Explore Orlando

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.

1973: The University College at Buckingham was...

National or international item

1973

The University College at Buckingham was founded as the only independent institution of higher education in Britain, outside the national or state system and financed by private donors.
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
505
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1592

1 July 1858: Papers on the theory of natural selection...

Building and people item

1 July 1858

Papers on the theory of natural selection by Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin were read at a meeting of the Linnean Society .
Wallace, Alfred Russel. “Introduction”. Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings, edited by Charles H. Smith, Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 1-8.
3, 5

September 1974: The Women's Struggle Notes began bi-monthly...

Building and people item

September 1974

The Women's Struggle Notes began bi-monthly publication from Sheffield; it was aimed at working-class women.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
108
Noyce, John. The Directory of British Alternative Periodicals 1965-1974. Harvester Press, 1979.
332

Claire Luckham

Claire Luckham's career as a playwright was launched in 1976, when the feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment selected Scum (a play on which she and her husband collaborated) to open their first season. Her plays...

1879: Emily Francis Pattison (later Emilia Dilke)...

Women writers item

1879

Emily Francis Pattison (later Emilia Dilke) published (as E. F. S. Pattison) The Renaissance of Art in France.
Israel, Kali. Names and Stories: Emilia Dilke and Victorian Culture. Oxford University Press, 1999.

Jane Welsh Carlyle

JWC is well known for her prodigious letters, none of which were published during her lifetime.
Christianson, Aileen. “Jane Welsh Carlyle’s Private Writing Career”. A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, edited by Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan, Edinburgh University Press, 1997, pp. 232-45.
232
Her witty epistles, which Thomas Carlyle praised for pick[ing] up every diamond-spark, out of the common floor-dust,
qtd. in
Carlyle, Thomas, and Jane Welsh Carlyle. “Introduction”. The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, edited by Charles Richard Sanders, Duke University Press, 1970.
1: x
Jane Welsh Carlyle Photograph of a painting of Jane Welsh Carlyle by an unknown artist, at Carlyle's House in London. She is seen from the waist up, seated and looking down, with her head on one hand while the other holds a book. She wears a red velvet dress with lace at the collar and sleeves and a drop pearl at the neckline, as well as pearl bracelets and small gold rings. Her dark hair smooth, with a middle parting, and folded over her ears. National Trust'

30 September 1885: H. Rider Haggard published his first successful...

Writer or writing item

30 September 1885

H. Rider Haggard published his first successful adventure novel, King Solomon's Mines (which he said he wrote in six weeks to win a bet with his brother that he could equal Stevenson 's Treasure Island...

1536: Under King Henry VIII's government, the formal unification took place of England and Wales, which, west of Offa's Dyke, was then almost entirely Welsh-speaking.

National or international item

1536

Under King Henry VIII 's government, the formal unification took place of England and Wales, which, west of Offa's Dyke, was then almost entirely Welsh-speaking. This marked the first significant political union between...

1788: Women hand-spinners of Leicester formed a...

Building and people item

1788

Women hand-spinners of Leicester formed a sisterhood of 18,500, in a movement foreshadowing that of the Luddites.
Soldon, Norbert. Women in British Trade Unions 1874-1976. Gill and Macmillan, 1978.
2

By 27 November 1886: Rosa Mulholland published Marcella Grace:...

Women writers item

By 27 November 1886

Rosa Mulholland published Marcella Grace: An Irish Novel, as Rosa M. Gilbert.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3083 (1886): 704

1865: In this year, the Governesses' Benevolent...

Building and people item

1865

In this year, the Governesses' Benevolent Society disbursed £16,882 to needy, ill, and elderly governesses.
Greenwell, Dora. Essays. A. Strahan, 1866.
22

19 December 1732: Benjamin Franklin published the first issue...

Writer or writing item

19 December 1732

Benjamin Franklin published the first issue of Poor Richard'sAlmanac, which went on to sell nearly ten thousand copies a year.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
19 December 2012

7 December 1875: The Historical Manuscripts Commission was...

Building and people item

7 December 1875

The Historical Manuscripts Commission was constituted, with a brief to catalogue material in private archives.
Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
5th (1876): prelims

1851: By this date, workhouses were caring for...

