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June 2018: The US organization VIDA found in its annual...

Building and people item

June 2018

The US organization VIDA found in its annual survey of literary reviewing that female writers accounted for less than 40 percent of articles and reviews at more than half of major publications.
Flood, Alison. ““Vida survey of gender bias in literary criticism shows ’stubborn imbalance’”. theguardian.com, 19 June 2018.

November 1865: Society, a comedy by playwright Tom Robertson,...

Writer or writing item

November 1865

Society, a comedy by playwright Tom Robertson , opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
834
Mullin, Donald C. Victorian Plays: A Record of Significant Productions on the London Stage, 1837-1901. Greenwood Press, 1987.
354

1822: William Church of Vermont received first...

National or international item

1822

William Church of Vermont received first British patent for a type-composing machine.
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
105

1897: Irish writer Charlotte O'Conor Eccles, as...

Women writers item

1897

Irish writer Charlotte O'Conor Eccles , as Hal Godfrey, published The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore: a farcical novel.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

1734: Jean Adam or Adams published at Glasgow her...

Women writers item

1734

Jean Adam or Adams published at Glasgow her Miscellany Poems.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

16-17 April 1941: Of this night Eleanor Farjeon wrote that...

National or international item

16-17 April 1941

Of this night Eleanor Farjeon wrote that it was the biggest London Blitz so far. . . . I believe 600 planes came over in waves.
Farjeon, Annabel. Morning has Broken: A Biography of Eleanor Farjeon. Julia MacRae, 1986.
220-1

1868: The Routledge Publishing House introduced...

Writer or writing item

1868

The Routledge Publishing House introduced the monthly journal entitled the Broadway.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
84

1894: Lucy Walford's The Matchmaker was published...

Women writers item

1894

Lucy Walford 's The Matchmaker was published as the last three-volume novel by Mudie's Circulating Library .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

7 October 1850: Nicholas Wiseman became the first British...

National or international item

7 October 1850

Nicholas Wiseman became the first British Cardinal and the first Westminster Metropolitan (i.e. spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain) since the Reformation, following the restoration of the Catholic hierachy there.
Norman, Edward R. The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon, 1984.
101, 103, 106, 110

1911: Gertrude Minnie Faulding wrote verse for...

Women writers item

1911

Gertrude Minnie Faulding wrote verse for Nature Children. A Flower Book for Little Folks, illustrated by Eleanor S. March .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

10 August 1872: The Bastardy Law Amendment Act was passe...

National or international item

10 August 1872

The Bastardy Law Amendment Act was passed.
Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism 1850-1900. Hutchinson, 1987.
155
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

13 July 2006: A rare book sale at Sotheby's brought under...

Writer or writing item

13 July 2006

A rare book sale at Sotheby's brought under the hammer both a First Folio of the works of Shakespeare and a copy of the first edition of Woolf 's Orlando inscribed to Vita Sackville-West .
Mullan, John. “The Book’s the Thing”. Guardian Unlimited, 13 July 2006.

Probably 1783: Vicesimus Knox published his prose anthology...

Building and people item

Probably 1783

Vicesimus Knox published his prose anthology Elegant Extracts in its earliest form: it achieved both fame for popularising and educating, and notoriety for providing a mere veneer of culture.
Difficulty in dating this work is...

30 April 1945: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide...

National or international item

30 April 1945

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide as Russian troops captured the Reichstag in Berlin.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
223
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
527-9
Ascherson, Neal. “Hitler’s Teeth”. London Review of Books, 28 Nov. 2002, pp. 15-16.
15-16

1877: The Tailoresses' Union was established....

Building and people item

1877

The Tailoresses' Union was established.
Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism 1850-1900. Hutchinson, 1987.
127

3 January 1890: The Woman began weekly publication as a moderate...

Building and people item

3 January 1890

The Woman began weekly publication as a moderate feminist magazine; it then became a fashionable ladies' magazine.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
12
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
73

10 March 1809: The labouring-class diarist William Rowbottom...

Building and people item

10 March 1809

The labouring-class diarist William Rowbottom noted how working girls in Oldham near Manchester were besotted with soldiers.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
257

10 December 1963: Zanzibar became independent within the C...

National or international item

10 December 1963

Zanzibar became independent within the Commonwealth.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
1237
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
259

17 May 1649: John Evelyn went up the Thames to Putney...

Writer or writing item

17 May 1649

John Evelyn went up the Thames to Putney with a mostly female party to see the Schooles or Colledges of the young gentlewomen.
A suspected connection with Bathsua Makin has not been demonstrated.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
278

October 1867: The first issue of Saint Pauls was published...

Writer or writing item

October 1867

The first issue of Saint Pauls was published by James Sprent Virtue ; editor Anthony Trollope created a shilling periodical featuring serials, reviews, and political discussion.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
3: 358-60
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
550

1869-1870: Non-violent cruelty was recognized as legal...

National or international item

1869-1870

Non-violent cruelty was recognized as legal abuse in the separation case of Kelly v. Kelly.
Hammerton, A. James. Cruelty and Companionship: Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Married Life. Routledge, 1992.
94

1 March 1932: In Britain the Import Duties Act placed a...

National or international item

1 March 1932

In Britain the Import Duties Act placed a 20% duty on imported domestic appliances.
Hardyment, Christina. From Mangle to Microwave: The Mechanization of Household Work. Polity Press, 1988.
31
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
375

1123: St Bartholomew's Hospital was founded in...

Building and people item

1123

St Bartholomew's Hospital was founded in London by Rahere , a courtier of Henry I and canon of St Paul's Cathedral.
Harte, Negley. The University of London 1836-1986. Athlone, 1986.
52-4, 251
Moore, Norman. The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Church in London. H. Milford/Oxford University Press, 1923.

By 1825: Three British annuals (the Forget-me-not,...

Writer or writing item

By 1825

Three British annuals (the Forget-me-not, Friendship's Offering, and the Literary Souvenir) had abandoned the prototypical diary format in favour of offering literary and pictorial contents.
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle, 1967.
Collins, Arthur Simons. The Profession of Letters: A Study of the Relation of Author to Patron, Publisher, and Public, 1780-1832. George Routledge and Sons, 1928.
Eliot, George, and Felicia Bonaparte. Middlemarch. Editor Carroll, David, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Brown, Susan I. “The Victorian Poetess”. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 180-02.
Renier, Anne. Friendship’s Offering: An Essay on the Annuals and Gift Books of the Nineteenth Century. Private Libraries Association, 1964, http://University of Toronto (Robarts).
Linley, Margaret. “A Centre That Would Not Hold: Annuals and Cultural Democracy”. Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities, St Martin’s Press, 2000, pp. 54-74.
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle, 1967.

Anna Swanwick

Publishing in the mid and later nineteenth century, AS won fame firstly as a scholar and translator from German and then from ancient Greek. Her work for social causes (especially for the cause of women)...
Anna Swanwick Photograph of Anna Swanwick's grave marker. The marker is a high light grey column, with lists of names carved into each of the sides and painted in black.