British History

New Portrait of Lord Nelson Found, Scars and All

One of many Nelson portraits by Leonardo Guzzardi, the painting has been restored to include his war wounds

Yarr! Actor Robert Newton, whose portrayal of Long John Silver became famous, also played Blackbeard in a 1952 film.

This Film Version of 'Treasure Island' Gave Us Our Image of Pirates

Avast, you lubbers!

This illustration from the November 30 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the two Confederate commissioners being brought aboard the San Jacinto after being removed from the RMS Trent.

A Union Captain Nearly Dragged the British Into the Civil War In 1861

As if the country didn't have enough to worry about

Ships involved in the American slave trade before the Civil War.

When Enslaved People Commandeered a Ship and Hightailed it to Freedom in the Bahamas

It's been called the most successful slave rebellion in U.S. history

Jitish Kallat's "Circadian Rhyme 1" addresses heightened security measures

What Does Post-9/11 Art Mean? Imperial War Museum Explores the Question in 'Age of Terror'

Works by Ai Weiwei, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Coco Fusco respond to contemporary violence and conflict

Holmes and Watson have had years of adventures together, but the first time they ever appeared in print was in a story Arthur Conan Doyle set in Utah.

The Creator of Sherlock Holmes Was, Like Many Victorians, Fascinated by Mormons

The first story featuring iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, 'A Study in Scarlet,' was published on this day in 1887—and set in Mormon Utah

The Abbey Road crosswalk, which has been moved slightly since 1969, in modern times.

A Short History of the Crosswalk

Pedestrian crosswalks and roads have a complicated relationship

A woodcut from a 1720 history of "witches and wizards"

How New Printing Technology Gave Witches Their Familiar Silhouette

Popular media helped give witches their image

Grave of George Eliot on Highgate Cemetery

You Can’t Walk Around London’s Cemeteries Without Seeing Someone Famous (and Dead)

A tour of the city’s dead can unearth some fascinating stories

The British Museum was the first free, public natural history museum in the world—but its creator, Hans Sloane, was intricately connected with the slave trade.

The British Museum Was a Wonder of Its Time—But Also a Product of Slavery

A new book explores the little-known life and career of Hans Sloane, whose collections led to the founding of the British Museum

Adolf Hitler and his deputy Rudolf Hess

Eight Historical Archives That Will Spill New Secrets

Declassified records and journals to be released in coming decades will shed new light on pivotal 20th-century figures and events

Fear not: Though it was recently found that red squirrels can harbor the leprosy bacteria, there hasn't been a single confirmed case of the disease in the UK in 200 years.

Are Viking Squirrels to Blame for Infecting England with Leprosy?

It's possible, say researchers who found that medieval strains of the disease may have come to Great Britain in the rodents' fur and meat

Take Five (2006), Tom Lamb

This Gallery Is Dedicated to Coal Miners' Art

The Mining Art Gallery showcases works created by the thousands of miners who've lived and worked in the Great Northern Coalfield

Stone Age Britons Feasted While Building Stonehenge

A new exhibit shows that the builders gorged on animals from as far away as Scotland

The Battle of Fort McHenry through Francis Scott Key's Eyes

When the British army held Francis Scott Key captive aboard one of their warships during the Battle of Baltimore, his stay inspired enemy's patriotic song

The British Navy was a big deal in the 1700s.

Jane Squire and the Longitude Wars

The sixteenth-century debate over how to determine longitude had a lot of participants—and one woman

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro during a press conference at his home in London, Thursday Oct. 5, 2017.

What to Know About Literature's Newest Nobel Winner British Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro

The author of <i>The Remains of the Day</i> and seven other books explores themes of memory, time and self-deception

A typical 17th-century coffeehouse scene. Controversial, right?

This 17th-Century "Women's Petition Against Coffee" Probably Wasn't About Women, or Coffee

It probably wasn't written by angry, sex-deprived wives–although stranger things have happened

This portrait by an anonymous photographer shows the face of the man who popularized the flush toilet: Thomas Crapper.

Three True Things About Sanitary Engineer Thomas Crapper

Thomas Crapper's actual innovation was entirely tangential to the flush toilet

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a more modern form of IVF.

In Vitro Fertilization Was Once As Controversial As Gene Editing is Today

The scientists who pioneered it were regarded as pariahs, even within their own universities

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