Tessera

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

@mrcwarwick.bsky.social

Archives rich in social and political history from the late 19th century onwards. Follow the MRC for highlights from our collections, details of our online resources and more! https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc

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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 5d ago

We're starting early for #YorkshireDay with a plug for our digitised archives on Yorkshire Miners, 1811-1945 A selection of branch membership records, publicity material and more all online at wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Recruitment leaflet for the Yorkshire Mineworkers' Association, c.1928.

Advert for 'Special excursion train' to Ashbury for the Belle Vue Gardens, laid on by the Committee of Workmen at Wharncliffe Silkstone Collieries.

Leaflet for the lock-out at the Rock Colliery, Leeds.

Commemorative membership certificate for the Yorkshire Miners' Association, including images of leading union officials, the YMA headquarters and work in the coal industry.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last wk.

Banners bright Mining history on display in our current exhibition, featuring archives on coalfield communities, health, welfare and mining trade unionism

Banners about the National Union of Mineworkers' archive on display in the MRC's exhibition room. They include banners on themes relating to miners' welfare, the strikes in the 1970s and 1984/5, and pit closures.

Banners about the National Union of Mineworkers' archive on display in the MRC's exhibition room. They include banners on themes relating to the 1926 General Strike, the mining unions, gala days and holidays, and the dangers of the mining industry.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2w ago

We're going back (*ahem*) 40 years and digging through the zines Some fine DIY cut and paste work on show, alongside music news, implied filth, vegetarianism, nuclear armageddon and cricket

Front cover of Coventry zine 'Not! The Woman's Own', 1985, featuring punk Marilyn Monroe, crossed knives and the promise of band interviews, vegetarian recipes and skateboarding.

Front cover of zine 'Love and Molotov Cocktails', 1983, offering band interviews, articles about CND and cricket, and a mystery 'easy competition'.

Front cover of zine 'Committed Suicide', 1985, featuring cut-up collage of punk Thatcher, an actual punk, someone in a balaclava, a mounted police officer, a hazardous waste symbol and a series of band names.

Front cover of Valentine's Day edition of the zine 'Leamington's Love Letter', 1981, featuring a map of Leamington with a superimposed heart and compass ('From the heart of Royal Leamington Spa'). The publication is celebrating the day of romance / love with an 'interview with Ronald Regan', 'naughty pics', 'obscene letters', a non-existent quiz and assorted lies.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2w ago

From Strongroom to Your Screen: Digitising the Fortnightly Returns How do our digitised collections get online? What *are* the operative stonemasons' Fortnightly Returns? Digitisation Assistant Jamie Orton talks us through his latest project in our new blog at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Digitisation assistant at work, copying a volume using an overhead camera. The volume is supported by a split cradle and there are lights along three sides of the A1 scanner.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2w ago

#OTD in 1884 there was a demonstration in London to support Third Reform Act which gave the vote to 60 percent of adult men. Women remained specifically excluded from voting in parliamentary elections until 1918 achieving equality only in 1928. mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/LSC/...

LONDON TRADES' COUNCIL.
REFORM BILL in DANGER
TO THE WORKMEN OF LONDON.
Your attendance is urgently requested in support of the
GREAT REFORM
DEMONSTRATION
On MONDAY, JULY 21st, 1884.
The Trades will form a distinctive portion of the Procession, and from the outlying Districts will assemble in order on the Thames Embankment at TWO o'clock.
All Workmen are cordially invited to fall in with the Trade to which they belong, as it is greatly to their interest that the Procession of the Trades should be as large, representative, and characteristic as possible.
THE TRADES' ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Abrey, J., Carpenters Harford, E., Railway Servants Powell, T., Machine Rulers
Adams, E., Bakers Jones, W, Cabinet Makers Smyth, T., Plasterers
Coulson, E., Bricklayers King, H., Bookbinders Smith, J. R., Cabinet Makers
Cottrell, E., Polishers Mitchell, J., Portmanteau Makers Steadman, W. C., Barge Builders
Drummond, C. J., Compositors Morrison, E. Bookbinders Woods, E., Ironfounders
Fernie, J., Farriers Noon, E., Shoe Makers Willson, I. J., Shipwrights
Humphreyson, C., Cabinet Makers Poole, J., Shoe Makers
GEORGE SHIPTON, Secretary.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2w ago

Football in exile In 1946 Spain had two national teams. After the civil war, a Spanish Republican team was formed from exiled players. They included Emilio Aldecoa, who became the first Spanish footballer to play in the English league when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1943.

