Year: 2014

Passport to Reform: Helena Florence Normanton, ‘The Pioneering Barrister’ Born on 14 December 1882, Helena Florence Normanton was a Suffragist, writer, barrister, and activist for much of the early-20th century. According to the DNB, Normanton “combined a teaching career with a developing interest…

When we talk about passports we talk about traveling – in this case international air travel in the 1930s. Today we largely take international air travel for granted. Every major city in the world is little more than a hop,…

His radical proposal — hailed by supporters like the way of the future — was a world with no national borders, one in which all people belonged to the same global citizenry. The world would be a place of peace…

Captain Henry Rodolph Davies And His Chinese Passport Look at this huge Chinese passport issued to a soldier from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry more than 100 years ago. Captain Henry Rodolph Davies was aged 29 when, in 1894,…

This document is a “Translation Of The Sea-Passport”, a partly printed document with handwritten additions issued at the island of St. Thomas for the vessel “Julius Thales”. The commercial brig was sailing  from St. Thomas via Cape Haiti to Antwerp….

Do you remember where you were when the wall was falling? Instantly I wanted to travel to Berlin from my city in South Germany to join this historical event of my generation – but I couldn’t. It took me till…

ID-card of German Princess Marie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein Usually I do not collect ID-Cards but this German PASS-KARTE from Prussia is a exception because it was issued to Princss Marie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, which is one of Germany’s oldest noble dynasty. Definitely…

Queens Messenger LTC Kimmins John Kimmins had an army career that started in Sandhurst, where he joined a Cavalry regiment. On retirement at 55, he became a Queen’s Messenger. For those who know little more than that, there are such…

Rufus King, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, also served as a diplomat and authorized this passport, giving David Hinckley permission to “pass without giving or suffering any molestation or hindrance.” Issued in 1798, this is the oldest American artifact…