Blog

Our volunteers have been working hard and having great adventures along the way. Browse the stories below or click on an individual image to see more from an individual volunteer.

Showing items tagged with "editors-pick"

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The long view

Statue of the sphinx surrounded by trees in Chiswich House Gardens

A snapshot of some landmarks in the lives of deaf and disabled people across the world since the 13th century – from oppression to work, education and choice about where to live.

No drinking, brawling or blasphemy

Some of the rules imposed on those using almshouses were common sense, others seem draconian to us now, but places were limited, and people who were accepted probably felt very lucky.

Restless sleepers

An epidemic of ‘sleepy sickness’ swept through the US and Europe between 1916 – 27, immortalised by Oliver Sacks’ ‘Awakenings’. Some survivors attended the Guild in Bristol, with a variety of post-encephalitic symptoms. Grace Morgan-Tait investigates.

Operation Etsy: valuing craftwork over time

Large rectangular laundry basket with hinged lid and rope handles with ‘School for the Blind’ stencilled on the front. In the collection of the Museum of Liverpool MMM.1994.108.1, image taken by Anna Fairley Nielsson.

Basket-weaving: the beautiful product of skilled labour valued by the well off, or low status work for disabled people, replacing an education? Esther Fox discusses how, at different times, it has been both.