Author: EditorMC

I am a former journalist by trade, turned labour and family historian with a special interest in Chartism. I launched the Chartist Ancestors website since 2003, and am currently a member of the Society for the Study of Labour History executive committee, managing its website and social media in my free time.
Documents & objects

John Fielden and William Fitton letter

This letter, currently held privately, was exchanged between Radical reformers John Fielden and William Fitton in 1836. John Fielden was a cotton industrialist and Radical MP for Oldham (1832-47) and was involved in Reform Bill agitation in Manchester in the 1830s and a supporter of Chartism. William Fitton, surgeon, was a Radical advocate of parliamentary reform who was indicted for seditious activity in 1819 (though … Continue reading John Fielden and William Fitton letter

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Documents & objects

Notice of the founding of New Harmony, Indiana, 1825

Robert Owen was a social reformer who is considered by many to be the father of co-operation and a pioneer of modern British socialism. Owen believed that a person’s character is formed by the environment in which they live. He developed many ideas on infant and adult education, and campaigned to reduce working hours and improved the living and working conditions of factory workers. In … Continue reading Notice of the founding of New Harmony, Indiana, 1825

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Documents & objects

North Yorkshire ‘radical reformers’

This image reproduces a letter from a group of North Yorkshire ‘Radical Reformers’ to a Mrs Lawrence of Studley Hall, c. 1817. A keen eye will discern a very definite threat, mainly that the Hall and Fountains Abbey would be blown up unless Mrs Lawrence gave the out-of-work men £100 in alms! The letter reads: ‘[They] are all hungering to death for want of work … Continue reading North Yorkshire ‘radical reformers’

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Documents & objects

William Pare’s scrapbook

Our image shows one page from a scrapbook of manuscript and printed material collected in the mid 19th century and now held at Senate House Library at the University of London. The creator of the scrapbook was William Pare (1804-1873) a Birmingham tobacconist, who was one of the founders of the first Birmingham Cooperative Society. He left Birmingham in 1842 to become acting governor of … Continue reading William Pare’s scrapbook

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Labour History Review, SSLH news

LHR postgraduate essay prize 2021

Postgraduates are encouraged to submit articles for consideration for the 2021 essay prize to the editors of Labour History Review. This annual prize awards £500 for the best essay which will be published in the LHR.  The deadline for the 2021 prize is the 28 February 2021. The 2020 prize was won by Matt Beebee of Exeter University for his essay entitled ‘Navigating deindustrialization in 1970s Britain: … Continue reading LHR postgraduate essay prize 2021

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Advice & reference, Topic guides

Sources on the Communist Party

The Society for the Study of Labour History and Marx Memorial Library have created a resource pack and guide to sources on the history of the Communist Party. Compiled by the Society’s Archives and Resources Committee, the guide includes information on the major archives and their holdings on this topic. The pack was originally published to coincide with an online conference marking the centenary of … Continue reading Sources on the Communist Party

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Books etc

‘The town that bought itself’

One hundred years ago this month, the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield effectively “bought itself” when its corporation paid £1.3m for the Ramsden estate, which included the whole of the town centre and over half of the land within the Borough boundary. Now, marking the centenary of the event, Huddersfield Local History Society has brought together a series of original essays on the Ramsden family’s role in … Continue reading ‘The town that bought itself’

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Grants

Huddersfield’s NHS: the Caribbean connection

The contribution made by the African Caribbean descent community (ACDC) to the NHS in the Kirklees area of West Yorkshire forms the focus of a local history initiative sponsored by the Society for the Study of Labour History. Led by Professor Barry Doyle and colleagues at the University of Huddersfield, and working with not-for-profit community filmmaker Kirklees Local TV (KLTV), the project will result in a 30-minute digital production, … Continue reading Huddersfield’s NHS: the Caribbean connection

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Obituaries

Chushichi Tsuzuki (1926-2020)

Chushichi Tsuzuki’s membership of the Society for the Study of Labour History was first recorded in the Bulletin of Spring 1962. He remained a Society member for many years – almost certainly well beyond 2006, when he and I attended our South Bank University conference marking the centenary of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s formation. Chushichi first left Japan in July 1952 as a Fulbright scholar … Continue reading Chushichi Tsuzuki (1926-2020)

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Obituaries

Ian MacDougal (1993-2020)

Ian MacDougall had a remarkable impact on labour history with his pioneering interim bibliography of the Scottish working class movement and other labour records held in Scotland of 1965 and his subsequent Catalogue of Labour records in Scotland of 1975. His 1965 work had an impact on discussions within the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Labour History. There was no equivalent … Continue reading Ian MacDougal (1993-2020)

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