This lesson provides a chronological overview of the shifting laws and attitudes that have applied to the LGBTQ+ community in Britain and the former British Empire since 1701, and how they have affected the community. Owing to the number of sources, teachers may wish to break this lesson down into two parts or assign small groups to work on different sources and report back. People have always existed who engaged in same sex relationships, defied conventional gender norms, or lived as a different gender to the one they were assigned as at birth. The social climate these individuals lived in, and the language they had available to them, has changed significantly over the last 1,000 years – the span of The National Archives’ collections. The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in the UK is a complex mixture of moments of pain, resistance, and progress. ‘LGBTQ+’ is used as an umbrella term to describe people historically who were either not cisgender or heterosexual. These individuals would have used a variety of different language to describe themselves in their own lifetimes. We recognise our records contain words that are at times offensive, however some of the original language and legal terms are preserved here to accurately represent our records and help us fully understand the past. Please note that some of these sources contain non-explicit references to sex and sexuality. Use this lesson to find out more about LGBTQ+ rights and lives from the 1700s to the present day. The documents are listed chronologically. This lesson has been developed in collaboration with the Bishopsgate Institute.

The National Archives has created some resources for you to use in your classroom with our video to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. The film tells the story of Elizabeth II’s 70 years as Queen using genuine historical sources from The National Archives and The Royal Collections. It includes music and some original footage from the period. Pupils take a historical journey through the decades, from the 1950s to 2020s. We hope that the commentary and documents will encourage your pupils to explore the past and ask questions about how the Queen’s role has changed and life in Britain altered over time.

This lesson has been developed in collaboration with the Young Historians Project and their project ‘A Hidden History: African women and the British health service’. Other educational resources can be accessed via their website. For an essential activity for students using this lesson consult their blog post on Princess Ademola listed in external links below. “The recruitment of African women into the National Health Service from British colonies began in the period after the Second World War. However, nurses, doctors and other medical professionals had trained in Britain before this, as the colonial power did not provide the full facilities for medical training in the colonies. Despite their long history of work within health services in Britain, the role of African women is rarely highlighted in discussions of the history of the NHS or of health work more generally. Current narratives on Black women in the British health service tend to focus on the ‘Windrush generation’ and Caribbean contributions”: Young Historians Project. Use this lesson to find original documents which explore the role of African nurses in the health services of Britain. Please note that some sources contain offensive language that was used at the time and is unacceptable today.

In this lesson, students will investigate several sources which reflect some of the different attitudes towards vaccination in the Victorian period. Smallpox was a common killer in nineteenth century Britain. It spread rapidly and killed around 30% of those who contracted it and left many survivors blinded or scarred. In 1850s, the government passed a series of laws that made vaccination against smallpox compulsory. Some people and healthcare professionals supported vaccination while others objected to it. There were many reasons why people opposed vaccination: some claimed vaccination were unsafe, or unnecessary, whilst others argued that compulsory vaccination was government interference. The growing feeling for anti-vaccination reached full force in the 1890s with the National Anti-Vaccination League. The group organized protests and produced its own publications to distribute anti-vaccine propaganda. Ultimately, the voices of the anti-vaccination movement became too loud for the government to ignore and the government made it possible for people to opt-out of vaccination. Understanding the range of views regarding vaccination is critical for understanding the role of science in society. In addition, delving into this important, yet little known history of vaccination in Victorian society may give us insights into present day anti-vaccination movements. Connections to curriculum OCR GCSE: Unit: The People’s Health, c. 1250 to present Period: Industrial Britain, c. 1750-c. 1900; Public Health Reform in the nineteenth century. Excel GCSE: Option 11: Medicine in Britain, c. 1250-present and The British Sector of the Western Front, 1914-18: c.1700-c. 1900: Medicine in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain; new approaches to prevention: the development and use of vaccinations AQA GCSE: Thematic studies: Revolution in medicine; the role of public health reformers; local and national government involvement in public health.