Copy letter written on behalf of Manuel de Irujo, former head of the Basque government and a representative of the Spanish Republican Government in exile, to Stanley Rous, Secretary of the English Football Association.

Irujo asks for a match to be arranged between Republican footballers and a British team. The majority of the Republican players played for French teams, having fled Spain following Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The exception was Coventry City's striker Emilio Aldecoa, who became the first Spanish player in the English league when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1943.

Included in a file on 'Spain, 1945-1948', from the archives of the Trades Union Congress; document reference: MSS.292/946/2.

Glamorgan Archives Archifau Morgannwg @glamarchives.bsky.social · 2w ago

This photograph was taken 100 years ago, in 1926. It shows members of the Treharris and District Central Relief Committee. The Committee worked to raised funds to provide food and other necessities to miners and their families during the long coal strike of that year.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 3w ago

'Nourishing and health giving'. A glass of cold Ovaltine is a delightful Summer drink. Opinions may vary. Advertisement featured in the TGWU 'The Record' 1929. mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/TGW/...

Advertisement for Ovaltine Cold. Features a drawing of a woman drinking a glass of cold Ovaltine. Caption reads 'A delightful Summer drink - nourishing and health giving'.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 3w ago

Some of the most powerful talks in our conference 'Blood is the Price of Coal' looked at coalfield communities after the pits had closed These and more can be watched in full at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Pair of boots with dates that the owner worked at Kellingley Colliery painted on the toes.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 3w ago

On #BastilleDay, we're highlighting just some of the French Resistance sources included in the MRC's archives 131 bulletins and leaflets produced by WW2 French anti-fascist groups are digitised and freely available at mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/search/all:r...

July 1942 edition of French Resistance bulletin 'Combat', including column on '14 Juillet 1942'.

Small French Resistance leaflet (small enough to fit in the palm of your hand). It includes an illustration of France being stabbed by a dagger with a swastika symbol on its handle. The caption reads 'On ne collabore pas avec ses bourreaux'.

14 July 1942 edition of French Resistance bulletin Libérer et Fédérer, including column headed 'Manifestez le 14 Juillet!'.

French Resistance leaflet with the title 'C'est le sort le plus beau...'. It includes cartoons (nine panels) attacking recruitment of collaborators by the Nazi occupiers.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 3w ago

In 1919 laundry workers became entitled to a government-enforced minimum wage Mechanised steam laundries saved time and effort for those who could afford the service, but it could be tough work for those employed there Find out more on the 'Sweated Trades' at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

List of some of the processes involved in work at steam laundries in 1922, including sorting, washing, calendaring, drying and mangling, machine ironing and hand ironing.

Photographs of Wilson's Family Laundry, Willesden Green, c.1917.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 4w ago

Glamorous train travel in the Golden Age of Steam? This 1901 cartoon from 'The Railway Herald' shows some of the more ‘interesting’ habits of fellow passengers 125 years ago… Editions of the Railway Clerks' Association newspaper, 1896-1901, are free online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

A cartoon which shows how people spend their train journeys: eating from hampers, throwing bottles out of windows, dodging missiles thrown at train windows, defacing the carriage and practising the 'three card trick'.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 4w ago

Digitised! Some of the earliest records of UK trade unionism, containing a wealth of information for labour, social, economic, political & family history 700+ Fortnightly Returns from the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons online (& more to come) cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

'Black list' of stonemasons who remained at work during a strike at the Army and Navy Club House, Coal Exchange and at Mr - Yard, Bell Lane, Spitalfields, in 1848.

Poster for strike of stonemasons during the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament, 1841

Extract from the fortnightly return for 23 November-7 December 1848, reporting on 'an imposter' at Coventry Lodge. John Kennedy had obtained money on false pretences and "abused the hostess with unbecoming language". The report ends with the statement "Beware of him".

