The Constables and the ‘Garage Girl’

In the summer of 1928, the arrest on a disorder charge of a young woman in north London who gave her name as Helene Adele led to a press sensation after she claimed that the officers had falsely accused her in order to discredit her claim that one of them had sexually assaulted her. The constables were ultimately prosecuted, convicted and discharged from the Metropolitan Police. This article considers the Adele case in the context of intense concerns about the possible abuse of police powers—particularly in cases involving women—in the late 1920s. Adele was catapulted onto the front pages of Britain's sensationalist press: her serialised memoir appeared in a newspaper and was reprinted in a women's magazine. However, her case was more than just a tabloid spectacle. Contributing to historians' reconsideration of the sensationalist inter-war press, this article shows how the coverage of the case fit into the press's interest in young working-class women's lifestyles and sexuality, highlighting how ‘human interest’ journalism could be intermixed with social critique.     

Characterization,weathering, and protection of sandstones: The case of ‘Agro d'Ardesia’

Abstract

The conservation of roofing and cladding materials has both environmental and cultural heritage bearing. Our research aimed at comparing the performances of some polymeric products used for the protection of a typical Italian sandstone, the ‘Agro d'Ardesia’, used mostly as cladding, paving, roofing, and building material. These products belong to three different classes: polysiloxanes, acrylics, and fluoropolymers. In addition, an acrylic–silicone mixture was chosen for testing. After the application onto the Agro sandstone by capillary absorption, both efficacy and durability were assessed. Particularly, two types of weathering tests were performed to check the stability over time of the protective products: the exposure to ultraviolet radiation in a climatic chamber and the ageing by exposure to acid rain, expressly designed to represent realistically natural and anthropogenic changes. Detailed information on treatment performances was obtained. The polysiloxane was shown to be the most effective protective material for the Agro sandstone.     

The ‘Industrialists of Philosophy': Karl Marx,Friedrich Engels,and the ‘Discourse Network of 1840’

This paper is the first to examine Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels's early materialism in light of the industrialization of European and German print. This examination suggests that, whereas the Hegelian system was a relic of a pre-industrialized print culture, in which written language was held up as a portal to metaphysical abstractions, the industrialization of print opened the way for Marx and Engels to consider the prevailing socio-economic realities as manifestations of the capitalist system. In broader terms, the paper calls for a widening of conventional analysis of political ideas by considering them in light of the media setting in which they were originally cast.     

The Irish ‘Working Group on Information Literacy’ – Edging towards a national policy

The authors of this paper provide an overview of the activities of the Irish Working Group on Information Literacy (WGIL) and its role in advancing a national policy for information literacy in the Republic of Ireland.The study focuses on the work of the group during its lifetime including the various activities, marketing and advocacy initiatives and some of the challenges and issues the group faced, in particular, the diversity of the Irish library and information sector and the lack of an integrated approach for information literacy development.The study presents the findings of the report produced by WGIL entitled Library Association of Ireland: Working Group on Information Literacy: Review of Cross-Sector Activity 2006–2008 and Initial Recommendations for Further Action which reviewed best practices and information literacy activities in the various LIS sectors in the Republic of Ireland during a two-year period. The key recommendation of this report is for the leadership of the Library Association of Ireland to develop a national information literacy strategy that advocates for the importance of information literacy as a lifelong and transferable skill.     

The Feeling of ‘Silverland’

This is a discussion of the group of journalists working in and around Virginia City during the 1860s and 1870s, when the area became the world centre of the silver mining industry. The so-called Sagebrush writers reported on mining prospects for readerships locally and internationally, as well as writing anecdotes and stories about the life of the highly transient local communities generated by the search for silver. Theirs is writing characterised both by caution in responding to the mining industry and by an aggressive humour in depicting the local life of a cosmopolitan instant city. These newspaper writers have been considered in the local context of the Nevadan frontier. Here, I discuss their engagement with a complex and internationally networked industry, and also their address to the collectivities of the local population.     

‘Listening Became Indispensable for Life … ’ Strategies and Goals of Radio Monitoring in the Warsaw Ghetto

In the beginning of the German occupation of Poland in 1939, press censorship and a strict ban on radio listening were imposed. Poles and ghettos-imprisoned Jews could obtain international information by reading German-controlled newspapers or, alternatively, by reading the clandestine press or listen to rumours. This article stresses the significance of information distributed by activists of Hashomer Hatzair, Zionist, leftist youth movement, who conducted radio monitoring and prepared daily news bulletins distributed in Warsaw ghetto. The article describes their monitoring practices and shows how news extracted from broadcasts was later used in the press. It also engages with the question as to why foreign news was so important to Jews struggling to survive in terrible conditions of the ghetto. It also identifies motivations for conducting radio monitoring during the Holocaust and compares it with those of people listening to foreign radio stations in other contexts and with different intentions.     

The Restoration of the ‘Vienna Dioscorides’

Abstract

Very small paint samples from Cosimo Tura's ‘The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Louis of Toulouse’ were submitted to amino acid analysis in order to determine the nature of the binding media. The four panels appeared to have been painted with egg tempera, and showed extensive localized deterioration in the blue areas but not in the other coloured areas. Following the Picotag method, the samples were hydrolyzed in an acid vapor, derivatized with iso-thiocyanatobenzene, and analyzed using reversed phase high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Amino acid analysis demonstrated that the red and brown areas were painted using egg yolk as the binding medium, while the blue areas were painted with animal-skin glue (distemper). Analysis of the green paint indicated a mixture of egg yolk and glue. The use of these techniques makes it possible to identify proteinaceous materials in art objects from samples in the microgram range.     

Repatriated Germans and ‘British Spirit’

Following the end of the Second World War, the ideals of public service broadcasting that had first been exemplified by the BBC came to lay the groundwork for a new type of broadcasting system in Northern Germany. This led to intensive discussions between British Military Officers and their German counterparts about the principles of public service broadcasting. Repatriated Germans came to play a crucial role. Having worked for the BBC German Service during their years of exile, some of them helped to nurture a new generation of democratic journalists. Focusing on these men, this article reveals the difficulties in transferring and adapting public service ideals. Making use of a wide range of sources, we highlight the multifaceted roles of the repatriated Germans, as both intermediaries and transmitters of public service broadcasting. We show how many of them came to play a pivotal role in resisting pressure from conservative forces in West German society.