British History Online

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Commonplacing, lameness, disability, printing, massacres, the Tower, the church, landscape and more! #EarlyModern lightning talks for @ihrscb.bsky.social on Nov 12th at the @ihr.bsky.social, with @joesaunders1.bsky.social, @maybeitwasutah.bsky.social and more. Registration link to follow soon.

#OnThisDay in London radical history, 1795: a monster rally for political reform, Copenhagen Fields, Islington, organised by the London Corresponding Society wp.me/p74yfw-AF Past Tense have produced a poster commemorating this rally pasttensehistories.bigcartel.com/product/lond...

#OTD 26 October 1918, the Nursing Times carried an advertisement for a new treatment for the serious skin lesions caused by sulphur mustard, aka mustard gas, developed by Boots of Nottingham.

This is very interesting (and, we ought to say, many of our entries on @bho.bsky.social are linked to Wikipedia entries - so why not check them out?). #LocalHistory

*New book!* coming April 2027: 'Second World War Archaeology at the Edge of Living Memory', coedited by me and Jennifer McKinnon. Open Access from @uclpress.bsky.social based on a @wennergrenorg.bsky.social workshop uclpress.co.uk/book/second-...

New Review Article! Jo Edge @hagenilda.bsky.social on 'Magic, Witchcraft and the Occult in Pre-modern England' academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

All 18 known surviving editions of Harris’s List of #CoventGardenLadies are now available in the #HarrissListDigitalArchive (IIIF and full-text), with over 2,600 entries, an interactive map, network analysis, and visualizations: harrisslist.prisms.digital #c18th #HarrissList #DigitalHumanities

🇬🇧👁️ 'One of the exhibition’s rarest objects is a set of pamphlets from the #Hampstead Tenants’ Defence League from 1936-39. Some of the earliest examples of collective tenant resistance, they document protests, rent strikes, opposition to slum clearances and challenges to the local council. “' ✍️

This #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM2026 we’re highlighting a remarkable story from our Revolution 250 exhibition. Scipio Handley was a free-born Black Loyalist, fisherman, Revolutionary War veteran, and spy. His story took him from revolutionary America to London’s growing early-modern Black community.

BBC News: The crimes behind unearthed Victorian Chester police mugshots. A small feature on some of the research and plans for @chestercells.bsky.social, opening on October 24th for historic tours at Chester Town Hall.

I love it when institutions step up & face the challenges. And this is @ihr.bsky.social stepping up. Sure, will be directly helping only a few people, but what a solace to know clever people are trying to come up with support in the face of the overwhelming crisis. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships-...

The Maritime Britain database is now live! Explore hundreds of thousands of voyages, ships and people. Next stop: our ERC-funded Uncharted Maritime Worlds project, which so far has 4.8 million records, including 2.5 million voyages! maritimebritain.org

This week we published this brilliant new book on open data in Classical Studies: uolpress.co.uk/book/open-da... Look out for a great blog with these editors for #OpenAccessWeek 👀 @ics.bsky.social @sas-news.bsky.social @oipassoc.bsky.social

Out today! Gillian Jack's brilliant new addition to the #NewHistoricalPerspectives series, Prostitution, Repentance and Social Welfare in Renaissance Florence: uolpress.co.uk/book/prostit... Check out her great blog on the book from the @royalhistsoc.org too! #OpenAccess #OAWeek @ihr.bsky.social

The server has been rebooted, and maps are back! www.british-history.ac.uk/catalogue/maps

There's an issue with our image server, so our maps www.british-history.ac.uk/catalogue/maps are currently unavailaable. Our excellent tech staff are looking into the matter.

There's still time to join us at one of our two upcoming ONLINE research training sessions next week! 21 Oct - Developing and Writing Funding Applications for Early Career Researchers shorturl.at/7mKQK 22 Oct - Citation and Referencing for Historians shorturl.at/EXvKo @royalhistsoc.org

A) cool, B) really not sure about calling Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig "folklore"...

Roman fort found in Wales could prove myth of emperor’s camp is real Finds suggest account in medieval folklore of a camp near Frenni Fawr hill was rooted in reality www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026... #History #Archaeology

Today! Still time to register to join us.

