In the 1920s and 1930s queer clubs & spaces were vulnerable to police raids.
Makeup was seen as a sign of effeminacy & therefore homosexuality.
Police would use blotting paper to test for powder & rouge.
📷: CRIM 1/1041
At the LGBTQ+ friendly Caravan Club, described in the 1930s as ‘London’s greatest bohemian rendezvous’, patrons regularly wore make up.
📷: MEPO 3/758 & DPP 2/224
During a raid of the private members club in 1934, a particularly flamboyant and bold individual, Cyril, had to undergo the humiliating process of having his face tested for evidence of make-up with blotting paper.
📷: WO195/15751
Billie’s Club, located on 6 Little Denmark Street (now Flitcroft Street), opened in 1935.
The scene that the police witnessed was described as:
the type of dancing which went on was thoroughly disgusting…With one exception all the men were powdered and rouged
📷: CRIM 1/903
Not only were the individuals perceived to be wearing makeup, but it was noted that 'their hair was waved or dyed’ with one individual highlighted as having pink nails.
In this era police observations consistently related ‘effeminacy’ as a sign of homosexuality.
📷: DPP 2/355
Rare material evidence of this practice survives in our collections; a piece of blotting paper smeared with make-up.
This was taken from the face of 44 year old waiter Knox.
📷: CRIM 1/1041
Knox was arrested in Piccadilly for soliciting men in the street – his face ‘highly coloured and his lips red,’ according to the officer – and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Did you know that we have original records relating to the libel case dramatised in the film Wicked Little Letters?
Please note: this thread contains spoilers for the film and references to strong language.
Edith Swan and Rose Gooding were friendly neighbours in Littlehampton, West Sussex in 1920. But a series of poison pen letters were sent to Edith and suspicion fell on Rose. Court records show Rose was found guilty of libel in September 1921.
Rose served 14 days in prison, but then the letters began again, and she faced a second trial in March 1921. In an article on the case, the Sussex Daily News reported that 'women were called to serve on the jury for the first time' at these Assizes.
Of course we know it contains thousands of years of human history in the form of its documents and it appears to float on water, surrounded by a stunning lake.
Florence Nightingale David – a pioneering statistician who carried out vital wartime work which saved many lives during the Blitz.
Let’s explore her story…
HO-196-32
Born in in 1909, David’s parents had been friends with the Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale, who she was named after. She studied Mathematics at Bedford College for Women, going on to join UCL as a research assistant in statistics and completing her doctorate in 1938.
In June 1939, David was called upon to be an experimental officer to the Board of Ordnance. Within a year, she was transferred to the Ministry of Home Security Research and Experiments Department. It is this work that surfaces in The National Archives’ collection.
#OTD in 1395 Tadhg Mac Carthaigh Mór, prince of Desmond, one of the major leaders in Connacht in the west of Ireland, followed the Ulster kings in writing to Richard II at Drogheda.
He too mentions conflict with a major English magnate, the earl of Ormond.
Mac Carthaigh appealed to Richard as a loyal subject, saying that “my ancestors from the time of the Conquest” of Ireland in 1170 have been loyal and that he himself has never waged war against the English.
His wife was Joan, daughter of the English earl of Desmond.
Joan’s father was Gerald Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald known as Gearóid Iarla, who wrote poetry in both Irish and French, which has been preserved in a later copy in the Book of the Dean of Lismore.
The legend goes that he disappeared in 1398 and now sleeps under Lough Gur.
The threads of women’s experiences weave throughout our records; from monarchs to paupers, suffrage campaigners to Black power protestors.
COPY 1/494
The voices of men mostly frame our collections, reflecting the historic interests of government and past societies.
However, women have fought to be listened to and have acted as agents for change. When women were disruptive, they have tended to leave archival footprints.
It must be recognised however that while women’s voices are marginalised in our records, this is often compounded when people faced other factors of marginalisation and oppression; such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and disability.