An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
During Lockdown our Assistant Librarian, Sandi, has been looking into past pandemics... The Plague There were a number of waves of the Plague that periodically swept as epidemics but the most fatal pandemics were the Black Death 1346-53 and the Great Plague 1665-66 the last major outbreak in England. There were three type of plague …
After researching the Birth of the NHS for her blog post earlier this year our Assistant Librarian, Sandi, has been looking into the life of Mary Seacole for Black History Month.... We have all heard of Florence Nightingale the Crimea Nurse but few know the name of Mary Seacole. Yet at the time, 1856, the …
My mother remembered that in 1927, after her younger brother was born, he had to wear a shoulder and arm splint because his arm had been broken during his delivery. My Grandmother had been assisted during the birth, like most lower-class women, by an untrained local woman. The cost of a doctor per visit of …
As part of International Archives Week we are taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about the document and archive collections in our care and the work we do. Today we’re taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about our collections. 1. The North Devon Journal Archive One of …
We often come across intriguing items which have a story to tell when we are looking for something else in our collections, this generally happens when we are doing something quickly for someone! This was the case when I kept coming across images of a rather imposing building from various angles and in various states …
Reading the first few pages of book Lumberjills – Britain’s Forgotten Army by Joanna Foat I experienced a feeling of déjà vu. Some of her first statements were: - “In the 1940’s people did not believe women could work in forestry” …. or be strong enough to fell trees. “They were laughed at, they were …
Continue reading "Lumberjills – Women’s Timber Corps in World War II 1942-1946"
Every year we close for a fortnight for what has been traditionally called stocktaking. A chance for us to go through our collections to make sure everything is where it should be! It also gives us a chance to carry out larger projects we wouldn’t normally be able to do while we are open to …
2019 was another interesting year, exploring our collections and discovering new things. January Our Assistant Librarian, Sandi, wrote about the research she had been doing on the Plaster Ceilings of Barnstaple in the first post of the year. March Was a big month for us as we worked together with British Military History to put …
On the 22nd July 1919 a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors was called and the directors were gathered in their Board Room in the Athenaeum over-looking the Square. “The Librarian read a statement complaining of the assistant librarian’s behaviour towards himself. On the retirement of the Librarian the Directors sent for the Assistant. …
On the Anniversary of Peterloo, one of our volunteers, David Phipps writes about an interesting Devon connection to the events in Manchester... After the launch of Mike Leigh’s new film about the Massacre of Peterloo (named to echo the battle of Waterloo), I wondered just how many people were aware of just what happened in …
Tales From the Archives 