The five videos in this series called ‘Civil War People’ have been updated to a greater quality from our focussed topic website English Civil War. View our videos to find out how a Bishop, Puritan, Scotsman, Irishman or King Charles I himself possibly viewed the prospect of civil war in 1642. Their words help to provide information which supports the document activities. Look at the videos first! Then, explore a specific linked document activity for each character. Try and read the original document. Each document is provided with background information, questions, a transcript and a simplified transcript to help. Please note that the document used in each activity can also be seen in the topic website English Civil War alongside other documents so you can expand your studies!

This collection of documents introduces students and teachers to the English Reformation through the original State Papers held at The National Archives. They have been selected and introduced by historian of the period, Dr Natalie Mears of Durham University. Students and teachers can use the documents to develop their own questions and explore their own lines of historical enquiry on different aspects of the Reformation in England across the whole Tudor period, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. The document includes a fully linked index to all 40 documents within the collection, as well as the introduction and teachers notes.

This lesson treats the well-known story of evacuation from the perspectives of: - how people in the country perceived evacuees - how evacuees perceived the country The children from the city experienced a totally new way of life in the country. For the people in the country, too, having so many outsiders coming into their area was a major event. These sources will show what each side thought of the evacuation.

An introduction, zip files and link to The National Archive's 45 document collection on Protest and Democracy in 1818-1820. (N.B. total ZIP file size: 195MB - individual sources can be viewed and saved via the link provided) The documents included primarily cover events at Peterloo, Manchester and during the Cato Street conspiracy in London. Some of the documents relate to: Henry Hunt female reformers yeomanry at Peterloo responses to Peterloo reading societies Cato Street plotters Cato Street preparations seditious songs These documents can be used to support any of the exam board specifications covering the political, social and cultural aspects of 20th century British history, for example: AQA History A level Breadth study: The impact of Industrialisation: Government and a changing society, 1812-1832 Edexcel History A level Paper 1: Breadth study with interpretations 1D: Britain c1785-c1870 democracy, protest and reform Paper 3: Aspects in depth: Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform in Britain, c1780-1928: unit: Radical reformers c1790-1819 Mass protest and Agitation OCR History A level Unit Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783-1853 British Period Study: British Government in the Age of Revolution 1783-1832

Teachers notes and a 26 document collection on the Holocaust from the National Archives' repositories. These key documents from The National Archives lend themselves most readily to an analysis of the Allied response to the question of saving the Jews. The documents in the collection are labelled and arranged together according to theme. Please note some of these documents, particularly towards the end of the collection, are distressing to read. Please be aware of this when presenting to students.

The purpose of this document collection is to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the political and social aspects of 1950s Britain. The documents themselves are arranged according to theme, so that sources are grouped together rather than a chronological order. Some of the themes include: the economy; rationing; housing, the National Health Service, race relations, cultural life, the Suez crisis, and nuclear protest.

This lesson is intended for use either as part of a study of the use of propaganda over time, or within the context of work on Elizabethan England and the Spanish Armada.

The purpose of this document collection is to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry. A possible enquiry question would be: 'What was Britain's response to the child refugee problem in Nazi occupied countries?' Again, these sources could be used to support school programmes which use survivor testimony. Alternatively, teachers may wish to use the collection to develop their own resources or to &'curate&'; their own 'exhibition&'.

Magna Carta is called the most important document in history. So important that people still call upon it 800 years later. But where did it come from and why did people die for it? Jump into the 13th century and decide for yourself why Magna Carta keeps coming back… Collect Badges for each stage of learning in this interactive resource

The purpose of this document collection is to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the Georgian period. The documents themselves are titled on the web page so it is possible for teachers and pupils to detect different themes and concentrate on documents on similar topics if they wish.

This lesson provides pupils with evidence about Shakespeare that differs from the traditional 'greatest playwright of all time' material that many will be used to. Pupils studying life in Tudor times both from a History and English perspective can learn about Shakespeare as a person rather than a world famous writer.

A lesson to develop pupils understanding of how Elizabeth I presented herself to her subjects in the days before mass media. The sources provided support support the study of some of the key ways in which the Queen’s image was conveyed to her subjects and to be compared to the current queen.

