Stories from the Footnotes of History

This page will host a regular series of lesser known stories from history that have intrigued and fascinated me

During my many years researching and writing history I have come upon numerous fascinating and often untold stories that have aroused my curiosity. There have been many times when I have decided to chase down such an anecdote, news story, or indeed footnote in a book, in hopes that there might be a bigger story that could be uncovered.

Nine times out of ten the stories prove not to be substantial enough for more than a short article, but finding a suitable outlet for them has often proved difficult.

On this page, therefore, I shall be posting some of the forgotten or little known stories that I have uncovered during my research.

 

Sophie Karlovna Buxhoeveden, Pt 2

Sophie Karlovna Buxhoeveden, Pt 2

In May 1919, after having been received by Alexandra, the Queen Mother at Marlborough House, Isa travelled on to Copenhagen where she was finally reunited with her widowed father and she lived with him there for the next year or so.

Sophie Karlovna Buxhoeveden – Pt 1

Sophie Karlovna Buxhoeveden – Pt 1

Sophie Karlovna von Buxhoeveden [styled Буксгевден/Buksgevden in Russian] – or Isa as she was known to the Imperial Family – always thought of herself as a Russian. But although she was born in St Petersburg in 1883, her father Karl Matthias had come from Dorpat [today’s Tartu] in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of which Estonia was part.

Lizzie Lind-af-Hageby

In the 1900s, a Swedish-born pacifist and women’s and animal rights campaigner, Louise Lind-af-Hageby appeared regularly in the British press for her frequent run-ins with the medical establishment. But who remembers this remarkable woman now?

Mary Seacole, Creole Doctress, Nurse and Healer

In Crimea during 1854–5 Mary Seacole demonstrated that her home-grown Jamaican practice of hygiene, healthy food, natural remedies and kindness – had a lot more to offer than traditional medicine, making her nursing practice a far more modern, holistic one that people might have imagined.

Women in Trousers — From Bloomers to Rational Dress

Women in Trousers — From Bloomers to Rational Dress

The 1848 Women’s Rights Convention was the first of its kind to openly advocate women’s dress reform. All of the assembled women agreed that the time had come for the simplification of the cumbrous fashions they were obliged to wear.

Lenin in London

Lenin in London

Most people know the now legendary tale of how Lenin returned to Russia after many years in exile on a sealed train across wartime Germany, arriving at Petrograd’s Finland Station on 16 April 1917. But few are aware of the life he led in Europe between 1900 and his dramatic return. During those years he came to London on five separate occasions…

The Pioneer Women Journalists who Inspired a Novel

In the late nineteenth century an extraordinary breed of new journalists appeared on the scene in America. The world had seen nothing like them before. They were young, feisty, courageous and iconoclastic – and they were women.

The Last Days of Sydney Gibbes

The Last Days of Sydney Gibbes

It was something of a tradition in the Imperial Family to have non-Russian tutors and nannies for their children. Perhaps the best known of them all was the English tutor Sydney Gibbes who taught first Anastasia and Maria and later Alexey the Tsarevich.

The Women in Lenin’s Life

The Women in Lenin’s Life

Lenin had no qualms whatsoever in ruthlessly exploiting the loyalty of the women who formed his essential back up team. He wore them all ragged in the cause of his own political ends.

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