Stories from the collection

The enduring love shared by Elizabeth I (1533–1603) and Robert Dudley (1542–1588) helps to explain why Elizabeth never married.

In an era when the law criminalised your love, how was it possible to meet members of the same sex and communicate?

Explore how Elke Mackenzie, a pioneering transgender botanist, helped reshaped our understanding of polar exploration and LGBT+ history.

Our records offer unique insight into the careful diplomacy that took place in North America during the 18th century.

Explore the parties of James I and VI's court as told by the royal household's financial accounts.

Though surveillance documents, we can learn about vibrant gatherings in the 1920s, the people involved and the passionate, intimate letters that survive.

At the end of the First World War, the British Army enlisted the service of Chinese labourers working in the Arctic.

Explore Jane Austen's will, in her own handwriting, which shows how the novelist planned to share her belongings with family and friends after her death.

Ann Nevil's story is one of many extraordinary people whose lives were changed forever during the American Revolution.

In this letter, Thomas Henshaw of Derbyshire complained of his treatment by local officials who denied him welfare despite his ‘most distressing’ situation.

Discover how plants travelled across the British Empire in the 19th century and the effect this has on our natural environment, and eating habits, today.

This record of disputes taken to court in 1518, written in abbreviated Latin, includes a vivid portrait of the reigning monarch at the time.