The National Archives holds many documents pertaining to the First World War, allowing us to investigate many aspects of wartime life. Within these collections we have gathered together examples of a variety of records that relate to Medicine on the Western Front. The collections cover key examples of the medical issues faced during wartime, innovations inspired by the war, and the triumphs and struggles of those serving as doctors and nurses as well as the soldiers abroad. Both these collections of original sources, Part 1 and Part 2, can be used to support GCSE thematic modules which cover Medicine through Time to the present day and the historical context of the British sector of the Western Front. Teachers have the flexibility to download and create their own resources from these documents, to develop their pupils’ understanding of how to work with sources and prepare and practice for source based exam questions. Each collection includes a wide range of sources to encourage students to think broadly when exploring these topics. With each collection we have suggested 5 tasks based on some of the documents. The tasks can be completed individually or in groups. There is a downloadable pdf of questions to help working with sources. All documents are provided with transcripts. We hope that exposure to original source material may also foster further document research. The following themes covered by the documents in Part 1 include: Type of injury which resulted from trench warfare. Medical treatments received by injured soldiers and some of the medical developments that came with the First World War. Dangers faced by soldiers caused by exploding shells, grenades, shrapnel, gas, personal combat, flooding, noise, acute stress. Type of medical services from transport to hospitals. (For the injured, this could involve initial treatment and transport by a Field Ambulance unit and return to duty or movement to a Casualty Clearing Station. From here injured soldiers could be moved to a Base Hospital before transportation to a British military/civilian hospital at home via hospital ship. Transport itself ranged from stretcher bearers, horse-drawn ambulances, motor vehicles, boats or ships.) Included here also is the personal War Office record of war poet Wilfred Owen (one of a specific record set of notable high-ranking officers in the British Army).

The National Archives holds many documents pertaining to the First World War, allowing us to investigate many aspects of wartime life. Within these collections we have gathered together examples of a variety of records that relate to Medicine on the Western Front. The collections cover key examples of the medical issues faced during wartime, innovations inspired by the war, and the triumphs and struggles of those serving as doctors and nurses as well as the soldiers abroad. Both these collections of original sources, Part 1 and Part 2, can be used to support GCSE thematic modules which cover Medicine through Time to the present day and the historical context of the British sector of the Western Front. Teachers have the flexibility to download and create their own resources from these documents, to develop their pupils’ understanding of how to work with sources and prepare and practice for source based exam questions. Each collection includes a wide range of sources to encourage students to think broadly when exploring these topics. With each collection we have suggested 5 tasks based on some of the documents. The tasks can be completed individually or in groups. There is a downloadable pdf of questions to help working with sources. All documents are provided with transcripts. We hope that exposure to original source material may also foster further document research. The following themes covered by the documents in Part 2 include: Treatments for ‘shell shock’, neurasthenia and gas attacks, government reports on ‘shell shock’ and ‘mustard gas’ The trench system and its organisation and topography. Weapons, experience of being under fire, defensive mining, gas masks Daily life on the front: from mud to hair cuts The attack on Hill 60, south west of Ypres, April 1915 The experience of ordinary men of their medical treatment and trench warfare gathered from some letters written by those who had worked for Great Western Railway before the war. The experience of some of the Women’s Army and Nursing Services on the Western Front

Writing War, Writing Peace is a creative writing anthology written by students who spent a week at The National Archives, learning from our records about the experiences of Nurses in the First World War. Mentored by Melvin Burgess and Sara Robinson, the students were encouraged to explore service records, diaries and photographs to put together their own creative pieces inspired by real events. These stories and poems are the result.

This document collection allows students and teachers to develop their own lines of historical enquiry or historical questions using original documents on this period of history. Students could work with a group of sources which identifies different themes – for example, loyalty, bravery, motivation, radicalism or sedition within the Indian army. They also could consider how the experience of the Indian army affected imperial relations or assess the contribution of the Indian Army to the First World War. We hope that the breadth of the collection allows such flexibility and offers students the chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis and support their course work. Also, teachers can use the collection to develop their own resources or encourage students to ‘curate’ their own ‘exhibition’ of the most significant documents on the topic. The pdf holds our teachers notes, curriculum connections and a link to the 25 document collection on The National Archives website.