History of Technology

Latest release of Cabinet Office and Prime Ministers’ papers
Latest release of Cabinet Office and Prime Ministers’ papers We have digitised 200 files which have been released by the Cabinet Office.
This release includes previously retained files from the Prime Minister’s Office covering Tony Blair’s administration. It also includes records from the administrations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
The ...
Emotions in the archives: study scoops international award
Emotions in the archives: study scoops international award The editors of a ground-breaking new study about emotions and archives which includes work by a researcher at The National Archives has won a prestigious award.
Archives and Emotions: International Dialogues across Past, Present and Future won the Waldo Gifford Leland ...
What do we owe each other?
What do we owe each other? MIT equips students with the tools to advance science and engineering — but a new class aims to ensure they also develop their own values and learn how to navigate conflicting viewpoints.Offered as a pilot this past spring, the multidisciplinary ...
3D models help visually impaired students dive into history
3D models help visually impaired students dive into history Today, The National Archives is launching a new workshop for students who are blind and visually impaired, using optacartography – a technique for transforming flat documents into 3D models.
The workshop includes three-dimensional versions of historic documents from our collection, including ...
Medieval experts reveal how they found Harvard’s Magna Carta
Medieval experts reveal how they found Harvard’s Magna Carta The National Archives hosted an evening with the medieval experts who recently discovered a ‘copy’ of the Magna Carta was actually an extremely rare original.
An investigation led by Prof David Carpenter of King’s College London revealed the document held at ...
A brief history of the global economy, through the lens of a single barge
A brief history of the global economy, through the lens of a single barge In 1989, New York City opened a new jail. But not on dry land. The city leased a barge, then called the “Bibby Resolution,” which had been topped with five stories of containers made into housing, and anchored it in ...
New Windows for First Floor
New Windows for First Floor Work to replace the windows in the 1970s part of our building continues and from Monday 16 June will move to the first floor. Our existing aluminium double-glazed windows are now over 40 years old and it is time to ...
Tiny organisms, huge implications for people
Tiny organisms, huge implications for people Back in 1676, a Dutch cloth merchant with a keen interest in microscopes, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, discovered microbes and began cataloging them. Two hundred years later, a German doctor in current-day Poland, Robert Koch, identified the anthrax bacterium, a crucial ...
Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database
Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database A new public database listing records about railway accidents is being launched at The National Archives on Thursday 5 June to coincide with Volunteers Week.
The Railway Work, Life & Death project makes accessible information about 4,500 railway staff killed or ...
Katrina scoops LHVA award in Volunteers’ Week
Katrina scoops LHVA award in Volunteers’ Week A volunteer at The National Archives has won a London Heritage Volunteer Award for her outstanding work.
Katrina Lidbetter won the Going the Extra Mile category in the annual awards managed by London Heritage Volunteering Group. She is one of a ...
DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body
DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body Seven new members have been appointed to the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, the independent body which advises the government on access to public records.
The appointments were made by Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...
Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show
Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show Stunning new artwork commissioned by the Government Art Collection to mark the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla has gone on show in our Happy & Glorious exhibition.
The free exhibition includes work by artists from across ...
Philip Khoury to step down as vice provost for the arts
Philip Khoury to step down as vice provost for the arts MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart has announced that Vice Provost for the Arts Philip S. Khoury will step down from the position on Aug. 31. Khoury, the Ford International Professor of History, served in the role for 19 years. After a ...
Mandatory bag checks introduced for all visitors
Mandatory bag checks introduced for all visitors Starting 29 April 2025, we are introducing new security measures to safeguard our visitors, staff and to protect our collections. Upon entering The National Archives’ building, all visitors’ bags, containers and other belongings will be searched by security staff.
Prohibited items ...
Improvement work to our building continues
Improvement work to our building continues Work to replace the windows in the 1970s part of our building continues and from June will move to the first floor. The work is due to be completed by the end of October. Our existing aluminium double-glazed windows are ...
Beneath the biotech boom
Beneath the biotech boom It’s considered a scientific landmark: A 1975 meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, shaped a new safety regime for recombinant DNA, ensuring that researchers would apply caution to gene splicing. Those ideas have been so useful ...
Experts sought for The Manorial and Tithe Documents Panel
Experts sought for The Manorial and Tithe Documents Panel New members are being sought for a panel which advises The Master of the Rolls on historical documents related to the manorial system and tithes.
Manorial documents relate to a type of land ownership known as copyhold, abolished in 1922. Tithing ...
£1 million project explores lasting impact of Radclyffe Hall’s radical novel
£1 million project explores lasting impact of Radclyffe Hall’s radical novel Researchers have embarked on a £1 million project to examine the lasting impact of Radclyffe Hall’s radical novel “The Well of Loneliness”.
Published in 1928, the book follows the life of Stephen Gordon who falls in love with another woman and ...
Exploring the impacts of technology on everyday citizens
Exploring the impacts of technology on everyday citizens Give Dwai Banerjee credit: He doesn’t pick easy topics to study.Banerjee is an MIT scholar who in a short time has produced a wide-ranging body of work about the impact of technology on society — and who, as a trained ...
Decoding a medieval mystery manuscript
Decoding a medieval mystery manuscript Two years ago, MIT professor of literature Arthur Bahr had one of the best days of his life. Sitting in the British Library, he was allowed to page through the Pearl-Manuscript, a singular bound volume from the 1300s containing the ...

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