Building and people item

1851

By this date, workhouses were caring for approximately 50,000 sick people, as opposed to 11,000 in voluntary hospitals.
Dingwall, Robert et al. An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing. Routledge, 1988.
32

1986: Soho Poly Theatre premiered a play by its...

Women writers item

1986

Soho Poly Theatre premiered a play by its writer-in-residence, Melissa Murray , entitled Body Cell.
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.

Early June 1919: Escalating anti-black race riots in Newport...

National or international item

Early June 1919

Escalating anti-black race riots in Newport and Cardiff culminated in organised attacks on black residents of Cardiff city centre led by gun-wielding Australian soldiers.
Phillips, Mike. “Cardiff race riots, 1919”. The Guardian, 24 July 2006, p. G2: 10.
G2: 10

13 April 1953: Ian Fleming published the first of his thrillers...

Writer or writing item

13 April 1953

Ian Fleming published the first of his thrillers about a secret agent named James Bond. It was titled Casino Royale on its first appearance, but You Asked For It on the first US edition.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 April 2011

Lydia Howard Sigourney

LHS has been called the first professional woman poet of the USA.
Watts, Emily Stipes. The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945. University of Texas Press, 1977.
90
Immensely prolific, she published more than sixty-five books (didactic, educational, biography, children's, and travel books as well as poetry), and stopped counting...
Lydia Howard Sigourney Full-length photograph of Lydia Howard Sigourney by Matthew Brady. She is seated on a wooden chair with wooden panelling behind her, wearing a dark jacket and hood with lace bonnet and collar, and a full, boldly checked skirt. She holds a handkerchief in her hands.

Around 3 December 1859: Samuel Smiles published his very successful...

Writer or writing item

Around 3 December 1859

Samuel Smiles published his very successful Self-Help, attacking over-government and lobbying for thrift, industry, and self-improvement.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1675 (1859): 725
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1679 (31 December 1859): 883-5
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

November 1882: The first issue of the Scottish Review was...

Writer or writing item

November 1882

The first issue of the Scottish Review was published.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
2: 785-8

12 March 1896: The Publishers Association was officially...

Writer or writing item

12 March 1896

The Publishers Association was officially founded at a constitutional meeting in Stationers' Hall, London.
Kingsford, Reginald John Lethbridge. The Publisher’s Association, 1896-1946. Cambridge University Press, 1970.
9
Curwen, Peter. The UK Publishing Industry. Pergamon Press, 1981.
41
Feltes, Norman N. Modes of Production of Victorian Novels. University of Chicago Press, 1986.
81

11 November 1918: At 11 a.m. (the eleventh hour of the eleventh...

National or international item

11 November 1918

At 11 a.m. (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month), the Armistice, signed at Compiègne, went into effect, officially ending World War I.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
230
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
356
Woolf, Virginia. The Years. Hogarth Press, 1979.
325, 328

Eliza Kirkham Mathews

EKM published less than has been supposed. Only her children's books, two volumes of poems, and two novels (melodramatic but heartfelt, presenting actual, financial, as well as romance-type struggles) pose no problems of attribution. She...

1938: Richard Titmuss (not yet a professional sociologist...

Building and people item

1938

Richard Titmuss (not yet a professional sociologist or writer) argued in Poverty and Population that poverty was causing about 50,000 preventable deaths in Britain every year.
Oakley, Ann. Man and Wife: Richard and Kay Titmuss: My Parents’ Early Years. HarperCollins, 1996.
77
Titmuss later became the father of Ann Oakley .

February 1987: Mirror Image, a novel by Dulcie Gray, ap...

Women writers item

February 1987

Mirror Image, a novel by Dulcie Gray , appeared.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
“Bowker’s Global Books in Print”. globalbooksinprint.com.