The National Archives Podcast Series

Want to hear more from The National Archives? We'd like to introduce you to On the Record, a new podcast bringing old stories to life. Join our experts and special guests as we dig deep into the people behind the paper and bring fascinating stories from more than 11 million records to life. Discover tales of forbidden love, spies, protest and the everyday people of the past. Search for On the Record at The National Archives wherever you get your podcasts or visit...

The global datafication of economy, society and politics has rendered humans into constellations of datapoints. Technologies measure, monitor, predict and classify to enable personalization in the online and offline worlds alike, and we are increasingly offered bespoke realities: advertising, healthcare, government services, and recommendations uniquely targeted to us. The price is persistent identification: everywhere we […]

The 1848-1849 cholera epidemic in England and Wales was described by a government report as if a ‘foreign army’ had ‘held possession of the country, and slain 53,293 men, women and children’. In the mid-19th century the country faced an epidemic of filth; poorly drained, overcrowded towns created an environment ripe for diseases like typhus […]

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, introduces his ground-breaking biography of Thomas Cromwell, the self-made statesman who married his son to King Henry VIII’s sister-in-law, re-shaped Tudor England and Ireland, and sent the kingdom on a Protestant course for centuries. […]

In this talk to mark the latest volume of his epic history of post-war Britain, television presenter and best-selling author Dominic Sandbrook recreates the strange world of early 1980s, taking in everything from Margaret Thatcher, Ian Botham and Spandau Ballet, to the Falklands War, the Sinclair Spectrum and the Sony Walkman.

Rebecca Gowers uncovered a fascinating story within her family tree – that of Harry Larkyns. She learnt that Harry was an attractive cad who lived a charmed life, right up until the moment he fell in love with the wife of noted photographer, Eadweard Muybridge. In this ‘Meet the Author’ event (recorded over Zoom), Rebecca […]

Trevor Barnes is the author of a new study of one of the Cold War’s most notorious spy cases – the Portland Spy Ring. In this ‘Meet the Author’ talk, Trevor is joined by Professor Chris Andrew of Cambridge University to discuss his latest book, Dead Doubles.

Opening up the electorate in 1918 to some women voters naturally triggered a conversation about female parliamentarians. Under the 1918 Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act, Nancy Astor was the first female MP to take her seat. In this talk, Dr Jacqui Turner reflects on Astor’s achievements and on how she became a totem for women […]

In this ‘Meet the Author’ event (recorded over Zoom), Dermot Turing discusses his latest book, The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, with our Collections Expert, Mark Dunton. The book examines the lives of the brilliant and eccentric individuals who cracked the seemingly unbreakable Enigma code.

The National Archives’ collections offer a valuable insight into how the government interacted with and viewed LGBTQ communities in the past, at a time when the State played a major role in repressing and controlling the lives of gay and bisexual men and women. This talk takes you through records relating to queer history, using photographs, court reports, witness statements and seized items to highlight both criminalisation and brave acts of defiance. From the calling card of transgender...

What are the opportunities, and challenges, of working collaboratively with archivists, academics and community groups? The theme of this year’s Gerald Aylmer seminar was ‘Co-production and collaboration in the archives’. It was a day of discussion, analysis and learning, featuring a range of collaborative projects, as seen from the perspectives and experience of archivists, historians and community practitioners. The Gerald Aylmer seminar is an annual symposium organised by The National...

What are the opportunities, and challenges, of working collaboratively with archivists, academics and community groups? The theme of this year’s Gerald Aylmer seminar was ‘Co-production and collaboration in the archives’. It was a day of discussion, analysis and learning, featuring a range of collaborative projects, as seen from the perspectives and experience of archivists, historians and community practitioners. The Gerald Aylmer seminar is an annual symposium organised by The National...

What are the opportunities, and challenges, of working collaboratively with archivists, academics and community groups? The theme of this year’s Gerald Aylmer seminar was ‘Co-production and collaboration in the archives’. It was a day of discussion, analysis and learning, featuring a range of collaborative projects, as seen from the perspectives and experience of archivists, historians and community practitioners. The Gerald Aylmer seminar is an annual symposium organised by The National...

What are the opportunities, and challenges, of working collaboratively with archivists, academics and community groups? The theme of this year’s Gerald Aylmer seminar was ‘Co-production and collaboration in the archives’. It was a day of discussion, analysis and learning, featuring a range of collaborative projects, as seen from the perspectives and experience of archivists, historians and community practitioners. The Gerald Aylmer seminar is an annual symposium organised by The National...

What are the opportunities, and challenges, of working collaboratively with archivists, academics and community groups? The theme of this year’s Gerald Aylmer seminar was ‘Co-production and collaboration in the archives’. It was a day of discussion, analysis and learning, featuring a range of collaborative projects, as seen from the perspectives and experience of archivists, historians and community practitioners. The Gerald Aylmer seminar is an annual symposium organised by The National...

The one-day conference – ‘Manorial Documents: Past, present and into the future’ – took place at The National Archives on Tuesday 25 September 2018. The conference was a collaborative event between the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) Advisory Panel and The National Archives, with an aim to: Keynote Address Professor Chris Dyer (Emeritus Professor of History, University of Leicester)

The one-day conference – ‘Manorial Documents: Past, present and into the future’ – took place at The National Archives on Tuesday 25 September 2018. The conference was a collaborative event between the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) Advisory Panel and The National Archives, with an aim to: Panel Session 1: The manorial context

The one-day conference – ‘Manorial Documents: Past, present and into the future’ – took place at The National Archives on Tuesday 25 September 2018. The conference was a collaborative event between the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) Advisory Panel and The National Archives, with an aim to: Panel Session 2: The Register goes online

The one-day conference – ‘Manorial Documents: Past, present and into the future’ – took place at The National Archives on Tuesday 25 September 2018. The conference was a collaborative event between the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) Advisory Panel and The National Archives, with an aim to: Roundtable: What’s next?

Matt Norman talks to Chrissy Peters about Discovery – the online catalogue for The National Archives and 2500 other archives. What is in Discovery? How can you find what you want in it? Are the records in Discovery digitised? Find out the answers from Chrissy in this short podcast. You can use the Help with your research pages on our website to find out more about The National Archives’ collection before you use Discovery. There are also helpful blogs; Where do I start my research?, Why...