Blogs about History

Medieval selfies and the earliest selfie-stickSelfies are by no means an exclusively modern phenomenon. During the Middle Ages artists would portray themselves, even realistically. The person seen here made two selfies of himself and even …

THE PERALTA CLAIM. The Land Commissioners will decide on the merits of the Peralta claim this morning. The Chronicle says that this is one of the most important claims that has come before the Commissioners …

The first skirmish of the Black Hawk War took place #OnThisDay in 1832. Sauk and Meskwaki forces, who were trying to reclaim land in Illinois, defeated state militia led by Isaiah Stillman. The militia's panicky …

Three things to use in class Epitaph for Mme Ren, titled Lady of Virtue (shuren) The Honorable Bao Deming, the Assistant Regional Military Commander for my province, lost his first wife. Prior to her burial, …

Eastern cottonwood trees rapidly grow to an enormous size. They reach heights of over 100 feet tall with diameters over 9 feet thick. The U.S. national champion in Beatrice, Nebraska is 89 feet tall and …

A Grisly End to a Lancashire Policeman.A grisly end. Sergeant William James Bedwell of the Lancashire Mounted Police had tied his legs together, cut his throat and jumped in the River RIbble -buried at Preston …

One of the reasons I stopped posting during Covid was I got busy right in the middle of a two-part review of The King (2019, dir. David Michôd), a movie I rather disliked. I did …

Dalit, from the Sanskrit दलित, meaning ‘broken’ or ‘scattered’ is the lowest stratum of the Indian caste system. Otherwise referred to as ‘untouchables’, its people exist outside the traditional hierarchy. Dalit women are said to …

Bear’s Castle is an enigma. There is little agreement over why it was built, or its purpose, but it truly captures the imagination. Bear’s Castle stands on the edge of the Yan Yean Reservoir, just …

Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Revolutionary War barracks destroyed by British General Cornwallis in 1781. “Here at Colonial Williamsburg, we interpret the American Revolution and the politics that led up to …

On May 29, 1793, Göttingen anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach received a Georgian woman’s skull. It would later become the most prominent representation of the so-called Caucasian variety of humankind. His Russian skull supplier, Georg Thomas …

In this guest blog, originally posted on the Victorian Commons blog page, Henrietta Lockhart, Curator of Museum Collections at Winterbourne House and Garden, at the University of Birmingham, tells the story of a unique piece …

When I was preparing the Post about the Town Hall, I started to write about manorial records, and their value in local history. But this was breaking up the Town Hall story too much, and …

I grew up, I think, at the climax of the Enlightenment, which had begun several centuries earlier. By Enlightenment I mean above all the idea that human reason could improve human life, economically, medically, and …

After much debate, changing my mind multiple times a day this week, I decided not to take these bonnets to the event this weekend. There were so many factors, from the weather to bandboxes to …

Postal services in Hilo commenced in 1858. However, when the Hawaiian Islands became a territory of the US in 1900, officials determined that both postal and court facilities should be expanded to better serve the …

by Cord J. Whitaker I am trying to order my thoughts today. They have been disordered by the specter of global war in a world where democracy is dying in the face of fascism, where …

SUMMARY OF THE PAPERS Conference report for ‘Britain Afraid: Imperial Insecurities and National Fears, 1798-1945’, organised by Dr James Crossland and hosted by Liverpool John MooresUniversity in collaboration with the Invasion Network, 21–22 June 2022 …

Soon after the formation of Rochdale Municipal Borough in 1856, it was decided that a grand town hall should be constructed to reflect this new-found status. The building would be multipurpose, having not only a …

A team of researchers has determined the weapon that caused the death of three Egyptian soldiers at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, around 1500 B.C., during the expansion of the Egyptian empire. This discovery …