For a history of Ashwell (with drawings!) from 1912, see @bho.bsky.social:

New (draft) text now available! Thanks to Professor Nicholas Orme, we are pleased to share draft texts of around 40 medieval monastic and religious foundations in #Devon which will form part of our second volume on the county in due course. All comments/corrections gratefully received. 🗃️

Free to read and download until 5th November: What Did Folklore Do? The Social Functions of Tradition by Jeremy Harte. www.cambridge.org/core/element... #History #Folklore

Following @georgianfun.bsky.social's groundbreaking research on John London, the earliest known Black voter in Britain, more research has gone into discovering instances of Black political participation in the 18th century, as Dr Robin Eagles investigates. @georgianlords.bsky.social

New slavery trial reports: Alfred v. Fitzjames, 1799, a claim for back wages. Espinasse's probably dodgy account, and a contemporary newspaper's version: statutes.org.uk/site/slavery... #EnslavedHistory #LegalHistory

This is cool: a database and map of c20th military structures in the U.K.: edob.mattaldred.com #History

(I jest. She went by 'ass driver' ...

Help, I can't breathe 😆🥊

Join IHR Women's History Seminar on 9 October at 530pm online or in person (IHR Wolfson NB01). Online booking here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... @ihr.bsky.social @ihrwomen.bsky.social @clairelanghamer.bsky.social @lauragowing.bsky.social @dralanagharris.bsky.social @womenshistnet.bsky.social

We're really excited to share updates on our exciting new projects in #Devon, #Dorset, #Kent , #Lincolnshire an #London in our latest blog with @ihr.bsky.social, part of our wonderful community of projects. Please take a look! #Skystorians

We are back for 2026-7! Join us in person at the IHR or online Wed 7 Oct 5:30pm for @milesogborn.bsky.social’s paper titled ‘Law, Violence and empire: Understanding the Jamaican Uprising Trials 1832’ Register 👎 www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Have you recently started your PhD in history and/or a related discipline? Would you like to hear more about the incredible resources the IHR has to offer history students in the heart of Bloomsbury? Join us on 7 Oct! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/... @royalhistsoc.org @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social

New #OpenAccess #History: Alice Thornton’s Books Reassessing the Life Writings of a Seventeenth-Century Woman Edited by Cordelia Beattie, Suzanne Trill, Joanne Edge. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

Featuring material from BHO's English Petitions: www.british-history.ac.uk/series/engli... #History

In our latest On History blog, @zoejackson.bsky.social discusses how they used two petitions as a starting point to reflect on environmental history as a field, and the usefulness of the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) for researching environmental histories buff.ly/9yxpTE4

ALL Duchy of Lancaster Duchy Chamber pleadings for the reign of Elizabeth I (DL 1/41-213) are now item searchable on the catalogue by name, date, subject, and more. What a time to be a fan of Elizabethan litigation! discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/r/C...

My new book, Imprisonment in Early Modern England: Politics, Debt and the Origins of a Carceral Society, is (sort of) out now! Currently available online for anyone with institutional access: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

‘The result is an intriguing experiment in democratised curation, substituting a sense of deliberate polish in the displays for a madcap cabinet-of-curiosities.’ Matthew Kerr visits the renovated Hull Maritime Museum in Yorkshire, and likes the cut of its jib.

Was John London Britain's first Black voter? The 1749 Westminster by-election may seem unremarkable in its result. However, as @georgianfun.bsky.social explores, the election provides the earliest known record of a Black person voting in a British parliamentary election. #BlackHistoryMonth

Out now! A newly described and sorted Early Modern record series at The National Archives, WARD 14. The series contains records relating to the Court of Wards and Liveries, including a bunch of stuff from the 1640s as the court was winding down. discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1...

Great to see a new post added to the #OnePlaceStudy website for #Stretton in #Cheshire! Inspired by David Olusoga’s series ‘Finding Britain’s Slave Traders’ and the launch of the Register of British Slave Traders, Clare Olver has written about Stretton, Slavery & Social Networks. #OnePlaceWednesday

There's an urban (rural?) myth that James I passed a law requiring the planting of Mulberry trees. He did promote them, but there was no statutory requirement. Rabbit hole here: shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/01... #History

Mulberries, by Joe Saunders. Perhaps the most notable chapter in the history of the British mulberry relates to King James VI & I who sought to establish a home-grown silk industry to rival that of Italy and France. how-to-history.com/2026/09/30/m...

We've just launched a new digital resource! Almost 15,000 entries, covering every Fellow, Honorary Fellow, Member and Licentiate of our College from our foundation to 1926. Check it out 👉 www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/phy...

New #OpenAccess #History book: Quantification and Measurement in British Health Advice, c. 1670–1830 Diet, Exercise, and Body Weight in Iatromechanics by Marsha Wübbels link.springer.com/book/10.1007...