Historic Figures

A Shorts series on the people history remembers — told in under 3 minutes each.

“To Her” Elizabeth Emma (Jones) Soyer & Alexis Soyer

A short on the Victorian chef Alexis Soyer and the wife he immortalised in art after her death.

Charles Blondin

The French tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls — and never looked down.

Charles Babbage

Inventor, mathematician, and polymath — the mind behind the first mechanical computer.

Joseph Lister

Before this man, surgery was a death sentence.

Michael Faraday

The man who tamed electricity.

Dr James Barry

The secret the Army never saw coming.

Decimus Burton

He designed half of London and no one knew his name.

Sir Jacob Epstein

The sculptor Britain tried to cancel.

Kate Meyrick

Queen of London's nightclubs.

Sir Henry Tate

He made his fortune in sugar and changed art forever.