History of Technology - Future technology and beyond science for a better future

Parliamentary group receive warm welcome This week we welcomed a delegation from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Archives and History to learn more about the work of The National Archives.
Dr Jess Nelson shows some of our iconic documents to members of the APPG. From ...

MIT News - History

“An AI future that honors dignity for everyone” Ben Vinson III, president of Howard University, made a compelling call for artificial intelligence to be “developed with wisdom,” as he delivered MIT’s annual Karl Taylor Compton Lecture on campus Monday. The broad-ranging talk posed a series of searching questions about ...

News Archives - The National Archives

Professor Andrew Wathey reappointed as Chair of The National Archives Board Professor Andrew Wathey CBE has been reappointed for a second term as Chair of The National Archives Board. The term will begin in April 2025 and run for 5 years.
Andrew was Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Northumbria University from 2008 ...

MIT News - History

Letterlocking: A new look at a centuries-old practice For as long as people have been communicating through writing, they have found ways to keep their messages private. Before the invention of the gummed envelope in 1830, securing correspondence involved letterlocking, an ingenious process of folding a flat sheet ...

MIT News - History

Times Higher Education ranks MIT No. 1 in arts and humanities, business and economics, and... The 2025 Times Higher Education World University Ranking has ranked MIT first in three subject categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, and Social Sciences. The Times Higher Education World University Ranking is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education, ...

MIT News - History

An “All-American” vision of service to others Spencer Paysinger has already been many things in his life, including a Super Bowl-winning linebacker, a writer and producer of the hit television series “All-American,” and local-business entrepreneur. But as he explained during his keynote speech at MIT’s 51st annual ...

News Archives - The National Archives

Archives Revealed awards new cataloguing grants and first-ever consortium grant Archives Revealed has awarded 12 cataloguing grants and its first ever consortium grant to archives across the UK.
Archives Revealed is a partnership programme between The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Lottery Heritage Fund which ...

The history of ‘indecent advertisements’ in public toilets – The National Archives

The history of ‘indecent advertisements’ in public toilets The state has long been preoccupied with ideas of ‘decency’. Attempting to protect citizens from committing or being involved in ‘indecent’ practices, it has legislated against them.
Public toilets, being at the same time public and private, have emerged as places ...

News Archives - The National Archives

Major grant to fund research into the history of transatlantic slavery The National Archives has been awarded a £1 million grant by Lloyd’s Register Foundation for a new, collaborative research programme on the history of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.
PASSAGE (Partnership for Transatlantic Slavery Scholarship, Archiving and Global Exchange) will ...

The history of ‘indecent advertisements’ in public toilets – The National Archives

Archives and Emotions book launch: reflecting on models of collaboration On Thursday 23 January 2025, The National Archives hosted the official launch of a new Bloomsbury edited collection Archives and Emotions: International Dialogues Across Past, Present, and Future (Nov 2024). The collection features a chapter I co-wrote with Professor Kevin ...

The history of ‘indecent advertisements’ in public toilets – The National Archives

Narrating ephemeral archival presence: LGBTQ+ histories and Colonial Office records Examining the history of LGTBQ+ lives in Britain is not complete without extending this examination to LGBTQ+ lives in the British Empire. Laws and social attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in these countries were set by British colonial governments. For example, ...

News Archives - The National Archives

The National Archives to establish new hub for community-led research in the cultural heritage sector Staff working in galleries, libraries, archives and museums around the UK will soon be able to ask The National Archives for help funding community-led research projects, following a generous £1 million award by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The ...

News Archives - The National Archives

Seeking permanent home for John le Carré literary archive The John le Carré literary archive has been accepted in lieu of tax by the government.
You can find more details in the latest Acceptance in Lieu report published by Arts Council England. The John le Carré archive is reported at ...

News Archives - The National Archives

The National Archives launches guidance for archivists working in fast response situations Today The National Archives has launched new guidance for archivists about rapid response collecting.
It’s designed to support archivists collecting material in situations like the aftermath of accidents, natural disasters or protests and includes advice on preservation of messages and objects ...

News Archives - The National Archives

MI5: Official Secrets exhibition opens in the spring Today, we can announce a groundbreaking exhibition in partnership with MI5 exploring the vital work of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency.
It is the first time in MI5’s 115-year history that it has collaborated on an exhibition in this way, with their ...

News Archives - The National Archives

Latest release of files from MI5 Today we have made available a selection of previously top secret files from MI5.
The records cover a range of subjects predominantly from the organisation’s early years before the First World War, up until the mid-1970s.
The release reveals new details in ...

News Archives - The National Archives

World leaders who signed No 10 Downing Street visitor books Three Downing Street visitor books are included in this December’s Cabinet Office file release. The red leather-bound volumes are the first ever released by the Government and provide a fascinating insight into eminent visitors passing through the doors of Number ...

MIT News - History

What do we know about the economics of AI? For all the talk about artificial intelligence upending the world, its economic effects remain uncertain. There is massive investment in AI but little clarity about what it will produce.Examining AI has become a significant part of Nobel-winning economist Daron Acemoglu’s ...

MIT News - History

How mass migration remade postwar Europe Migrants have become a flashpoint in global politics. But new research by an MIT political scientist, focused on West Germany and Poland after World War II, shows that in the long term, those countries developed stronger states, more prosperous economies, ...

MIT News - History

Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT In 1867, five Japanese students took a long sea voyage to Massachusetts for some advanced schooling. The group included a 13-year-old named Eiichirō Honma, who was from one of the samurai families that ruled Japan. Honma expected to become a samurai ...