Why football banned women

In this week’s blog I’m using some of the Library’s online resources to find primary source material relating to the popularity of women’s football during and just after the First World War and the decision by the FA to ban it.

The other night on catch-up I watched the Channel 4 documentary When Football Banned Women, programmed to coincide with the Women’s EURO 2017 (which Channel 4 just happens to be showing, it’s like they thought about their programming or something!) This interesting documentary looked at the rise in popularity of women’s football during the First World War and the subsequent decline after the decision by The Football Association (FA) to ban the women’s game in 1921.

If you’ve not seen it you can watch it on Box of Broadcasts (BoB).

Screenshot from ‘When Football Banned Women’ (Channel 4).

As I am always looking for an excuse to use some of the University Library’s fantastic online primary source collections, I decided this was a perfect story to try and find out more about from our online archives.

While I primarily used some of the online newspaper archives the Library has access to for that period, I did do some searching in some other primary source collections that covered the period in question. You can find a list of the specific databases I used at the end of the post.

Women’s football in the First World War

With 1000s of men being called up to fight in the First World War, women were expected to take on roles as never before in the workplace and with this came other opportunities. Women’s football teams began to form, often put together or sponsored by the industries and companies now employing the vast female workforce. These teams began to play matches with the primary aim of raising money for charity and while spectators may have originally attended to help raise money and to watch what they thought of as a novelty, they continued to attend as the matches were good and the teams had skill. Continue reading

New to the Library: Presidential Recordings Digital Edition

The Library now has access to the fascinating Presidential Recordings Digital Edition. This rich resource includes transcripts and corresponding audio of secretly recorded conversations in the Oval Office from Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.

You can access Presidential Recordings Digital Edition via the Databases A-Z list and relevant Databases by Subject lists e.g. Primary Sources, Politics, etc. and you can access it via DiscoverEd.

Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through to Richard M. Nixon all secretly recorded many of their conversations in the Oval Office. The resulting 5,000 hours of telephone and meeting tape recorded during their time in the White House   capture some of the most significant moments in modern American political history. From Birmingham to Berlin, from Medicare to My Lai, from Selma to SALT, and from Watts to Watergate, the presidential recordings offer a unique window into the shaping of U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Continue reading

On trial: primary source collections from British Online Archives

Following a request from staff in HCA, the Library currently has trial access to two digital primary source collections from British Online Archives, Conscientious Objection during the World War 1 and The Middle East, its division into countries and the creation of Israel, 1879-1919.

Trial access ends 6th August 2017.

Conscientious Objection during the World War 1

During World War One, Conscientious Objectors united to oppose the war despite the criticism they faced. Three of these anti-war protest groups included the Conscientious Objector Information Bureau, the Union of Democratic Control, and the No-Conscription Fellowship. Conscientious Objection during the World War 1 includes complete files of key anti-war publications. It also contains rare reports from the Conscientious Objector Information Bureau. The internal papers include minutes from the Union of Democratic Control and letters from the No-Conscription Fellowship. The Fellowship’s most prominent figure, Clifford Allen, wrote a number of these items. Local Fellowship branches in Willesden, Middlesex and in Hyde, Greater Manchester are also covered. Also included amongst the papers is Thomas Henry Ellison’s scrapbook. Thomas was a Conscientious Objector and spent much of his time during the war in prison. His scrapbook covers both his own experiences and the experience of the anti-war movement as a whole. Continue reading

New to the Library: British Library Newspapers, Part V

I’m really pleased to let you know that the Library has purchased access to the final part of Gale Cengage’s British Library Newspapers collection (Part V). This means the Library now has access to the full British Library Newspapers, Parts I-V. 

You can access British Library Newspapers via the Databases A-Z list or Newspapers databases list.

British Library Newspapers, Part V: 1746-1950, has a concentration of titles from the northern part of the United Kingdom with 36 individual titles included. This doubles coverage in Scotland, triples coverage in the Midlands, and adds a significant number of Northern titles to the British Library Newspapers collections. Continue reading

New to Library: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society archive online

The Library has recently purchased the online archive to the journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, covering the period 1935 (volume 1) until 2009 (volume 75).

The Library already has current online access to the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, covering the years 2010 (volume 76) onwards. So the purchase of the archive ensures the Library has full access to the entire run of this important journal in prehistoric research.

You can access both the archive and current access via DiscoverEd. Continue reading

New to the Library: History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-

I’m pleased to let you know that the Library has got a 1-year subscription to The Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949-.

The database provides full-text primary source materials relating to the Chinese political movements after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

You can access The Database for the History of Contemporary Chinese Political Movements, 1949- via the Databases A-Z list. Continue reading