Throughout history people have fought for their beliefs. Faced with war, injustice or persecution, individuals and communities have protested not just for themselves but in solidarity with others.

This exhibition seeks to highlight the different methods by which people have sought to make their voice heard. Namely through protest, the arts, collective action and by supporting those in need.

It is hoped that this historical lens might bolster a sense of common humanity as we stand with those in Ukraine.

The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) grew out of 'missions' to help working women founded in the 1850s. As the name of the organisation suggests, there was a strong religious grounding to much of the YWCA's welfare work, but the organisation was also involved in campaigns relating to education, physical wellbeing and other social issues.

The Modern Records Centre has a large but incomplete series of magazines and journals published by the YWCA between 1884-1970. Editions of the journals for 1884, 1887, 1892-1898, 1900, 1906-1920, have been digitised and are available to read through our online catalogue.

The journals include a mix of religious study and advice, serialised stories (often melodramatic), news of YWCA work at home and abroad (including missionary work), and articles on a range of social and political issues relating to women, including employment, education, fashion, suffrage and the First World War.

To mark LGBT+ History Month, the Modern Records Centre's new exhibition highlights some of the sources on LGBTQ+ experiences, identities and activism included in our archive collections.

Items on display range from 1970s Gay Liberation Front publications, a 1905 book on Oscar Wilde passed between owners as a symbol of (then illegal) identity, photos of demonstrations and a contemporary 1950s article on Roberta Cowell.

The exhibition will be open to all throughout February during our usual opening hours.