British History Online

Screenshot of the homepage of Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies digital archive.

I've put online a #c18th side project on Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies that uses data extraction for mapping & network analysis, exploring questions of urban history, genre and print culture, geography, and social worlds across editions:

harrisslist.prisms.digital

#HarrissList #DH #WIP

New Open Access article by Richard Huzzey and Katrina Navickas, 'From Repertoires to Recipes: Rethinking Political Organisation in the Long 19th Century' 🧐💾👇💻🙋

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/WKHAW9...

@richardhuzzey.bsky.social @katrinanavickas.bsky.social @parlhistjournal.bsky.social

ICYMI:

Submissions for our annual PhD Lightning Talks event closes this Friday 13 March! If you are in the first two years of your PhD, work on the field of British history in the long 18th cent (1660-1830) and are looking to share your research, get in touch!

royalhistsoc.org/calendar/ihr...

The Parliamentary Debates

#PublicDomain #Hansard vols from 1908, released by Google Books:

books.google.co.uk/books?id=7zL...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=qWJ...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=RCg...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=0UQ...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=rUQ...
books.google.co.uk/books?id=fCU...

'Author and researcher Dr Clare Sandford-Couch is part of a group of academics researching the history of women in the prison and co-wrote the book Newcastle Prison: A History, 1828-1925.'

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.

Resources for Historians The IHR offers a wide range of online resources and publications for historians. These pages introduce and provide access to these resources.

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

#20s30s

generalstrike100.com?event=15296#...

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!

Vote With Your Fingers When I was a student, I remember identifying journal articles on a paper reading list, then trundling off to the library to visit the stacks, where journals were stored on sardine shelves, that cou…

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

Student London Students have formed a significant part of London’s population since the foundation of its first university in 1826, and Student London centres their experiences in the city’s history. To tell the 200...

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...

The Minters petition Parliament So far, most of the texts I have found concerning the debtor sanctuaries of London have been written by their opponents: laws and indictments, and also the last dying words transmitted via the Ordi…

#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...

Is Walking Research? A Methodological Ramble Mark HailwoodI needed to try something to get me writing again. Blessed with a period of research leave to resume work on my book – Everyday Life in the Seventeenth Century English Village &#…

“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...

🗃️

Researching the History of Emotions Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

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: Histories of Weather & Weathering Call for Contributions: A Sourcebook for Histories of Weather and Weathering (working title) Editors: Rebekah Higgitt, Tamara Caulkins and Lotta Leiwo We invite contributions to this planned open a…

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 🗃️📜

Festival of Social History To celebrate 50 years of the Social History Society, we’ve teamed up with the Institute of Historical Research to host a Social History Festival! The festival will feature two expert discussion pan…

📣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...

1918: 7 & 8 George 5 c.64: Representation of the People Act 1918: 7 & 8 George 5 c. 64: An Act to amend the Law with respect to Parliamentary, and Local Government Franchises, and the Registration of Parliamentary and Local Government Electors, and the …

#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.