The Songs of Johanna (Jenny) Lind

(Ref: Birmingham Portraits Vol 6 LF79)

The world renowned Jenny ‘the Swedish Nightingale’ Lind performed a fund raising concert in Birmingham Town Hall on September 9th 1847. The event was organised by the city’s Jewish community and helped build the Singers Hill Synagogue.

Oh her British tour she performed to rave reviews and had many of her concerts attended by members of the imperial family. Unfortunately no recordings of her voice exist. It is said that she made an early phonograph recording for Thomas Edison but this has never been found.

To see the full image from Birmingham Portraits click here.

Gas Light Revolution

A gas plant installed by Boulton & Watt at Philips & Lee in Salford in 1805. The gas holders is on the left, with the coal oven on the right. (Ref: B&W Archives MS3147-5-804-5-7)

Leslie Tomory is a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal. His book, Progressive Enlightenment: the Origins of the Gaslight Industry, 1780–1820, is being published by MIT Press in 2012 and has kindly contributed this story.

During the Industrial Revolution, a new form of lighting was introduced that notably exceeded the illuminating power of the candles and oil lamps then in use: gas lighting. This form of lighting relied on gas produced from coal which was heated in an enclosed oven.

Remarkably, gas lighting was invented simultaneously in many places throughout Europe between 1775 and 1795, including in Cornwall by William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton & Watt. Other inventors include Philippe Lebon in Paris, and Alessandro Volta in Italy and Jan-Pieter Minckelers in Belgium.

Knitting for Victory!

(Ref: MS 4068/1/10/1)

During the Second World War, Mrs. Powell and a group of her friends started a knitting group for the Red Cross in Handsworth, Birmingham. Mrs Powell remembers that anyone mentioning the Blitz at the meeting had to pay 6/d towards the Red Cross. Their knitwear was sent to troops all over the world, and often the servicemen would write letters of thanks back. MS 4068 is a collection of such letters, and are a great insight into serving and training during the war.

Some letters have a lighter side to them. One serviceman, not knowing the name of Mrs Powell’s daughter, wrote a letter of thanks instead to “My dearest Cinderella”, asking for a photograph of her and signing off as “a lucky Sailor” (letter above).  It took several letters before Betty finally revealed her real name, although persistent requests for a photograph seem to have been ignored.

Dickens in Birmingham

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in 1812 on 7 February and thus 2012 marks 200 years since the birth of this distinguished novelist, widely considered to be the greatest of the Victorian era.

The Battle of ‘Saltley Gate’ 40th Anniversary

(Ref: MS/1611/A/4)

‘The Rover workers came, close the gates, close the gates
From Fishers just the same, close the gates
The women from S.U.
The Morris workers too
To Saltley Gate they drew, close the gates, close the gates
To Saltley Gate they drew, close the gates.’

This is the first verse of a song written by Dave Rogers of Banner Theatre for the company’s multimedia show ‘Saltley Gate’ produced in 1976, based on hours of interviews and tape recordings with miners, car workers, and factory workers involved in the mass picket of Saltley coke depot at Nechells Green in Birmingham on Thursday 10 February 1972.

Yet further additions

A number of new acquisitions made to the Birmingham Collection and the Genealogy bookstock. Why not have a look below:

1. Birmingham City Council.
Housing Department, Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Action Plan.
(2002).
LP 21.85 BIR

Birmingham’s Public Libraries

(Ref: WK-W2-10)

The new Library of Birmingham opens in 2013. Birmingham’s libraries have experienced many changes over the last two centuries but there has been continuity as well. These themes are documented in surviving records and images in our collections.

During the eighteenth century Birmingham’s libraries were in private hands, the first ‘Free Library’ having been established around 1733.