In 1936, a military revolt against the Spanish government led to a war involving Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and brought anti-fascist volunteers to Spain from around the world.in defence of democracy.

This month we highlight descriptions for the papers of political campaigners, historians, and International Brigades volunteers, the records of aid organisations, and descriptions for collections of posters, photographs, and interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War.

llustration: drawing by Basque refugee children of an air raid; reproduced by permission of People’s History Museum.

As we start to enjoy the beautiful British summer time, here at the Archives Hub our thoughts often turn to beer and beer gardens. We thought we ought to celebrate this by devoting our August feature to pubs and all things hostelry and alcohol related.

We are highlighting descriptions for the records of breweries, licensed premises, and trade associations, plus the papers of pub users – and temperance campaigners.

Illustration: The Hub (no relation) pub, Brighton. Photo © Simon Carey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Here are the current ten most popular features:

1. Dig for Victory! (Nov 04) Archival Awareness with help from the Women’s Land Army
2. The Great War (Sep 04)
3. Forensics: a partial print of the history of forensic science (Jun 09)
4. The Big Draw (Oct 02) all kinds of drawings can be found in archives
5. Interpreting Shakespeare (Apr 03)
6. Miners’ Strike 1984-1985 (Mar 04)
7. Railway history: 200 years of the steam engine (Jun 04)
8. Fairs and Circus History (Oct 08)
9. Trees (Dec 03)
10. Stanley Kubrick (Jul 08)

Illustration: Woodcraft Folk photo copyright © National Co-operative Archive. From Around the Campfire (Aug 07).

This June’s Collections of the Month examines a partial print of the history of forensic science, shining a light on the descriptions for the papers of physicians, pharmacists, chemists and toxicologists involved in criminal investigations, and records relating to forgery and violent crimes.

Illustration copyright © 2009 The Archives Hub.

This month we are highlighting Steve Cohen‘s collection which he deposited at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre in 2001.

Steve Cohen was a lawyer and anti deportation campaigner who dedicated his life to anti-racism and anti-Semitism, particularly the welfare of immigrants and refugees, and those seeking the right to remain in the UK.

There are links to related materials, mainly in the areas of race relations and immigration.

For more information on the Steve Cohen collection, please contact the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre on 0161 275 2920. We’d like to thank Julie Devonald of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, who wrote the text for this month’s description.

Image of a demo rally poster provided by and copyright the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre.

This month we’ve been focussing on the epidemic disease tuberculosis or T.B., once known as ‘consumption’. We highlight the records of hospitals and sanatoriums, the papers of medical professionals, campaigners and organisations, and victims of the disease; illustrated with a range of photographs from Lothian Health Services Archive, The Women’s Library, the People’s History Museum, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Photo: Illuminated tram-car advertising, 1957, part of Glasgow Corporation’s tuberculosis campaign. Image Wellcome Library, London and copyright © Wellcome Trust, reproduced under Creative Commons licence.

This year sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of the geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1892) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of natural selection and evolution.

Image: Detail of a design by Tom Eckersley (1914-1995) for the World Wildlife Fund (now WWF-UK), showing species in danger of extinction – due to some very un-natural selection.

Image provided by University of the Arts London with all rights reserved by the owners: the Tom Eckersley Estate and London College of Communication. Image taken by Graham Goldwater, with rights reserved by University of the Arts London, contact: archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk, 02075 149 335.

This month we have our first bi-lingual pages, as look at the founding of a Welsh-speaking settlement in Argentina in the mid-19th century.

Elen Wyn Simpson, Assistant Archivist at Bangor University, has provided an introduction (in both Welsh and English) to the highlighted collections, and four striking photographs of the settlers. There are also links to related websites and some suggested reading.

Above: Building a road to the Andes, near ‘Afon y Mynach‘ in 1888. At the left, in a white coat, stands Llwyd ap Iwan, who was murdered in 1909, some say by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. Photo copyright © Bangor University.

For our feature this December, we look at typewriters and their impact on office workers in collections at The Women’s Library and other collections around the UK.

Throughout the 20th century female typists were a key part of office life, resulting in an uneasy relationship between the workforce and the machine.

The Women’s Library have provided an introduction and some suggested reading, and there are links to related websites.

And the subject of a previous feature also gets a mention: Betty Boothroyd, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1992-2000, at one time worked as a secretary.

Illustration: Untitled [typewriter covered with beads], 2003, by Brigitte Williams, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham. Photo courtesy of VADS