British History

How the Battle of Jutland Pushed Britain to the Limit

Going into World War I, the British Navy tasted success for well over a century. By 1916, they finally had an adversary that would test their abilities

A team is working to conserve a collection of iron cannonballs found on The Mary Rose, Henry VIII's famous Tudor ship.

To Save Cannonballs on Henry VIII's Flagship, Researchers Looked to X-ray Tech

The more than 1200 cannonballs found on <i>The Mary Rose</i> are facing a major problem—corrosion

Monster Fatberg Goes On Display at London Museum

The mass clogged the sewer under Whitechapel last year with 820 feet of solid grease, fat and dirty diapers

Founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst. The group's motto was "deeds, not words," Marshall writes in his blog.

Photographs Documenting the Struggle for Women's Suffrage Are Reimagined in Full Color

Colorizer Tom Marshall's deft touch brings new life to 100-year-old photographs

Women stand in gutter for a poster parade organized by the Women's Freedom League to promote the suffrage message.

Stories of Forgotten Suffragettes Come Alive in New Exhibition

The Museum of London's "Votes for Women” show marks 100 years since women were first granted the right to vote in Britain

Figure skating at the Olympic winter games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936

A Brief History of Women’s Figure Skating

You might be surprised to learn that this sport where women now shine was initially seen as solely the purview of male athletes

The ochre "crayon"

One of the World's Oldest "Crayons" Colors in Details of the Mesolithic World

An interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and physicists came together to discover the purpose of the ancient bit of sharpened red ochre

The 910-carat diamond discovered in Lesotho

World's Fifth-Largest Diamond Found in Lesotho

The 910-carat gem is a D-color, type-IIa stone, meaning it is completely colorless and has no visible impurities

Excerpt from Folio 5 recto from the Book of Deer.

Possible Remains of ‘Lost’ Monastery Discovered in Scotland

The elusive monastery is associated with the Book of Deer, which contains the oldest-surviving examples of Scottish Gaelic writing

Her Majesty the Queen with archive footage

Sixty-Five Years Later, the Queen Recalls Her Coronation

New Smithsonian Channel special has rare Queen Elizabeth II interview and offers a closeup of the Crown Jewels

York Minister's Massive Medieval Stained-Glass Window Restored to Its Former Glory

Conservators spent some 92,400 hours cleaning and protecting the great east window's 311 panels

The gold and silver coins in the Hoxne hoard, found in Suffolk, date to the end of the Roman Empire in Britain at the start of the 5th century A.D.

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain

Today, archaeologists are still debating just how old the hoard is—and what it tells us about the end of the Roman Empire in Britain

These Letters Tell the Inside Story of Mary, Queen of Scots’ Imprisonment

A collection of 43 letters relating to the latter years of the queen’s confinement was recently donated to the British Library

A YMCA gym in 1910.

The YMCA First Opened Gyms to Train Stronger Christians

Physical fitness was a secondary goal for the movement

The triforium undergoing renovations

30,000 Shards of Historic Stained Glass Found in Westminster Abbey's Attic

The glass and other trash was excavated from depressions in the vaulted ceiling and are being made into new windows for the Abbey

Before the 1840s, women had no choice but to deliver children without anesthetic.

It Didn’t Take Very Long For Anesthesia to Change Childbirth

The unprecedented idea of a painless delivery changed women's lives

John Michael Wright's portrait of King Charles II, in the Royal Collection

How Charles II Used Art to Bolster Britain’s Struggling Monarchy

A new exhibit at the Queen’s Gallery in London features more than 200 items from the collection of the “Merry Monarch”

The finds from Clapham’s Coffee House, some of which are pictured here, included teapots, wine glasses, and clay pipes.

Archaeologists Discover 500 Artifacts from 18th-Century British Coffeehouse

Among the finds were cups, saucers, sugar bowls, coffee tins and an impressive collection of teapots

The frontispiece of Wheatley's poetry collection describes her as a "Negro servant" rather than a slave, though she wasn't freed until after the book's publication.

The Most Notorious Poet in 18th Century America Was An Enslaved Teenager You've Never Heard Of

Phyllis Wheatley was a prodigy, but her ultimate fate reflects the gross racial disparities of 1700s America

An image from the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

How Industrial Espionage Started America's Cotton Revolution

To the British, Samuel Slater was ‘Slater the traitor,’ but to the Americans, he was the father of the American industrial revolution

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