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What’s the context? 22 November 1963: The death of President John F Kennedy

Portrait Photograph, President John F. Kennedy. White House | US National Archives

  Fifty years ago today, the 35thPresident of the United States of America was shot dead as his car drove through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The brutal shock of the assassination made it one of the defining moments of …

The Prime Ministers’ people: indispensable aides to three premiers

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: No 10 guest historian series, Prime Ministers and No. 10

Behind every Prime Minister there are other people, 'at Power’s Elbow', never achieving the same acclaim or notoriety, yet indispensable to the very public figure they support. The British premiership has always been a group effort. This point can be …

What’s the context? 30 September 1938: The Munich Agreement

Image from German Federal Archive

75 years ago today, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back from Munich after two days of tense discussions with the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. He had reached an agreement setting out a timetable and terms for the Nazi takeover of …

Designs for living

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Art and design
'Surfers' dress fabric; abstract images of women in various poses who are surfing on beach lilos

The National Archives is well known as the guardian of the nation’s historical documents, with 1,000 years of records under its roof. Less well-known is that it holds one of the most important resources for the study of design history, …

The Locarno Suite: ‘Drawing room for the Nation’

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Art and design, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians
Conference Room

Early foreign diplomatic entertainment by the Foreign Secretary took place in local taverns or at his home, but by the 1850s the London Diplomatic Corps had increased so greatly that there were very few places sufficiently large enough to contain …