Short messages between members of the union in the 'To correspondents' column. It includes requests for individual members to write to family members, to get in contact or "hear of something not at all creditable" to them, and to write about tools obtained "in a clandestine manner".

Society for the Study of Labour History @sslh.bsky.social · 4w ago

What a fantastic conference, and we were delighted to support it. If you were unable to attend, you can catch up below!

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick@mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

Coal conference catch-up ⛏️ On 18 June we welcomed 80+ people to 'Blood is the price of coal' - a conference on coal communities, health and welfare Recordings of 10 talks, conference photos and more are now available online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib... #histmed #MiningHistory #envhist

Photograph of a miner in the first half of the 20th century. He has come up from a shift below ground and has coal dust coating the lower half of his face.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 4w ago

Football - how to succeed! #WorldCup2026 This booklet was written by Rev K R G Hunt, Housemaster of Highgate School in the 1930s. Part of the National Union of Teachers archive. mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NUT/...

Booklet entitled 'Football - how to succeed'. Published for the National Union of Teachers it shows a drawing of a footballer circa 1930s.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

Inspired by the Tour de France, we're digging out the board games Snakes-&-ladders-esque 'Wheeling' was produced in the 1890s/1900s to cash in on the cycling boom Can YOU escape police, an unfortunate pedestrian, spikey farm machinery and a weird mossy surface to end up safely at a Derbyshire pub?

Photo of the board game 'Wheeling - A New and Exciting Game For Cyclists'. A sequence of squares numbered 1-99 feature various hazards - police, rough terrain, an unsuspecting older woman, a heavily laden cart, some sort of farm machinery, etc. The winner of the game is the first to get their counter to the pub, specifically late 19th century cycling magnet 'The Anchor' at Ripley, Derbyshire.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

For guidance on how to dress in the tennis season, the YWCA 'Our Own Gazette' from 1920 had plenty of tips #Tennis "Chic little chemise-frocks give one freedom of movement as well as grace ...mellow-shaded sponge cloth are best suited to the tennis girl". mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/YWC/...

'Our handiwork page' from the Young Women's Christian Association's 'Our Own Gazette'. Illustrations of two suitable tennis dresses for the 1920s. The text includes tips on suitable material to use. Patterns for the dresses were available for ninepence and you had to remember to include the pattern number and your waist size in the order.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

'With Wheel and Camera' Marking #NationalCameraDay with the excellent Canonbie Cycling Club Chronicle Produced by a group of friends in the 1890s-1900s, the proto-zine features a mix of articles, 'lovely things' (photos), cartoons and a host of in-jokes cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

Page from The Canonbie Cycling Club Chronicle, vol. 4, nos. 15-16, featuring handwritten adverts for a bicycle and a camera, a list of the CCCC contributors, a box marked 'To let' and a semi-serious list of prices of advertising space. Document reference: 1043/27/7.

Page from the Canonbie Cycling Club Chronicle. vol. 2, no. 6, including part of a handwritten description of a cycling tour in East Kent. Two photos have been pasted in to illustrate the account - one of Northbourne Church and another captioned 'In the Garden. Mrs + Miss Bechely + Miss B', showing three women standing in a Kentish garden. Document reference: 1043/27/1.

Extract from Canonbie Cycling Club Chronicle, vol. 2, no. 7, written by the editor Arthur C. Armstrong:
"AND ANOTHER
I have decided to give up photography, and if anybody wants an amateurs outfit at a very small cost, or parts of it he can have them at
very small prices; but you will have to look sharp. I am not driven out of the field by the "lovely things" that are continually shown me with the usual remark "You couldn't produce anything like that old chap
I suppose"! No, it's time that ties me down. My leisure hours are few, which is the excuse I make for this number which as far as I am concerned is below par.
Now trusting the Whitsun weather will be alright, and my holiday too (June 3rd to 19th) I leave you. At present weather is settled fine. THE EDITOR"

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

More great records highlighted by @glamarchives.bsky.social ! Scroll down their thread for information about the Crew List Index Project, capturing information about seafarers and ships into British ports in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Glamorgan Archives Archifau Morgannwg@glamarchives.bsky.social · last mo.

