Skimming through Twitter early on a Saturday morning I caught sight of a message from the Before Shakespeare project. It invited its followers to come to an event that afternoon to celebrate and explore the history of The Curtain, one of the first London 16th-century theatres, whose archaeological site was only recently discovered. So offRead More
Once upon a time wars, like stories, had a beginning, a middle and an end. Two sides lined up over an issue, or set of issues – land, honour, race, faith – and fought. In fighting they abided by a common set of rules, or seemed to. One side won, and gained the objective. TheRead More
A novel was published recently, Heinrich Gerlach’s Breakout at Stalingrad, which has an extraordinary history behind it. Its author fought on the German side at the Battle of Stalingrad. He was captured by the Soviets, and while imprisoned he wrote a novel about the war, the manuscript of which was confiscated. But upon his releaseRead More
In the dead days between Christmas and New Year, when news can only report on its absence, an announcement was made by the Library of Congress which has a major implication for archives and public memory. The Library will no longer attempt to archive Twitter comprehensively. In April 2010 the Library of Congress and TwitterRead More
Next in this occasional series of handy resources to be found online is web archives. Too many of us think of the web as being its own archive. Everything is there, and if it is not there then it is not worth bothering about because there will always be something else like it that willRead More