Antinous

Bookmark or Share
Last year we stationed a number of poets in the Museums and Archives of London to report back on the queer histories hidden therein.  Celebrated poet John McCullough explored the British Museum, where he took a bust of the boy god Antinous as his

The Ballad of Captain Rigby

Bookmark or Share
Write Queer London 2012 saw poet Peter Daniels enter the Metropolitan Archives to uncover LGBT history amongst their stacks wherein he made the acqaintance of our tale's hero, the indefatigable Captain Rigby.  Captain Edward Rigby was tried for sodomy in 1698, after falling foul of

The Secret Lives of Shirts by Elizabeth (Buffy) Noble - Winning Poetry entry Write Queer London 2012

Yellow Morphy Richards iron from Geffrye Museum handling collectioncollection
Bookmark or Share
The secret lives of shirts I am flattened, And again flattened. I am forced. I am heavy as a man, hanging I am heavy as a day. I am made straight. but I have been silk, undone, wettened I have been lovingly dangled I have
0 Comments Read more

The Pankratiasts by James Duncan- overall winning entry for Write Queer London 2012

Pankration scene: the pankriatiast on the right tries to gouge his opponent's eye; the umpire is about to strike him for this foul. Detail from an Attic red-figure kylix, 490-480 BC. From Vulci, Italy.
Bookmark or Share
Squat down, pulling the back of my head onto his bare chest, Erasmus has pushed his left leg between mine. The inside of his thigh is touching the back of my balls.  My sturdy left leg knots around his sturdier right.  He has
0 Comments Read more

Write Queer London Festival has landed

Write Queer London flyer
Bookmark or Share
Discovering gay histories across London museums The Museum of London’s Write Queer London festival, which begins in December, brings together writers, poets and LGBT history in London museums for a fourth year. Curator talks, gallery tours, poetry commissions, a writing competition and creative

On Going Forth Into the Book of the Dead Exhibition at the British Museum and Coming Out the Other Side Alive

Bookmark or Share
The British Museum's Autumn blockbuster exhibition 2010 focuses on Africa, Ancient Egypt to be precise.  The round reading room has been split into 11 rooms filled with treasures and manuscripts never before seen together.  In the best traditions of explorers past, Untold London ventures into
0 Comments Read more

Singh Twins talk about EnTWINed at the Museum of London

Photo shows two indian ladies in matching saris
Bookmark or Share
In 2004 the Museum of London acquired two paintings by artist Henry Nelson O’Neil.  Titled “Eastward Ho!” and “Home Again”, both were painted in 1850s and show British soldiers embarking for the First Indian War of Independence and their subsequent return.  O'Neil's paintings
0 Comments Read more

Otto Pankok brings German Gypsies to Greenwich

Ralko in Springtime - Otto Pankok exhibition poster
Bookmark or Share
Gypsy Roma Travellers History Month has provided the backdrop to many events around the capital and beyond this year, celebrating modern Gypsy life styles and reminding us of a sometimes heartbreaking past. The German Holocaust in Europe is one aspect of Gypsy history that is
0 Comments Read more

Trail blazing summer of Indian Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery

Kunwar Anop Singh of Devgarh riding with a falcon, Devgarh, Mewar, Rajasthan, attributed to Bakhta, c1776 Museum Rietberg Zuric
Bookmark or Share
In an international first, The Indian Portrait (1560 -1860) brings together 60 Indian paintings from collections in Europe and beyond to tell the story of Indian portrait painting from the Mughal courts to the salons of the West India Trading Company.The exhibition aims to frame the
0 Comments Read more

Visual AIDS - Graphic Responses to HIV

Oliver Winchester
Bookmark or Share
An overview of the history that lies behind some of the design work that came out of the US directly in response to HIV/ AIDS in the late 1980. In 1996 the V&A held a display, Graphic Responses to AIDS, curated by Shaun Cole, and
0 Comments Read more

profile picture of Babs Guthrie Articles By:
Babs Guthrie

Babs has worked in the heritage sector for over ten years, with experience working with National, local and online collections.

Special areas of interest are London Egyptophilia, ancient languages, internet geekery, interactive social media, paleontology and hidden histories.

Tweets

In October 2011, Grand Union and its Youth Orchestra helped commemorate the 75th anniversary of the historic... http://t.co/DMF4U1Xqo4

Apr 16, 2013 3:03pm 37 days ago

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES NEEDS YOU ... to train as an archivisit if you're from an atypical archivist background... http://t.co/P8QgA8vNqF

Mar 19, 2013 8:39pm 65 days ago

World's best Bette Davis impersonator Charles Pierce is Polari's Day 17 LGBT History Month hero http://t.co/1Pxsn2L3

Feb 18, 2013 12:36pm 94 days ago

Remarkable artist, Kelvin Okafor, born in Tottenham to Nigerian parents, exhibiting in London, last month at the... http://t.co/WroqacQ8

Feb 09, 2013 11:21pm 103 days ago