Today is the Day of the Seafarer Glamorgan Archives hold around 600 boxes of crew agreements for Cardiff registered ships for the period 1863 to 1913. The agreements record the names of the crew, age, town of birth and the name of their last ship.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

'The match of the season' With women's cricket to the fore in the #T20WorldCup, we're looking back over a century to the rather stylish Sheffield works team of Thomas Firth & Sons A *lot* of 1920s flapper stereotypes in the cartoon vs rather fine photo mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/IPM/...

Photograph of the Princess Street Offices Ladies’ Cricket Team, from ‘The Bombshell’, August 1922. The cricketers are lined up in two rows (six standing and five sitting) and are dressed in loose 1920s clothing. Most have bandanas or scarfs round their heads to tie back their hair. The two women at each end of the back row are leaning on cricket bats and the woman sat in the middle of the front row is wearing pads.

Cartoon from ‘The Bombshell’, August 1922, showing ‘The match of the season!’ – ‘Ladies versus Gentlemen, Shiregreen, July 17th’. It shows the women in a rather unflattering light, as more interested in fashion than the sport and either distracted by jazz or alarmed by the cricket balls.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · last mo.

Picnic weather today? 🥵 In 1912 Workers' Union members were gathered on the Bournville lawns, rugs and banners in hand The WU annual reports contain images of the union's activities, including demonstrations, strikes and social events like this one See more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Printed photograph of workers having a picnic in a large field with trees in the background. The caption says, ‘The Workers’ Union picnic at Bournville’.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Just one of a fantastic series of panels from our 'Blood is the Price of Coal' conference yesterday - a moving day in many ways, with great potential to spark more conversations and collaborative projects in the future

Lucy Jameson@lucyanne.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A great day so far at the University of Warwick for the ‘Blood is the Price of Coal’ Conference in collab with @mrcwarwick.bsky.social. We’ve heard about a huge variety of subjects, from a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds, which has been really nice! Onto the afternoon panels now.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The 'Women's Employment' newspaper encouraged women to use their faculties to be treated the same as "other human beings". Published by the Central Bureau for Employment of Women in 15 Nov 1912. Part of the Institute of Personnel Management archive. mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/IPM/...

Cover of the 'Women's Employment' newspaper featuring the quote "The benefit to be expected from giving to Women the free use of their faculties by leaving them the free choice of their employment and opening to them the same field of occupation as to other human beings, would be that of doubling the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity". The paper advertises jobs for "educated women" and includes the 'Journal of the Students' Careers Association'. This edition is dated November 15 1912.

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

'Rob you of your beer'... In 1920 the USA introduced Prohibition - the British brewing industry was unimpressed, harnessing nationalism, new women voters and sometimes spurious medical advice to fight the threat of 'compulsory teetotalism' More at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib... #NationalBeerDay

Leaflet:
'To Working Men & Women.
"The Anti-Saloon League" of the United States - which has now changing its name to "The World League Against Alcoholism" has sent a number of skilled organisers and specious speakers to our country to help the misnamed "Temperance" Associations to ROB YOU OF YOUR BEER. ... Will you allow these Aliens to: DICTATE TO YOU, INTERFERE WITH YOUR LIBERTIES, CLOSE YOUR PUBLIC HOUSES, HUSTLE YOU INTO COMPULSORY TEETOTALISM"...

Front page of a leaflet headed 'To Working Women.' It includes an illustration of a women doing the laundry, with the statement that "Up to now, you have found comfort and support in a glass of stout or beer with your supper, or even with your mid-day meal after a morning at the wash-tub."

Leaflet containing a statement by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane that "Alcohol in Moderation has been shown by the most Eminent Physiologists to be A USEFUL FOOD of a VERY HIGH ORDER".

Leaflet reproducing a claim by Dr W. Wallace Fritz of Philadelphia that US Prohibition was "A CURSE TO PUBLIC AND COUNTRY" due to the increase of "GAMBLING and IMMORALITY, ... BLINDNESS, ... daily increases in the army of DOPE FIENDS" and an increase in mental health issues so that "before long the asylums for the insane will be overfilled".

