‘A Gem of Art’ – The earliest surviving photograph of the US Capitol (c. 1846)
The earliest surviving photographic image of the US Capitol was captured with skill and grace by John Plumbe in the mid-1840s.
The Wunderkind Who Sailed to the South Seas with Captain Cook
Andrea Wulf explains how the linguist and naturalist George Forster came to join the remarkable voyage of HMS Resolution
History in the News – the Cundill Prize, MI5 and Amelia Earhart
Beth Lew-Williams wins the Cundill History Prize – and other history stories that caught our eye this week.
★ EDITOR'S PICKS
Napoleon III and the Disastrous Battle of Sedan in 1870
Edward Shawcross traces the course of the Battle of Sedan in September 1870, a defeat that would spell the end for the Second Empire.
The Beauty and the Terror in Renoir’s ‘Pink and Blue’
This 1881 portrait of Alice and Elisabeth Cahen d'Anvers would inspire Catherine Ostler's The Renoir Girls
Building Tower Bridge in London (1892)
At the end of the nineteenth century the gaunt arms of an engineering wonder stretched across the River Thames
Jane Austen The Magical Novelist With John Mullan
250 years after she was born, Jane Austen continues to outwit her readers, as John Mullan explains
Bookshelf
New History Books for October 2026
Our pick of new history books for October. From Wireheads to Chaucer, Napoleon's Marshals to Sherlock Holmes.
The History of the Proscenium – The Place Where the Imaginary and Real Worlds Divide
The director Dominic Dromgoole, author of Time Frames, explains the historical forces behind the 'Proscenium Playwrights' of today.
New History Books for September 2026
Our pick of new history books for September. From Thomas Cochrane to a Cold War spy, Domesday to the Sixties.
The Chain Tower, the Siege of Damietta and the Fifth Crusade
Thomas Smith revisits a dramatic moment from the Fifth Crusade when the Christians besieged the port of Damietta.
Features
‘A Gem of Art’ – The earliest surviving photograph of the US Capitol (c. 1846)
The earliest surviving photographic image of the US Capitol was captured with skill and grace by John Plumbe in the mid-1840s.
The Wunderkind Who Sailed to the South Seas with Captain Cook
Andrea Wulf explains how the linguist and naturalist George Forster came to join the remarkable voyage of HMS Resolution
History in the News – the Cundill Prize, MI5 and Amelia Earhart
Beth Lew-Williams wins the Cundill History Prize – and other history stories that caught our eye this week.
Arthur Conan Doyle and the Strange Story of the Cottingley Fairies
Seb Butcher explains how the creator of Sherlock Holmes came to believe in the story of the Cottingley Fairies
Interviews
An Unnatural History of Technology in the Brain with Mike Jay
In his new book 'Wireheads', Mike Jay looks at the stories of those who sought to use technology to gain control of the brain.
Iran's Stolen Revolution with Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati
The story of post-revolutionary Iran has been one of missed opportunities and of a government betraying its people, explain the authors of a new history of the period
The History of Aston Villa Football Club with Rob Bishop
Rob Bishop is Aston Villa's club historian. Here he tells us how he landed this singular job and about the rich history of one of England's greatest football teams
The General Strike of 1926 with Jonathan Schneer
The General Strike of 1926 marked a precarious moment in British political and social history, as Jonathan Schneer explains
Snapshot
‘A Gem of Art’ – The earliest surviving photograph of the US Capitol (c. 1846)
The earliest surviving photographic image of the US Capitol was captured with skill and grace by John Plumbe in the mid-1840s.
On Ocean Beach Beside the Cliff House Hotel in San Francisco (1902)
The Cliff House Hotel in San Francisco overlooked Ocean Beach – a place that drew crowds in hot weather. This colourised photograph shows people taking a 'sun bath'.