for eternal life, those seeking advice on what best to do in their later years were never short of inspiration.

  • Article

Keeping death close

Scattering her father’s ashes, Lauren Entwistle found herself longing for something physical that proved he once was a living, breathing person. Here she reflects on the objects that help us to grieve and remember.

  • Article

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching

The widespread practice of skin bleaching was heavily influenced by the Western colonisation and slavery of African and South Asian countries. Ngunan Adamu explores this toxic history.

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Images

  • A standing woman preparing to remove facial hair from seated woman using a piece of string. Watercolour, China, 18--.
  • A man in a gown is sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, preparing his dress and very elaborate hair style, with other men in the room. Coloured etching by I.W., 1772, after Captain Minshull.
  • A black woman preparing to go out by brushing her hair, applying lipstick, attaching an earring and putting a condom in her bag with a message about the benefits of using a condom to prevent AIDS; advertisement by HERO, Health Education Resource Organisation, Baltimore. Lithograph by HEROglyphics, 1990.
  • Rossetter's hair restorer / M.E. Irlande, Grenada Lodge, Stockwell Park Road, Brixton.
  • Buckingham's Dye for the whiskers ... : Hall's Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer will restore gray or faded hair to its original color as in youth ... / R.P. Hall & Co.
  • Buckingham's Dye for the whiskers ... : Hall's Vegetable Sicilian Hair Renewer will restore gray or faded hair to its original color as in youth ... / R.P. Hall & Co.
  • The Clifford hair restorer / sole proprietor and manufacturer: W.B. Mason ; sold by Taylors' Drug Co. Ltd.
  • Un producto de calidad divina : Shampoo 91.
  • Edwards' "Harlene" for the hair : the great hair dressing : restores the hair... / [Edwards' Harlene Company].
  • The actor Bruno Kastner holding a tube of Bubisan brilliantine for the hair. Colour lithograph after Leonhard Fries.
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Catalogue

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