Social and Cultural History Archives

Why we are still living with the legacy of Waterloo – that ‘most bloody battle’

by History Guild | May 5, 2025 | Historical Sites, Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Our views of war are sanitised today. In an age of professional armies trained for increasingly technical tasks, few of us have witnessed combat, much less taken part in it. In that vein, commemorations of the 200th anniversary of Waterloo will focus on the battle’s strategic significance. There are, though, individual accounts that give us a glimpse into what sword fights and cavalry charges must have been like – and the deadly consequences of defeat.

The forgotten Anzacs: ‘honoured guests’ of the Sultan

by History Guild | Apr 21, 2025 | Military History, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
As we undertake our annual remembrance of Australians at war, some attention should be paid to those personnel who were taken captive by the enemy and then faced long years in brutal conditions. Enduring starvation, beatings, disease, death marches and forced labour in extreme climatic conditions, many of them died from casual neglect, deliberate abuse and untreated medical conditions. And I’m not talking about prisoners of the Japanese in World War Two, but Australians taken captive by Ottoman forces during The Great War.

Gallipoli’s rich history of conflict started well before 1915

by History Guild | Apr 17, 2025 | Historical Sites, Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
There are few geographical areas that have seen as much military action as the Gallipoli region, the site of the Anzac landings in 1915. The conflicts in the region include some of the most renowned wars from Greek antiquity.

What exactly is the Holy Grail – and why has its meaning eluded us for centuries?

by History Guild | Apr 14, 2025 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Type “Holy Grail” into Google and … well, you probably don’t need me to finish that sentence. The sheer multiplicity of what any search engine throws up demonstrates that there is no clear consensus as to what the Grail is or was. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people out there claiming to know its history, true meaning and even where to find it.

The Catalpa Rescue: the Daring Escape of Irish Rebels from Australia

by History Guild | Apr 10, 2025 | Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 12 minutes
When a plan to overthrow English rule in Ireland was foiled in the 1860s, hundreds of Fenian rebels were arrested and convicted. A handful of those were condemned to transportation to Australia with no hope of pardon or of ever seeing their families again.

Hidden in plain sight: Finding working-class women in The National Archives

by History Guild | Mar 31, 2025 | Advocacy, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 10 minutes
This article will make use of a particularly interesting case study of pit brow women in Lancashire, to explore the complexities and opportunities associated with archival work. The women’s lives can be revealed through analysis of documents from sources in the Copyright Office, and the Ministry of Power collections. By identifying strengths and weaknesses of records, they can be analysed with greater depth and nuance, so that they are used most effectively during an exploration of the past.

April Fools! The History Behind the World’s Greatest Day of Pranks

by History Guild | Mar 27, 2025 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
The world loves a good April Fools’ Day prank – from telling your schoolmates it’s non-uniform to assuring a coworker the boss has definitely given everyone the day off, April 1st is a day of big and small pranks all around the world.
While mostly celebrated in Western countries such as Northern Europe, America, and other English-speaking countries like the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, much of the world knows of and sometimes takes part in the light-hearted tradition of April Fools.
But where does it come from?

Medieval Christians saw the lunar eclipse as a sign from God — but they also understood the science

by History Guild | Mar 10, 2025 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
This has been cited as evidence that some people believed that lunar eclipses were caused by magicians or moon-hungry monsters. However, it is important to remember this comes from a source written by an educated churchman who may have exaggerated evidence of superstitious beliefs in order to then condemn them. Yet even if we allow for these beliefs, the range of ideas surrounding lunar eclipses in medieval Europe reveal it was not the dark age of superstition and ignorance it is often assumed to have been.

The 7 Largest Empires in History

by History Guild | Mar 6, 2025 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
While very few exist today, the world’s history books are filled with hundreds of thousands of empires, ranging from a handful of islands to near-global domination.

A select few stand as the most infamous, such as the Roman Empire or the British Empire, yet many of history’s largest empires are less well-known. So, what were the world’s largest empires across history?

Inuit folklore kept alive story of missing Franklin expedition to north-west passage

by History Guild | Mar 3, 2025 | Historical Sites, History News, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The ships HMS Erebus and Terror, which sailed from England in the summer of 1845, were aiming to chart the north-west passage. They disappeared into what is now the Canadian Arctic. Stranded in the ice north-west of King William Island in the summer of 1846, the ships were abandoned by the surviving officers and men in the spring of 1848.

Visions of Despair: 6 Artworks Capturing the Horrors of WWI

by History Guild | Feb 27, 2025 | Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
The emotive styles captured both the physical destruction of war to humanity and the environment and its lasting emotional toll.
World War I, the first truly global conflict, impacted every facet of society and culture, including the art sphere. New forms of weaponry, casualties on an unbelievable scale, and changing political structures drastically reshaped the world and formed a new cultural landscape.

Scientists at work: Public archaeologists dig before the construction crews do

by History Guild | Feb 17, 2025 | Historical Sites, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 8 minutes
I’m the director of the Public Archaeology Facility, a research center specializing in cultural resource management. Our mission is to identify, evaluate and preserve significant sites, train students to be professional archaeologists and share our results with the public. We can work on up to 100 projects a year. Since our inception in 1972, the center has discovered more than 3,500 archaeological sites.

Category: Social and Cultural History