From the 14th century the woodworking trades that organised themselves in English cities consisted of sawyers, carpenters, joiners, carvers, turners, and associated trades like wheelwrights, ...

Press tickets for temporary exhibitions can be arranged in advance by contacting the press office or requested on site at the welcome desk by presenting a valid press card. Please note that press ...

Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, in what is now southeastern Nigeria. He was kidnapped into slavery at the age of eleven and put to work for a number of different masters in America, the West ...

Born into slavery around 1743, and known as Toussaint de Bréda on the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint L'Ouverture's leadership of the Haitian Revolution has made him an ...

Political leader, activist and religious and social reformer. Born in Porbandar, India, Gandhi left for London in 1888 to study law at University College. His first major job was as a legal advisor in ...

Gerrit van Honthorst was a Dutch painter from Utrecht. He travelled to Italy in 1616, where he copied the naturalism and eccentricities of Caravaggio. Honthorst spent four years painting in Rome after ...

The son of a mason, Kay was apprenticed at the age of thirteen to George Heriot, a barber in Dalkeith. Six years later, he moved to Edinburgh where he continued to work as a barber. In his spare time, ...

Léger was born in Argentan, France and studied at the city's School of Decorative Arts and at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1908 he joined the colony of artists, La Ruche (The Beehive), and ...

Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, was widely considered one of the most handsome men of his time. He is best remembered for the fifteen-year affair he had with Henrietta Frances (Harriet) ...

In 1940 Benson formed her twenty piece 'All Girl Band' and during her career over 500 girls passed under her baton. First heard on the radio in 1943 and subsequently was made resident 'house band' by ...

Abdulmecid I succeeded his father Mahmud II in 1839, becoming the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign, he promoted a number of reforms most notably in the Army which benefited from a ...

A talk on a chosen portrait in the Gallery's Collection, delivered every day at 11.00 and 14.00 ...