Stories from the collection

Lady Malcolm’s elaborate Servants’ Balls allowed queer, working-class staff to forge a unique space for themselves. But these events became plagued by scandal.

LGBT+ Switchboard is one of the oldest telephone helplines supporting queer communities in the UK. Its journey to register as a charity was not easy.

Death duty records can reveal a great deal about a person’s true feelings. What can we learn about the loves and friendships of author Virginia Woolf from hers?

Judy's remarkable story is one of capture, survival and courage, and offers a unique tale of internment during the war.

This document sets out the laws its signatory nations agreed to follow around the treatment of prisoners of war, those in medical need, and civilians.

During the Second World War, some British prisoners of war were able to send secret messages and intelligence back home via creative and unusual ways.

War diaries were historical records created by units in the British Army during wartime. This one is unusual: it contains posters and Christmas cards.

Stale ale, ground nutmeg and mustard seeds – would you try these medieval cures for headaches and congestion? They give surprising insights into global trade.

Sir John Fielding grew to become one of England’s first and greatest police detectives. And for his entire crime-fighting career, he was blind.

Virginia Hall (1906–1982) was an American who served with the British Special Operations Executive in France in 1941–1942 and built a career in espionage.

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

WÃSÙ was the journal produced by the West African Students’ Union (WASU) and distributed across Europe and Africa from 1926.