Victorian

A 19th-century engraving depicts a member of the crew of the 'Mignonette'

Cannibalism at sea: the starving Victorian sailors who ate a cabin boy

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Edmund Richardson tells the astonishing story of a 19th-century quest to find a lost city of Alexander the Great. (Image by Getty Images)

The quest to find Alexander’s lost city . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Ayanna Thompson discusses the history of blackface – a story spanning William Shakespeare, US race relations and Dartmoor Prison. (Image by Getty Images)

Blackface: a brief history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Young civil rights activists sit in defiance at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Oklahoma City, 1958

Jim Crow in the United States: a brief guide to the racial segregation laws

A lithographic Victorian trade card promoting the Forepaugh circus' new white elephant, Buffalo, New York, circa 1880. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

Q&A Why do we say ‘white elephant’?

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Life in the workhouse podcast with Peter Higginbotham

Life in the workhouse: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

At dinner, St Marylebone Workhouse, London, c1901 (1903)

The rise and fall of the workhouse

Opulent headquarters East India House in London, 1850. From inside this grand building, the East India Company directors oversaw the governance of India and its associated territories (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

1838: A year in the life of the British empire

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Joanna Bourke explores what ideas about ‘evil women’ can tell us about societal values through history. (Image by Getty Images)

Why are we fascinated by ‘evil women’? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two garden gnomes on grass

A brief history of garden gnomes

Wood engraving from The Graphic magazine features an illustration of a young man running with the ball during a football match on a grassy field, late 19th century. (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

5 facts about the history of football

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, back to back

‘Two steps behind’: male royal consorts through history

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To mark HistoryExtra’s 1,000th episode, Dan Jones takes us on a whistlestop tour through the last millennium of British history. (Image by Steve Sayers)

Dan Jones on 1,000 years of British history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Elaine Farrell shares the stories of Irish women incarcerated in the 19th century, from daily prison routines to relationships with staff and contact with the outside world. (Image by Getty Images)

Women prisoners in 19th-century Ireland . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Irregulars. From left to right: Prince Leopold (Harrison Osterfield), Jessie (Darci Shaw), Bea(Thaddea Graham), Spike (McKell David), and Billy (Jojo Macari)

The Irregulars: the real history behind Netflix’s supernatural Sherlock spinoff