From The Archives

From the Archives allows us in the Humanist Library and Archives to share some of our wonderful items and our learning with you!

In her time living in Dalston, London, immersed in the beauty of the outdoors, Victorian composer Eliza Flower reflected on her submersion in nature as akin to being in a songbird’s cage, but open; her garden regarded as a “bucolic, romantic retreat“. Beyond her love for nature, this period in her life, and her compositions […]

Why was George Orwell at Conway Hall?

This post was written by Conway Hall Library & Archives volunteer, Paula Przybylowicz, who has been researching the pacifist ethics of our namesake Moncure Conway. This is the second part; part one can be found here. By 1863, at the age of 31, Moncure Conway had served as a circuit rider, preached against war as […]

This post was written by Conway Hall Library & Archives volunteer, Paula Przybylowicz, who has been researching the pacifist ethics of our namesake Moncure Conway. Throughout his life, Moncure Conway’s moral convictions evolved to become not only ethical values but also deeds that encouraged social change. In this sense, his life perfectly incarnated the Shakespearean […]

At the close of November 2019, we conclude our National Lottery Heritage Funded project, Victorian Blogging – The Pamphleteers Who Dared to Dream of a Better World. The support of National Lottery players has allowed us to conserve, digitise and share freely online our collection of nineteenth-century pamphlets. We have worked with conservators and digitisation […]

Click here to download the Victorian Blogging Special Edition of the Ethical Record. To celebrate all the work that has gone into our National Lottery Heritage Funded project, Victorian Blogging, we have produced a special edition of our Ethical Record journal, which can be read here. This issue brings together many of those who have contributed […]

16 August 2019 marks 200 years since the attack on over 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy protesters that has become known as the Peterloo Massacre. This event, a landmark in British political history, took place in the area of Manchester known today as St Peter’s Square. Against a backdrop of growing unrest due to the injustice of […]

This blog comes from our volunteer, Cami Garcia, who selected Rev. James Cranbrook’s pamphlet ‘Human Depravity’ as a highlight of our nineteenth-century pamphlet collection. Little biographical information about Rev. Cranbrook is available, but his title of Reverend, combined with the content of this pamphlet and his decision to publish his work through the radical freethought […]

While cataloguing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 10-volume complete works (Riverside edition) I discovered a handwritten letter stuck with sellotape to the front of vol.7 Conduct of Life, a collection of miscellaneous essays. The letter, dated Concord June 1907 (or possibly 1909), is from Emerson’s son, Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1930), a physician, writer and lecturer. Edward was […]

This blog comes from our volunteer, Selina Packard, who selected the theme of atheism as a highlight of our nineteenth-century pamphlet collection. In this blog, Selina discusses different attitudes to atheism in the nineteenth century and today, with reference to a few pamphlets now available to read online. These pamphlets are just some of over […]

This blog comes from our volunteer, Cami Garcia, who selected Austin Holyoake’s neo-Malthusian pamphlet ‘Large or small families? On which side lies the balance of comfort?’ as a highlight of our nineteenth-century pamphlet collection. Austin Holyoake, brother of secularist and co-operator George Jacob Holyoake, was a radical printer and publisher and campaigner for secularism and […]

As part of our Heritage Lottery Funded pamphlet digitisation project, we have had our collection of nineteenth-century pamphlets conserved in order for them to be robust enough for the digitisation process and to ensure their long-term preservation. This work has been completed by the Postal Museum conservation studio, who have completed a number of treatments […]

From The Archives

Great Is Thy Radicalism: Reflections on Eliza Flower and the Archiving of the Protest Hymn

George Orwell “Demands Amnesty” at Conway Hall

Moncure Conway & Pacifism (Part Two)

Moncure Conway & Pacifism (Part One)

Victorian Blogging – Powerful Voices in the Archives

Victorian Blogging – A Special Edition of the Ethical Record

Victorian Blogging – Richard Carlile and the Peterloo Massacre

Victorian Blogging – Human Depravity

The Emerson Bust

Victorian Blogging – Atheism in the Nineteenth Century and Today

Victorian Blogging – Austin Holyoake and the Population Control Question

Victorian Blogging – Conserving our Pamphlet Collection