Welcome to the first episode of ‘Within the Archives’, a new podcast series where we look at aspects of Eton College life throughout the decades through our archival collections. This month we start by looking at school exams. School Exams podcast exams-podcast-transcriptDownload An article from the Chronicle on how to avoid Trials (Issue No. 3247,... Continue Reading →
St Andrew's Day traditions viewed through the Eton College Collections St Andrew's Day, celebrated in the Michaelmas half, has become one of the two biggest holidays marked at Eton College, the other being the Fourth of June which takes place in the summer. (In one of Eton's quirks, they are not held on the actual... Continue Reading →
This year Remembrance Sunday commemorations will be fairly different to tradition as the nation observes social distancing. Despite restrictions on crowds and gatherings indoors, there are many socially distanced events scheduled to honour the service and sacrifices of the armed forces, and their communities, in conflict. There are a number of holdings in the Eton... Continue Reading →
My name is Beck Price and I am an Archives Assistant at Eton College Archives. My role involves working on helping to transcribe and catalogue parts of the collection, as well as assisting with the rehousing of objects and general enquiries made to the archives. I will also be helping to contribute more to the... Continue Reading →
The Verey Gallery at Eton recently hosted the Eton Choirbook and provided the relevant history surrounding it. One of the display cabinets encased an Illumination (below) which included an image of the founder of Eton College, Henry Vl, aged 23 and his bride Margaret of Anjou, only 15 years of age. Detail of a leaf... Continue Reading →
1882 FA Cup Final programme https://catalogue.etoncollege.com/misc-oefc-03-02 One of the more rare items of sports memorabilia in the collections is the earliest known FA Cup final programme. Dating from 1882, it records the match of the Old Etonians versus Blackburn Rovers, when the Etonians would win the FA Cup for the second and last time. The... Continue Reading →
No-one knows the origins of the wall game, or when it first began to be played at Eton. There are references to a similar game being played in the 1750s, but the first written rules only date from 1849. [ECR 60/6/3/1] However, this reference from the minute book of the Provost and Fellows records the... Continue Reading →
For those who find themselves square pegs confronted with only the roundest of holes, the example of the poet Shelley offers reassurance that the way to greatness does not lie along the paths of compliance and conformity. Unhappily, however, his reputation as one of the greatest Romantic poets did not evolve until after his premature... Continue Reading →
A mini-series of podcasts exploring the stories within the archives Read by Grace Bottomley, Archives Assistant the-pet-hates-of-an-eton-boy-transcriptDownload
This article was written by Eleanor Hoare, College Archivist, for the History of Education Society, and was first published by them on the 29th April 2020 at historyofeducation.org.uk/education-education-education-500-years-of-learning-at-eton-college/ It builds on an earlier exhibition of the same name, curated by Eleanor for the Tower Gallery in 2016-17. Images from this exhibition have been used to... Continue Reading →
