Salvation Army International Heritage Centre

Religious Archives Group Conference 2025 . Booking is now open for this year’s Religious Archives Group conference on the theme of digitisation in archives of religion and belief.We will hear about three recent digitisation projects:Th...

Our annual conference this year is on the theme of digitisation in archives of religion and belief. It's at The London Archives @thelondonarchives.bsky.social on 2 October, booking details below:

#RAG2025

ticketlab.app/event/31944-...

The workshop was wonderful today. Must've been good because of all the people who stayed until the end despite the heat! Speakers were all amazing. We have plans afoot. Super grateful to have met @carolinederry.bsky.social who is as obsessed with 1885 as I am!

Social History Society Conference 2025 Roundup We are delighted to say that our 2025 SHS Conference was an immense success! This was the first time we have ever hosted a conference in a heritage site: namely, the Black Country Living Museum in …

We are delighted to say that #SHSConf2025 was an immense success!

Please read more about it here - and stay tuned for more information and announcements from the conference!✨

socialhistory.org.uk/2025/07/10/s...

📢 Just announced! The programme & booking is now live for our Annual Conference 2025.

🗓️ Join us online & free on 4–5 Sept for Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Archives, Libraries, Museums & Personal Collections.

🔗 womenshistorynetwork.org/the-womens-h...
#WHN2025 #WomensHistory #Archives #Heritage

We can't wait to welcome all our attendees at #SHSConf2025 (this is our official hashtag for the event, please feel free to use it when posting!)

⏰Registration starts from 12pm on Monday 7 July
🕐AGM is at 4.15pm on Tuesday 8 July
⏲️Conference ends 5pm Wednesday 9 July

Have just received hard copies of my book from Cambridge UP. It's about the ordinary people who funded the Irish Catholic church between the end of the Famine and independence. It takes in social, economic, religious, emotions history and much else besides...

The side view of the drum. It is standing on its side. The text on the side of the drum reads “blood and fire. The Salvation Army.” There is a logo of an S wrapped around the cross. There are also 2 swords. On top of the logo is a picture of a gold crown.

This is the side of the drum when it is flat. It says “Bexhill Citadel Band. Blood and Fire. The Salvation Army. No. 1413.”

This Salvation Army drum is on display in our Sargent Gallery, on top of a display case.
#Bexhill #SallyArmy

These Life Assurance companies were similar to, but different from The Salvation Army Assurance Society, whose records we hold.
archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archi...

Temperance Lives by Dr James Kneale | Waterstones Buy Temperance Lives by Dr James Kneale from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

Two great new books coming out later this year:

#2 @jameskneale.bsky.social on 'Temperance Lives: Life Assurance, Drink and Medicine in Britain, 1840-1918.' We're really looking forward to this book on Temperance Life Assurance companies.
#temperance
www.waterstones.com/book/tempera...

Objects of Poverty Objects of Poverty is the first volume dedicated to analysing the material culture of poverty in British history from 1700 to the present. The book examines the…

Two great new books coming out later this year:

#1 @joeharleyhistory.bsky.social & Vicky Holmes' Objects of Poverty has an essay on Salvation Army social work tokens by Flore Janssen and Vicky's essay includes Salvation Army reuse of egg boxes in homeless shelters
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/objects-o...

Colourised early 20th-century postcard, showing a steam engine leaving Llanelli station.

JOIN US on an #AccidentalJourney!

We're going to #Llanelli, for the Railway Work, Life & Death project #Wales data launch, courtesy of Transport for Wales!

On our journey, we'll live-post some of the historic railway worker accidents in the project database.

#Railway200

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The progress of a drinker represented as a toboggan slide, starting with the popular hotel or drugstore, through saloons, into general 'doggery', then rapidly shotting through gambling, corruption and thenm into drunkard's graves

Of course my favourite representation of the drunkard's progress is this cracker, from (I think) the US in 1887

“Get rid of fashion”: Our Archivist, Ruth Macdonald, has written this article with Dr Flore Janssen ‪@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social‬ in the 'Journal of Historical Research in Marketing' exploring the marketing and retailing of clothing and uniform by The Salvation Army.
doi.org/10.1108/JHRM...

British Records Association BRITISH RECORDS ASSOCIATION: JANETTE HARLEY PRIZE The British Records Association is pleased to announce that entry to the 2025 Janette Harley Prize is now open. The prize, awarded in memory of Janet...

Entry to the 2025 @britrecs.bsky.social
Janette Harley Prize is now open. £500 prize for the best/most original piece of work published or made publicly available which has promoted the preservation, understanding, accessibility or study of archives
Deadline: 31 July 2025. More details 👇

Public Engagement Fellow - University of the Arts, Londoninstagramfacebooktwitteryoutube Job Title: Public Engagement Fellow. College/Service: Academic. Contract: Fixed Term. Salary: £39,644 -£48,394 per annum. Apply by: 24/06/2025, 23:55

We are advertising for a Public Engagement Fellow for our AHRC funded project: 'The Victorian hand: Emotion, Embodiment, and identity, past and present'. 1/2
ual.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

Tool to identify poisonous books developed by University of St Andrews Arsenic was historically mixed with copper to create a vivid green for book covers, which can irritate modern day readers A new tool to quickly identify books that are poisonous to humans has been developed by the University of St Andrews. Historically, publishers used arsenic mixed with copper to achieve a vivid emerald green colour for book covers. While the risk to the public is “low”, handling arsenic-containing books regularly can lead to health issues including irritation of the eyes, nose and throat along with more serious side-effects. The toxic pigment in the book bindings can flake off, meaning small pieces can easily be inhaled. Continue reading...

