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Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

Hélène Barcynska

HB was a prolific popular novelist of the twentieth century, who had her greatest successes before and after the First World War and was still publishing after the second. Her autobiography, issued in 1941, lists...

16 August 1780: Lord Cornwallis inflicted the most crushing...

National or international item

16 August 1780

Lord Cornwallis inflicted the most crushing defeat suffered by the Americans in a major battle of the Revolutionary war.
Coakley, Robert, and Stetson Conn. The War of the American Revolution. Center of Military History, 1975.
123

11 October 1819: The Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, owned...

Building and people item

11 October 1819

The Theatre Royal , Bury St Edmunds, owned by its architect, William Wilkins , opened as a state-of-the-art modern theatre.
Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal. http://www.theatreroyal.org/.
Kuti, Elizabeth. Email to Orlando about conference, 19 April 2010.

30 March 1730: Henry Fielding's The Author's Farce opened...

Writer or writing item

30 March 1730

Henry Fielding 's The Author's Farce opened at his Little Theatre in the Haymarket , which was currently presenting its first season.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
3: 3, 45

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

CPG , a prolific early twentieth-century American writer and feminist social critic, published satirical poems and nationalist verse, newspaper articles, short stories, serialized novels, and a vast amount of non-fiction. She was unapologetically didactic, and...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Black and white photograph of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, shown in profile, from the torso up, with one hand resting on a fur wrap. She wears a dark jacket over a white shirt and her wavy hair is done in a loose bun.

1830: The British Ladies' Lying-In Institution...

Building and people item

1830

The British Ladies' Lying-In Institution opened this year in the fashionable district of Mayfair, and trained a few women to become midwives.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
501-2
Donnison, Jean. Midwives and Medical Men: A History of Inter-Professional Rivalries and Women’s Rights. Schocken Books, 1977.
52

Mrs Ross:

The still unidentified novelist Mrs Ross , known only by her surname, published a rush of titles—seven—between 1811 and 1816. Her work is racy, highly-coloured, and heavily moralised. Later works once listed as hers have...

February 1972: US President Richard Nixon took the remarkable...

National or international item

February 1972

US President Richard Nixon took the remarkable step of visiting Beijing with Henry Kissinger for discussions with Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-Tung , restoring relations between China and the USA.
Schell, Orville. “Realpolitik’s finest hour”. Guardian Weekly, 16–22 Mar. 2007, p. 25.
25

26 December 1751: At Nantwich, Cheshire, Sarah Davies, a destitute...

Building and people item

26 December 1751

At Nantwich, Cheshire, Sarah Davies, a destitute single woman with a baby, was committed to the House of Correction for an indefinite term.
Connors, Richard. “Poor women, the parish and the politics of poverty”. Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, edited by Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, Longman, 1997, pp. 126-47.
142
Easton, Fraser. “Cross-Dressing, Spectacle, and Plebeian Life: Towards a Reinterpretation”. Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century Conference, Saskatoon, SK, 19 Oct. 2001.

26-29 December 1906: The Indian National Congress meeting in Calcutta...

National or international item

26-29 December 1906

The Indian National Congress meeting in Calcutta passed resolutions expressing indignation that Indians were denied citizens' rights in the Transvaal and protesting the alarming growth of military charges; the president argued for self-government.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 834

1899: The Society of Lady Artists changed its name...

Building and people item

1899

The Society of Lady Artists changed its name to Society of Women Artists. The group, whose aim was to encourage women painters and sculptors, provided an annual opportunity to exhibit in London galleries.
Windsor, Alan, editor. Handbook of Modern British Painting 1900-1980. Scolar Press, 1992.
254-5

1747: Fleet Ditch in London (originally a country...

Building and people item

1747

Fleet Ditch in London (originally a country stream, progressively polluted, and latterly a sewer) was paved over.
Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. Penguin, 1982.
283

January 1863: Thomas Henry Huxley, scientist, educator,...

National or international item

January 1863

Thomas Henry Huxley , scientist, educator, and public administrator, published Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. Man’s Place in Nature. University of Michigan Press, 1959.
1
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.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1913: Frances Frederica Montrésor published a novel...

Women writers item

1913

Frances Frederica Montrésor published a novel exploring suffrage titled The Strictly Trained Mother.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

1880s: Artists, musicians, and writers were welcomed...

Building and people item

1880s

Artists, musicians, and writers were welcomed into fashionable circles as never before.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
128-30

In the 1860s: Young middle-class women began to use cosmetics,...

Building and people item

In the 1860s

Young middle-class women began to use cosmetics, albeit sparingly.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
80

8 October 1902: Sunderland Co-operative Society opened the...

Building and people item

8 October 1902

Sunderland Co-operative Society opened the People's Store and Settlement on Coronation Street, Sunderland.
Blaszak, Barbara J. The Matriarchs of England’s Cooperative Movement: A Study in Gender Politics and Female Leadership, 1883-1921. Greenwood Press, 2000.
118, 147
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
90
Rendall, Jane, editor. Equal or Different: Women’s Politics, 1800-1914. Basil Blackwell, 1987.
25
Gaffin, Jean et al. “Women and Cooperation”. Women in the Labour Movement: The British Experience, edited by Lucy Middleton, Croom Helm, 1977, pp. 113-42.
123
In her history of the Women's Co-operative Guild (WCG), Catherine Webb gives this as the founding...

1850: The Old Watercolour Society admitted its...

Building and people item

1850

The Old Watercolour Society admitted its hundredth male member, and its ninth female member.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
28-9

1973: Erin Pizzey of the Chiswick women's refuge...

Building and people item

1973

Erin Pizzey of the Chiswick women's refuge was the presiding spirit behind the first Women's Aid (WA) National Conference, held in London.
Ross, Elizabeth Arledge, and Miriam L. Bearse. A Chronology of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain. Editors Boyle, Karen E. and The Oral History Project Advisory Group, The Feminist Archive, 1996, http://Bodleian.
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1899: Mary Lucy Pendered published her novel An...

Women writers item

1899

Mary Lucy Pendered published her novel An Englishman: A Romance of a Shop. It appeared in a revised edition thirteen years later.
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.

9 April 1858: Queen Victoria signed the royal charter giving...

Building and people item

9 April 1858

Queen Victoria signed the royal charter giving London University (then comprised of two schools, University College and King's College ) the revolutionary power of offering courses and degrees externally.
MacLeod, Donald. “All aboard the London-Delhi express”. Guardian Weekly, 28 Mar. 2008, p. 43.
43

1850s: The North London Repository attempted to...

Building and people item

1850s

The North London Repository attempted to run a shop on a barter system, exchanging goods in terms of labour expenditure; the experiment failed.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
24

Lady Margaret Cunningham

LMC is remarkable as an early seventeenth-century Scottish autobiographer and religious writer. Though she left only a few manuscripts, she writes with confidence and panache, both of her marital wrongs and her spiritual experience.

1851-1871: During this period, the population of the...

Building and people item

1851-1871

During this period, the population of the old City of London decreased from 128,000 to 75,000.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
149

1894: Amy A. Bulley and Margaret Whitley published...

Women writers item

1894

Amy A. Bulley and Margaret Whitley published their account of Women's Work in London.
O’Malley, Ida. “Women’s Work”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 1731, 4 Apr. 1935, p. 222.
xi, 2