Children and satchels, by Lisel Haas
With growing industrialisation in the 1800s employers required a more numerate and more literate workforce than before. The work of humanitarian reformers led to laws being passed to prevent the employment ...
Children at breakfast table
Children chopping wood at home from Edward Cadbury, M. Cecile Matheson, and George Shann, ‘Women’s Work and Wages’
For poor children the home was often a place of work, alongside their mother. Children as young as five contributed to the family’s income by helping with unskilled work such as tying up bundles of chopped ...
Children drying their hands
Children eating breakfast, by Lisel Haas
The children sharing breakfast in this photograph are believed to be siblings although we do not know their names. Haas was born in Monchengladbach, Germany. She was a Jewish refugee who settled in Birmingham ...
Children playing with building blocks
Children standing outside
Children wearing satchels
China
Originally captioned 'Chinese Girls of Hong Kong.' From the collection of Sir Benjamin Stone.
Choir Member
Choir member, New Testament Church of God, Wolverhampton. Photograph by Nick Hedges for the exhibition 'I'm a Believer - Religion in the West Midlands'.
Crescent Bicycles Catalogue, Arthur E. Sayer & Co., Sherlock Street, Birmingham
This catalogue shows that companies were actively marketing bicycles to women by 1900. Inside we find the 'Crescent No 3' Ladies Safety model, which has 'saddle and handle positions arranged to allow ...
Cross-dressing
Vesta Tilley (1864-1952) was born as Matilda Powles, in Worcester, and was performing in music hall by the age of four. She was one of the most well known and highly paid music hall artists of her time ...
Dancing in the Dell at Muntz Park
Regular dances were organised in the Dell at Muntz Park by the Bournbrook Entertainments Committee from 1923 onwards. A disused clay pit, known as the Dell, was laid out for dancing and open-air theatre ...
Dee Johnson: Singer
Dee Johnson, photographed in Moseley, 1999. From the collection "Muzik Kinda Sweet" by Pogus Caesar/OOM Gallery Archive.
Discussion of Park Closure at Night
Parks in Birmingham were usually kept closed at night, but in 1954 the Parks Committee did consider leaving Calthorpe Park open. These pages from the Parks Committee minutes consider this proposal, which ...
Dr Jacqueline Andall
Dr Jacqueline Andall, Lecturer in Italian Studies, University of Bath: "Being black is only one of many identities. I realized fairly early on that society did not expect black people to achieve. I was ...