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Making the final preparations for our one day conference on coal communities, health and welfare! ⛏️ 75 delegates booked in but we could take a couple more! Contact us if you fancy joining this great line up of speakers from academia, heritage organisations, community and campaign groups on 18 June

Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health & Welfare in Britain & Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present

This free one day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, libraries, archives, museums and community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry.

Conference programme:

Panel 1: Disasters, safety and commemoration

Oaks Colliery Disaster, 1866
Paul Darlow, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Paul Hardman, former NUM National Executive Officer

The Safety Men: the Colliery Deputies union in the British Coal Industry
Professor Peter Ackers, Loughborough University (Emeritus)

Welcomed to Wrexham
Sarah Castagnetti, The National Archives

The 1959 Auchengeich Disaster: class, community and commemoration in Scotland’s coalfields
Professor Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow

Chair: Dr Jörg Arnold, Universität Augsburg

Panel 2: Health

The Violent Realities and Multiple Temporalities of a Miner’s Life
Liv Robinson, Northumbria University

‘A wonderful difference to the home life’: pithead baths, pitwomen, and disability in twentieth-century British coalmining communities
Lucy Jameson, Durham University

Pneumoconiosis, Environment, and the Politics of Coal Miners' Health in Twentieth Century Britain
Dr Andrew Seaton, University of Manchester

A Special Case? Miners’ Health, Wage Relativities and the Fall of Heath’s Government
Robert Rayner, University of Birmingham

Chair: Professor Mathew Thomson, University of Warwick

Panel 3: Welfare

“Feeding on the job?” Pit canteens in 1940s Britain
Dr Ariane Mak, Université Paris Cité & IUF

The Warmth of Home: Concessionary Fuel and Domestic Energy in British Coalfield Communities, 1945-1995
Dr Kathy Davies, Northumbria University

Class, Culture and Democracy: the Miners Libraries of South Wales
John Pateman, University of Leicester

Deindustrialisation and the recreational provision of the nationalised British coalmining industry (1950s-1984)
Dr Marion Henry, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Chair: Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton

Panel 4: Legacies

Now The Dust Has Settled
James O. Davies, Historic England

'The Big K: The Pit that shaped a community' Its legacy, a decade after closure.
Judi Alston, One to One Development Trust

Union Poorhouse to Union Leader - Herbert Smith, President of the Miners Federation of Great Britain 1922-1929.
Kathryn Stainburn, Castleford Civic Society

The Afterlife of Coal in Barnsley: Youth, Community, and Intergenerational Legacies
Dr Kat Simpson, The University of Huddersfield

Chair: Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton

Showcase of exhibitions, displays and posters:

On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry 1947-1994
Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton

Coal: a record of an industry
Gary Winter, Historic England

Poster of Mrs Sheila Truman
Daniella Law, Historic England

Glamorgan’s Blood: Dark Arteries, Old Veins – Exploring the Coal Collections at Glamorgan Archives
Rhian Diggins, Glamorgan Archives

When Coal was Clean: Soap and Smoke in Nineteenth Century Britain
Oliver Marshall

Mining Disasters in the Village of Worsbrough
Maureen Gennard, Peter Fairham and David Bullock, Worsbrough Library Heritage Group

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

World Cup? We're dressed for success! #WorldCup2026 Other teams are available. W J Bassett as featured in 'The Sportfolio' - Portraits and Biographies of Heroes and Heroines of Sport & Pastime, 1896 Click on the link for other well-dressed sporting heroes mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/CTC/...

Photograph and biography of W J Bassett as featured in 'The Sportfolio' - Portraits and Biographies of Heroes and Heroines of Sport & Pastime, 1896

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sorry we're late. We have been busy building up to #InternationalArchivesDay, and now we're exhausted! Feel the burn!

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In 1918, a teenage miner wrote out his notes on 'The safety lamp' for his Education Committee course Born in Derbyshire, Alwin Machen moved to Yorkshire to look for work after the 1926 General Strike...

Sketch of miners' lamps (a Davy lamp and Marsaut lamp) and a piece of gauze over a bunsen burner, with notes about how they worked.

Marked coursework by Alwin Machen on 'The Principle of the Safety Lamp', written on 3 February 1918. He got 6 out of 10 for his answer.