My Current Research
This page was set aside from my regular blog to share my thoughts and discoveries whilst writing my dissertation on submarine telegraph cables for my MA in Historical Research. I have now completed my MA and have now embarked on a part-time PhD looking at the Victorian Post Office. Consequently these pages will have blogs related to both topics, and you never know there might be some overlap!
I welcome any of your thoughts on the subjects covered or any recommendations of sources and references, so please do get in touch.
Links:
This more academic side of my blog is inspired by the History Blogging Project: http://www.historybloggingproject.org/
The Institute of Historical Research, where I completed my MA and now working towards my PhD: http://www.history.ac.uk
British Postal Museum and Archive, the second half od my collaborative PhD, a great source for postal and social history: http://postalheritage.org.uk/
National Maritime Museum, where I had a six week internship to conduct researh for my MA dissertation. Their collection for the basis for my research: http://www.rmg.co.uk/
I also conducted research into the collections held at the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/ and the Science Museum: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
This is another website that looks at the history of the Atlantic-cable and Submarine Telegraphy: http://atlantic-cable.com/
The History Student 
i see the cable cores were made at Gutta Percha works. is this the same stuff which went into early golf balls?
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the comment. I have to admit I didn’t know Gutta-Percha were used in early golf balls, but after a quick google, I think you’re right and it is the same substnce. This link has a bit more information on the history of the design of golf balls: http://www.thedesignshop.com/history.htm
Gutta-Percha was used for a variety of products and if your interested in the history of it, John Tully’s article ‘A Victorian Ecological Disaster: Imperialism, the Telegraph, and Gutta Percha’ in the Journal of World History (Vo. 20, 2009) is a good read.
Hope that’s helpful.
Thanks,
Kathleen
Hello Kathleeen. I wonder if you will receive this comment. Relating to the Beddington Royal Female Orphanage, the orphan girls were transferred to Beddington from Lambeth in 1866. The establishment was founded by subscription in 1758 and the first nine children admitted on July 5th that year to a home in an old inn named the ‘Hercules Pillars’ at St. George’s Fields, Lambeth. In 1824-25 a purpose built orphanage was built at the junction of Kennington and Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth. The Beddington house was purchased in 1864 and subsequently converted to house the girls who moved in, in 1866.