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.

Hope Mirrlees

Much of the sparse information currently available on HM focuses on her lasting personal relationship with eminent scholar Jane Harrison rather than her own body of writing, which includes poetry, novels, and biographies (published and...

1879: Spiritualist Annie Mellon, née Fairlamb,...

Building and people item

1879

Spiritualist Annie Mellon , née Fairlamb, toured in West Auckland in New Zealand, where she fared poorly because of heckling from miners.
Owen, Alex. The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Nineteenth-Century England. Virago, 1989.
62, 73

1826-7: William Blake published his last work as...

Writer or writing item

1826-7

William Blake published his last work as an engraver: illustrations to Dante 's Divine Comedy.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

Charlotte Maria Tucker

Charlotte Maria Tucker was a phenomenally prolific and popular novelist, writer of tracts and short stories, and poet for children and adults. Most of her works have a religious and didactic intent. She is reported...
Charlotte Maria Tucker Black and white photograph of Charlotte Maria Tucker by William Notman, Toronto, 1875. She sits in an upholstered chair beside a small table draped with a tablecloth and bearing a book and an ornate Greek-motif jar (probably photographer's props). She wears a long, dark, broad-skirted dress and a simple dark buttoned jacket with white lace collar apparently joined to white lace around a dark cap. Her hair is arranged to shoulder length.

1679: The Licensing Act of 1662 lapsed; penalties...

Writer or writing item

1679

The Licensing Act of 1662 lapsed; penalties being no longer in force, Quaker printers began putting their names on the title-pages issuing from their shops.
Bracken, James K., and Joel Silver, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 170. Gale Research, 1996.
249

1892: Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton's blank verse...

Writer or writing item

1892

Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton 's blank verse allegory King Poppy: A Story Without End appeared posthumously.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
32

1882: The first cremation in England took plac...

Building and people item

1882

The first cremation in England took place.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
62

October 1896: The Dawn, a quarterly edited by Josephine...

Building and people item

October 1896

The Dawn, a quarterly edited by Josephine Butler , ceased publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
19
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.
164

1 October 1880: Mason College or Mason Science College in...

Building and people item

1 October 1880

Mason College or Mason Science College in Birmingham, founded at a cost of more than £200,000 by Sir Josiah Mason , who had made his fortune out of nibs for pens, opened its doors...

1973: Helen Foley's novel entitled The Pitcher...

Women writers item

1973

Helen Foley 's novel entitled The Pitcher Plant was released by Hodder and Stoughton .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By 13 July 1872: Walter Besant and James Rice published Ready-Money...

Writer or writing item

By 13 July 1872

Walter Besant and James Rice published Ready-Money Mortiboy, in three volumes.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2333 (1872): 46

1866: A Select Committee investigated Theatrical...

Building and people item

1866

A Select Committee investigated Theatrical Licenses and Regulations.
Booth, Michael R. Theatre in the Victorian Age. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
3, 5, 61, 69

1791: Flogging was abolished for female prisoners...

Building and people item

1791

Flogging was abolished for female prisoners in Bridewell in London.
Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert, editors. The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan, 1983.
87

Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette

MML , writing in France in the late seventeenth century, originated there the new form of the novel: shorter, less diffuse, more vigorous in its emotional effect than the long, many-storied, courtly romances. She was...
Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette Black and white, head-and-shoulders image of a lost painting of Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette by Louis Ferdinand Elle l'Aîné. She sits with her head resting on one hand, wearing a gown with a V neck and puffed sleeves, without jewellery. Her dark hair is pulled back into a pearl-wrapped bun, with a ringlet lying on her shoulder.

5 February 2004: Frances Partridge, diarist, memoirist, and...

Women writers item

5 February 2004

Frances Partridge , diarist, memoirist, and the longest-surviving member of the Bloomsbury group, died at the age of very nearly a hundred and four.
De-la-Noy, Michael, and James Fergusson. “Frances Partridge; Centenarian survivor of the Bloomsbury Group, 7 February 2004”. The Independent.

: The US Democratic Convention, held this year...

National or international item

Autumn 1972

The US Democratic Convention, held this year in Miami, saw the first action by the newly formed National Women's Political Caucus .
Wallace, Christine. Germaine Greer: Untamed Shrew. Richard Cohen Books, 1999.
201-2

1915: James Connolly, founder of the Irish Socialist...

Writer or writing item

1915

James Connolly , founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896, included a pro-suffrage chapter entitled Women in his socialist, nationalist text The Re-Conquest of Ireland.
MacCurtain, Margaret. “Women, the Vote and Revolution”. Women in Irish Society: The Historical Dimension, edited by Margaret MacCurtain and Donncha Ó Corráin, Greenwood, 1979, pp. 46-57.
57
Luddy, Maria, editor. Women in Ireland, 1800-1918: A Documentary History. Cork University Press, 1995.
320

1871: At sixteen years of age Eleanor Marx was...

Women writers item

1871

At sixteen years of age Eleanor Marx was already acting as her father 's personal secretary, as well as travelling with him to various international conferences.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.

1758: Pierre-Joseph Boudier de Villemert published,...

Writer or writing item

1758

Pierre-Joseph Boudier de Villemert published, allegedly at Hamburg, a book called L'Ami des femmes, which remarked on the number and excellence of women writers in French.
Goodman, Dena. Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters. Cornell University Press, 2009.
148

14 March 1757: Admiral John Byng was executed (by firing-squad...

National or international item

14 March 1757

Admiral John Byng was executed (by firing-squad on the deck of his own flagship) for his part in the loss of the Mediterranean island of Minorca to the French the previous year: a step towards...

By 9 May 1586: The young antiquary and historian William...

Writer or writing item

By 9 May 1586

The young antiquary and historian William Camden published the first, Latin edition of his popular and influential Britannia, an account of Britain under the Romans which drew on physical remains and place-names.
Woolf, Daniel. The Idea of History in Early Stuart England. University of Toronto Press, 1990.
116
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

May 1937: S. W. Smedley of Wisbech Canners sold the...

Building and people item

May 1937

S. W. Smedley of Wisbech Canners sold the UK's first frozen fruits and vegetables.
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
219

Katie Arnstein performed her solo show Sexy Lamp at the Edinburgh fringe festival.

Writer or writing item

August 2019

Katie Arnstein performed her solo show Sexy Lamp at the Edinburgh fringe festival. The show features shocking revelations about auditions and casting call notices, and was inspired by the #MeToo movement.
Akbar, Arifa. “Theatre and #MeToo: ’There’s a new anger in women’s stories’”. The Guardian, 27 Aug. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/aug/27/women-theatre-metoo-movement-sexy-lamp-bitter-wheat-harvey.

October 1978: The Penguin Book of Women Poets appeared,...

Writer or writing item

October 1978

The Penguin Book of Women Poets appeared, edited by Carol Cosman , Joan Keefe , and Kathleen Weaver , with three further consulting editors.
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.
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons, 1874–1987.
1979

10 December 2003: Shirin Ebadi of Iran was awarded the Nobel...

National or international item

10 December 2003

Shirin Ebadi of Iran was awarded the Nobel Peace Price for her work for human rights, especially for women and children.
The Nobel Foundation. Nobel E-Museum.