The medical school of Salerno as it appears in a miniature of Avicenna’s Canon. The image represents the legendary story of Robert, Duke of Normandy. Mortally wounded by an arrow, he was heroically saved by his wife who sucked out the poison as prescribed by the physicians of Salerno.
Wikipedia
During the Middle Ages, women were steadily excluded from both the practice and the study of medicine by an overwhelmingly male-dominated, institutional and hierarchical system.
Only about 10% of people with a gambling problem ever seek treatment.
Sean Gladwell/Moment via Getty Images
Treatment has a high success rate. Getting problem gamblers in the door – and getting them to complete a full course of therapy – is another matter.
An artistic impression of how the Newport Medieval ship may have looked .
David Jordan/Newport Museums and Heritage Service
The Newport medieval ship is the most complete section of a 15th-century European vessel discovered to date.
An archaeologist works at the site of the discoveries in Saqqara.
Mohamed Hossam Eldin
Egyptians believed gold was the colour of the gods and gilding the dead expressed the idea that they acquired divine qualities in the afterlife.
Five handicapped Jewish prisoners, photographed for propaganda purposes, who arrived in Buchenwald after Kristallnacht.
Holocaust Memorial Museum/Photograph #13132
In 2023, International Holocaust Remembrance Day marks 90 years since the Nazis assumed power. Disabled people were the first Holocaust victims; Nazi programs discriminated against and murdered them.
Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender attends the unveiling of a bust of herself in Berlin, Jan. 23, 2023.
(AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Over 100 life stories of Holocaust survivors have been published through a Holocaust survivors’ memoir program. Listening to survivors narrate their stories is a powerful learning experience.
Image: https://vagrantsandmurderesses.com/
Current discussions about ‘homelessness’ have echoes of the past treatment of vagrants. New historical research tells us more about the lives of people during periods of social and economic hardship.
18th-century London newspapers frequently reported on the tragic and curious accidents that befell the city’s residents.
(Shutterstock)
News reports about accidents can deliver important moral lessons and remind us to value life.
Coral bleaching event near Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, May 2016.
XL Catlin Seaview Survey/AAP
With the disastrous effects of climate change already upon us, past events may have lessons for the future.
ACT Up NY
The word ‘queer’ has a history as a widely used and respectful term in the LGBTIQA+ community, as well as being a slur.
Human remains dating back more than 30,000 years were found at Paviland cave in Gower.
Left: Leighton Collins/Shutterstock; right: Ethan Doyle White CC BY-SA 3.0.
It’s been 200 years since the discovery of one of the oldest human burial sites in western Europe on the Gower peninsula in south Wales.
The children of Cwm Gwaun go door to door singing and collecting calennig in 1961.
Geoff Charles/National Library of Wales
Britain may have ditched the Roman calendar in 1752 but Cwm Gwaun continues to cling on to its old traditions.
Vaginal and anal speculum were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Shutterstock/Praisaeng
Speculums can be painful and invasive for many women.
Lisa F. Young / Shutterstock
Clowns and jesters have positively contributed to society for centuries.
The public bar at Hancock’s Essendon Hotel, photographed around 1938.
Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria.
Would it lessen the ‘Australianness’ of the 20th century pub if we understood the ‘lavatory’ tiles in a broader context?
© The Trustees of the British Museum
The story of Martin Luther starting the tradition is a myth; the real story started 350 years later – and presents were popularised by savvy booksellers.
Protesters at an anti-LGBT+ rally in Istanbul, Turkey, 18 September 2022.
Sedat Suna/EPA via AAP
Turkey has never resembled an autocracy as much as it does today. A new history examines its slide into illiberalism.
A reconstruction of the Harpole burial.
MOLA / Hugh Gatt
The jewellery and human remains discovered at a recent excavation in Northamptonshire shed light on the elite position of some newly-Christian women in seventh century England.
The Wellcome Collection gallery in central London.
William Barton
Closing racist exhibitions is a good step, but it doesn’t go far enough to decolonise our museums – an expert explains.
Portrait of Madame Gely by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1907).
Public Domain Review
From Madame de Pompadour to punks and pussy protest hats, pink has always been the colour of choice for those who dare to make a statement.