Author: Julia Nurse

There have always been attempts to curb the hair loss and greyness long associated with ageing. A beard that grew a different colour to the head hair, for example, could be – and still can be – an irritating inconsistency.… Continue reading

Known as ‘The scholar’, Louise Bourgeois Boursier (1563–1636) was a recognised midwife within the 17th century French court. The trials and tribulations of her life illustrate the marginal position of female midwives in medicine at the time. Despite this, Bourgeois… Continue reading

The life of Rosina Bulwer Lytton provides a fascinating insight into the attitudes towards women and mental health in the 19th century. Dismissed for years as the mad wife of the novelist and politician Edward Bulwer Lytton, Rosina was in… Continue reading

The site of the old Wellcome Pharmaceutical Factory at Mill Ponds is now a multi-million pound housing development that comes with 400 years of industrial history. Rewind back to the 19th century when this same 7.59 acre site of the… Continue reading

The digitised diaries of asylum superintendent Dr James Adam (1834-1908) offer a rare view of life inside a late 19th century mental health asylum for the poor. Adam was praised for his energetic and humane approach to the role at… Continue reading

Edward Francis Tuke (ca. 1776-1846) founded the Manor House Asylum as a private lunatic establishment in Chiswick, London in 1837 with his wife, Mary. Though private asylums had been around since the 17th century, few dealt with patients with as… Continue reading

A “damned near-run thing” said the Duke of Wellington on his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. The Battle of Waterloo was the the bloody finale of the French Emperor’s 100-day reign. While Napoleon was exiled to… Continue reading

Here is an entertaining guide to Our Daily Fare and How to Provide It, for World Book Day. This book is aimed at the average housewife stuck at home in 1893 and limited to a “small weekly household allowance” of… Continue reading

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that has been around since antiquity. It has gone by many names: phthisis (the original Greek name), consumption, the white plague – and many treatments have been offered over the years. One example of a… Continue reading

On World Water Day the book Women, Plumbers and Doctors caught my eye. It seems an unusual title for a book from 1885, but when you turn the front cover over it becomes apparent that this quirky title is a manual of household… Continue reading