British Library blogs
From our curators, subject specialists and guest bloggers
About our blogs
These blogs express the thoughts and opinions of individual British Library staff members. You can subscribe to any blog by email.
If you wish to make a complaint or a general comment, please email us at webeditor@bl.uk
Latest blog posts
Asian and African studies blog
A rare, smoked Ahom manuscript from Assam
02 July 2013
One of the manuscripts in the British Library’s Thai, Lao and Cambodian collections is unusual for its distinctive smoky smell, but its real significance lies in the fact that few such manuscripts survive following the Burmese occupation of the Ahom...
Social Science blog
Napoleon riding backwards on a donkey
02 July 2013
Jennifer Howes, the British Library's Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, writes about some of the many different versions of Napoleon. The picture on this medallion shows Napoleon with a rope tied around his neck, seated backwards on a donkey....
Untold lives blog
The Davisons of Northumberland and Bengal
02 July 2013
Recent DNA analysis has revealed that Diana Princess of Wales had Indian ancestry through her mother’s line of descent from Eliza Kewark of Surat. This is not as unusual as the press coverage might suggest. In eighteenth century India, European...
Medieval manuscripts blog
A Calendar Page for July 2013
02 July 2013
For more details on calendar pages or the Golf Book, please see the post for January 2013. Calendar page for July with a miniature of a nobleman going hawking, with haymakers behind him, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours,...
All British Library blogs
English and drama
On literature and theatre collections from the 16th century to the present day