Tool to identify poisonous books developed by University of St Andrews

Leaflet produced by the London Trades Council in c.1907. It is addressed to the 'Unemployed of London' and is advertising 'a special meeting of the unemployed ... on Tower Hill' on 28 March to be addressed by delegates from the Hamburg Stevedores and Dockworkers' Union, supported by J.E. Gregory and B. Cooper. The resolution to be submitted was "that this meeting of workers, mostly unemployed, strongly condemn the men who have gone to undersell the workers engaged in the shipping industry of Hamburg".

Leaflet relating to the 1906 Hamburg dock strike, written in Flemish and published in Touwstraat, Belgium. It includes an appeal for solidarity for strikers in Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands: "Geen Onderkruipers naar het Buitenland. Zeelieden, Dokkers en Werklieden, De Algemeene Werkstaking duurt nog altijd voort in al de havens van Duitschland. Ook in de meeste havensteden van Engeland zijn de Zeelieden in staking. In Frankrijk is de staking der Zeelieden algemeen. In Rotterdam en nu ook te Amsterdam is eene Algemeene Staking onder de Zeelieden uitgebroken. ... Kameraden, verraad uwe Broeders die in strijd zijn niet! ... Hood de Solidariteir aller Werlieden."

Founded in 1896, the International Transport Workers' Association's members were themselves international

Campaigns for workers' rights soon crossed borders, with the 1906 wave of dock strikes seeing organisation in multiple countries (& languages) to match the international nature of the trade...

Happy International Archives Day!
Mental health was something not spoken about for hundreds of years. In our archives are what remains of the stories and voices of people who were not heard in their lifetime, like this page from one of our casebooks.

#InternationalArchivesDay #mentalhealthhistory

📣Registration is still open for ‘Sexual Health: Past, Present and Future’. Check out our exciting programme below! Join us in person or online. Registration is FREE but essential.
⏰2-3 July 2025
🏛️University of Birmingham / online
👉Register here by Monday 2nd June: forms.office.com/e/mQHq8NgSmQ

📢Job Alert!📢 Our AHRC-funded Victorian Hand project is looking for a 3-year, full-time Public Engagment Fellow, based at the London College of Fashion, to join our team & help deliver our programme of activities. This amazing opportunity closes on 24 June so please spread the word far & wide!

Join our Director at this online workshop on 11 July run by the Open University on the impact of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. Steven will be speaking about the politics of W T Stead’s 'Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon' articles. It looks like a great line up!

Black and white photograph of two men and a penny farthing bicycle. One man is sitting on the penny farthing and the other man is standing next to it, supporting the bike.

It's #WorldBicycleDay!

Penny farthing race anyone?

This is John Freeland Fergus (pictured on the bike), former president of our College, and his brother Edward Oswald, dental surgeon. The photo was taken c.1885. Both brothers represented Scotland in penny farthing cycling.

A number of periodicals for members of The Salvation Army published surprisingly detailed advice for cyclists in the 1890s:
"Be it remembered, However Nice A Bicycle Looks, that, in itself, stands for nothing." 'Assurance' August 1898 p76

#WorldBicycleDay

The Salvation Army saw the potential of bicycles to spread the gospel in the 1880s and set up the Iron Horse Artillery. Evangelical Cycle Brigades followed in the 1890s.

Cartoons showing different types of cyclists. Captions: 'A female scorcher'; 'Punctured'; 'The at'tired cyclist'; 'A coaster'; "Two souls with but a single thought'.

Cartoons of different types of cyclists. Captions: "Two hearts beat as one"; 'Come wheel come whoa!'; 'The head of the family'; 'The tired cyclist' and 'The solid tyre'.

On #WorldBicycleDay we celebrate the many types of bicycles and cyclists.

These cycling postcards and greetings cards from the 1870s-1930s form part of The National Cycle Archive. The NCA was established in 1990 and has over 7000 items and counting....

mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/CTC/...

Penny farthing cyclists in costume at The Woodford Meet, probably early 1900s. 📷 From VHM collection, available in our Searchroom.

Penny farthing cyclists in costume at The Woodford Meet, probably early 1900s. This was an annual cycle parade from 1882-c.1893 & 1898-1914, with cyclists in fancy dress from 1898. A very popular event, it raised funds for local hospitals. The parade route terminated in Chingford. #WorldBicycleDay

Between 2023 and 2025 a West Sussex Records Office project, funded by Annabels Foundation, surveyed HIV and AIDS archives in England and Wales; both those held by archival repositories and those still in private hands.
The project report has been completed and is now available to view or download 👇

📯NEW BLOG POST📯

Read about the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland in 1914, the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history. 1,012 people lost their lives amongst them 171 Salvationists, bound for the fourth Salvation Army International Congress

www.salvationarmy.org.uk/about-us/int...

David Beckingham showing Ross Kemp a list of 'habitual drunkards' from Birmingham on Who Do You Think You Are?

Delighted to see @drinkingstudies.bsky.social stalwart David Beckingham explaining Victorian/Edwardian laws on licensing and drunkenness to Ross Kemp on 'Who Do You Think You Are?'

Ross's story further strengthened my belief that drink runs through many family histories, not always in a good way..