Arts and culture

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) was a trailblazing British composer and conductor from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Singer and broadcaster Evelyn Dove (1902–1987) achieved a number of firsts including, in 1925, becoming the first woman of African heritage on BBC Radio.

This letter details the circumstances of the strange disappearance of famous author Agatha Christie in 1926.

How do you reward a medieval poet? This document granted the author of the Canterbury Tales an unusual royal gift: a daily allowance of wine.

Death duty records can reveal a great deal about a person’s true feelings. What can we learn about the loves and friendships of author Virginia Woolf from hers?

John Blanke was a trumpeter at the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He is one of the earliest people of colour in England we have records about.

Described by the Birmingham Post as the ‘queen of Jamaican theatre’, Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919–2006) was a poet, performer, folklorist, writer and educator.

Copyright photographs of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor provide us with a unique insight into his status in early 20th-century British society.

This parchment records John Blanke, a Black Tudor in the royal court, asking King Henry VIII for a pay rise and a promotion in his role as a trumpeter.

The Irish author completed this form to register ownership of a play titled ‘Dracula; or the Un-Dead’, and thus his seminal novel. It would prove important.

Through documents held in The National Archives, we can gain an incredible insight into the life of one of the world's most famous playwrights.

Maud Allan (1873–1956) was a celebrated West End dancer in the early 20th century until she became entangled in one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) lived relatively openly as a lesbian in an era that condemned such relationships. Today she is an icon of LGBTQ+ literature.