@bho
British History Online is a digital library of primary and secondary sources for the history of the Britain, Ireland and empire. Part of the Institute of Historical Research. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/
Who was smuggling in 18th century Britain? My refreshed database for prosecutions for smuggling in England and Wales c. 1721-1732 is live with over 4,000 entries. From naval officers to farmers, smuggling was big business. #twitterstorians #earlymod #history
www.davidchansmith.net/smugglingdat...
NB - if you want to read what we published about the area (in 1912), you can find it @bho.bsky.social.
Trust us, our account of Battersea is not only the 'classic VCH' listing of manors and churches, but starts with a bracing essay on the area and its topography from 693 to the then present. 🗃️
Also worth noting for the ‘everything is online’ crowd that the numbers of archives being destroyed means that an increasing proportion cannot ever be online.
The @ihr.bsky.social has brought all its online resources - journals, @vch-home.bsky.social, OA book series, @bho.bsky.social, BBIH, @layersoflondon.bsky.social, and more - into one section of its website for easier access bit.ly/4cCrpUD.
Much of this content is free to use online #Skystorians
A tale of a common #C18th experience, of being detained for debt for just a few days.
#History #DebtHistory
Portrait of Jacques-Pierre Brissot (c. 1790), by François Bonneville. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris (P2608).
New blog post: "Jacque-Pierre Brissot in the Sponging House" inneskeighren.com/williammacin... #C18
Tea tray image
Enclosure Resistance in Middlesex, 1656 - 1889: A Study of Common Right Assertion A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
How did I get to this stage of historical research without knowing of the existence of an anti-enclosure tea tray.
I love a good tea tray.
Memorabilia from a successful resistance attempt in Bedfont, Middlesex, 1801.
Of interest to @markcrail.bsky.social ?
Ref PhD thesis by Paul Carter, 1998.
An important new article on #DigitalHistory infrastructure (and #OpenAccess too):
Show Me the Data: New Practices for Historical Sources
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#History
Match-box makers photographed working from home in c.1906. The photo shows a woman and girl assembling matchboxes with cut pieces of card and assembled boxes on a table in front of them. They are sitting in front of a fireplace and next to a bed which has piles of flatpack boxes, a basket and rugs on it. The bedroom includes patterned wallpaper, pictures on the wall and a large decoration in a glass dome on top of the mantlepiece.
Match-box makers, c.1906
In 1906 'sweated' (poorly paid) homeworkers were put on public display as part of a 6 week exhibition organised by the Daily News
The exhibition handbook included photos of workers (mostly women) in their usual domestic working conditions
warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
A version of this is now up — will post expanded versions in the future. sarahbull.me/mapping-nine...
CFP: Race, Law and Empire
All the authors of the paper are on Bluesky, and all worth a follow:
@ruthahnert.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and
@danielwilson.bsky.social
18TH CENTURY BRITISH HISTORY PHD LIGHTNING TALKS CFP
Are you at the start of your PhD? Want to tell an eager and engaged audience about it in 5 mins? We want to hear the best PGR research about 18th Britain at our #LightningTalks event 29 April 2026.
Please see the poster for further information!
Good commentary on the article from @willpooley.bsky.social
williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/v...
#History
An important new article on #DigitalHistory infrastructure (and #OpenAccess too):
Show Me the Data: New Practices for Historical Sources
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#History
Two new #OpenAccess histories from @uclpress.bsky.social:
Student London
A new history of higher education in the capital
uclpress.co.uk/book/student...
Survey of London:
University College London, The Bloomsbury Campus
uclpress.co.uk/book/univers...
#History #LondonHistory
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
#OnThisDay in London petitioning history, 1723: The residents of the Southwark Mint rookery petition Parliament against the recent closure of their sanctuary, a stronghold against bailiffs chasing debtors.
An article on this petition on the Alsatia blog: alsatia.org.uk/site/2012/02...
“Does being in a landscape automatically imbue us with a greater understanding of it?
…
We all find our own way, and notice different things as we go.”
@markhailwood.bsky.social
manyheadedmonster.com/2026/02/10/i...
🗃️
Date for your diary - join us Join us for this online training session on 28th April, hosted by the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social team, which will bring together a panel of historians, librarians and subject specialists to discuss the History of Emotions
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Call for Contributions to a Sourcebook for Histories of Weather & Weathering teleskopos.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/c...
Full details linked and here teleskopos.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
It will be edited by me, @lottaleiwo.bsky.social and Tamara Culkins. Please share! #histSTM #envhist 🗃️📜
📣Bookings now open!
👉Celebrating 50 years of the Social History Society with our 'Festival of Social History' @ihr.bsky.social
Panels, zine-making stall, tours, lunch, a roundtable, & keynote by Naomi Tadmor
📅 24 Apr 2026
💷 from £10 for members
All welcome!
socialhistory.org.uk/events/festi...
#OTD in 1918:
The Representation of the People Act is passed, extending the vote to men over 21 and some women over 30.
statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta...
#History #LegalHistory
Bill Turkel and I have just published an article in DHQ. It is about the emergence of Manslaughter as a charge at the Old Bailey, and the working methods we used to analyse the data. dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/19/4/000... Thanks to Gabor Toth for shepherding it through peer review.
This provides an update on the two events coming up – the first, Holly Fletcher's 'The Fats of Life in the Early Modern World' (5 Feb, 5.30 pm, IHR Wolfson Room NB02 and online via Zoom), the second Brodie Waddell's 'Written Worlds: Non-Elite Writers in Early Modern England (5 March, IHR Wolfson Room NB02 and online via Zoom). The background image is a yellow-toned image by Bruegel of people working crops.
Our first event of this term is taking place very soon, on Thursday 5 February! Holly Fletcher (UCL) will be speaking on 'The Fats of Life in the Early Modern World, 1500-1750: Matter in Multispecies Medicine'. You can sign-up to attend in person and online here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Very much looking forward to @pbhellawell.bsky.social & @libertypaterson.bsky.social talking about The Ship Bedford and the Atlantic Slave Trade next Wed. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome, either online or in person, but please register www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Free to download until Feb 17th:
The Five Ages of Antifascism
by Joseph Fronczak
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
#History #AntiFascism
Next week Wednesday 11 February we are delighted to have @pbhellawell.bsky.social & @libertypaterson.bsky.social present their paper titled 'The Ship Bedford: Atlantic and Archival Crossings in the Long Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade'. Join us either in person at the IHR or online from 17:30
Our history also includes the precursor to St Agatha's, Christchurch, Colmore Row, built in 1805 and sold (and demolished), to fund the building of St Agatha's.
Our volume on Birmingham is one of several on English cities published after the Second World War. For more, see @bho.bsky.social.