Category Archives: Uncategorized

Piecing together the outline of his life was absurdly easy, in part because the UK National Archives hold the UK army records from the period, the activities of local history societies and the deep interest of military historians in the … Continue reading →

Today was clock change day, when the clocks went forward for summer. Typically it was a damp day, threatening rain, so we went for a walk up to the town cemetery. As Beechworth’s an old town, the cemetery’s pretty old … Continue reading →

Yesterday, when I was working dow in Dow’s I found an old bottle of a patent medicine called Phosferrin in a cupboard and from the label you can see that it was a complete cure all. As well as the … Continue reading →

Back in 2019, I came across the intriguing story that a James Moncur had been a master mariner working out of Sydney in the 1840’s and had has a Maori wife, and two daughters who had both European and Maori … Continue reading →

About a year ago I blogged about Mary Shelley and her trip by sea to Dundee. At the time I made the point that before railways, travel by sea was considerably more comfortable that overland travel by coach. In much … Continue reading →

As part of my background reading about the roles of nineteenth century pharmacists in Victoria (roles such as opticians or dentists) I’ve been reading about the nineteenth century anti vaccination movement in England. No one seems to have studied the … Continue reading →

Recently, I’ve come across a number of beef extract bottles while documenting the contents of Dow’s, including this rather decayed bottle of Beefine, which dates from the early 1920’s. Beefine was a beef extract product similar to Bonox. So, what … Continue reading →

Three or so years ago, I posted about a rather attractive nineteenth century bottle that had contained Hayman’s Balsam of Horehound. At the time I was more interested in how a bottle of a patent medicine manufactured in South Wales … Continue reading →

I’ve long been puzzled by why there are quite a few AfroCaribbean people in the Bahamas with the same slightly unusual surname as me. I think I might now have the answer. Possibly not the whole answer, but good enough. … Continue reading →

I have been thinking a little more about what to do about human remains in museums. I claim no great ethical insights, but the experience of dealing with aboriginal remains in Australia may provide a baseline of good practice. For … Continue reading →