Walk around any town or city in Scotland and sooner rather than later you are likely to come across a sports club. Scotland is full of bowling greens, tennis courts and other sports venues often tucked away in otherwise residential areas. Similarly most community notice boards will have details of judo, karate, table tennis and […]
Tag: social history
Scottish Poorhouses
The Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 set up parochial boards in towns and rural areas and a Board of Supervision in Edinburgh. One of their purposes was to build poorhouses for those paupers who were not eligible for ‘outdoor relief’, which consisted of small sums of money given out weekly. The Board of Supervision published […]
The Automobile Association Map of England and Wales
On the 25th August, 1939, John Bartholomew and Son printed 10,347 copies of their ‘Automobile Association Map of England and Wales’. As far as maps go, I think it’s fair to say it’s not exactly anything to write home about. Stripped away of any extraneous information, beyond the roads themselves, the strictly black and white […]
Christmas: a history
Mark Connelly examines the traditions which have contributed to the modern Christmas as an icon of cultural and social history. The key elements of the modern Christmas evolved during the nineteenth century as a result of a complex range of social, economic and cultural forces. Among the themes of the book are its Anglo-German origins […]
Gardening women
(Photo credit: publisher- Virago) (Image shows two women halfway up two ladders tending to a plant, with the title of the book ‘Gardening women: their stories 1600 to the present’ and the authors name – Catherine Horwood) Women are rarely celebrated in the history of gardening – a fact Catherine Horwood, a historian and passionate […]
Edinburgh Waverley and the North British Railway
Try as one might, it is impossible to escape the vast quantities of railway related material in the Bartholomew Archive Printing Record. With commissions from the North British, Caledonian and London & North Western Railways, to name but a few, Bartholomew were certainly kept busy by the needs of the railways. In fact, for those […]
Symbolism of the Free Gardeners of Scotland
The intriguing, and now all but defunct, Free Gardeners of Scotland enjoyed a brief but fruitful association with Bartholomew during the 1880’s. The material that was produced for them is beautiful, complex and to me, utterly fascinating. I do of course realise that at the mention of such societies some of the images that leap to […]