Blogs about History

Bomber (x2) and fighters (and bombers). Garry Campion, The Battle of Britain in the Modern Age, 1965–2020: The State’s Retreat and Popular Enchantment (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). With this volume, Campion completed an evidently initially …

In July 2014 I posted an item on this blog, "Hillman Hospital and How It Became UAB." I recently came across the article below published in the May 3, 1903, issue of the Birmingham Post-Herald …

The Sistine Chapel was built by the order of Pope Sixtus IV between 1477 and 1483. It was intended to serve as a private place of worship for him and his successors, as the site …

This second-century AD skillet was found in Prickwillow, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire in1838. Copper-alloy decorated with copper and niello inlay and tin-plating.

Note the well dressed tourists in Bedlam The Rake’s Progress: Scene 8, by William Hogarth, 1735 Sir John Soane’s Museum. Originally Bethlehem was founded in 1247 as the Priory of St Mary in Bishopsgate St, …

I lived with Mark since 2006. This time last year he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and a little more than a month ago he died. His funeral was on 13th December 2022 at …

Fun and games on the latest Boggart and Banshee podcast with almost an hour given over to questions of levitation and teleportation. As always when I talk to Chris there were revelations, things I’d not …

The Housekeeper's Tale by Tessa Boase The Housekeeper's Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House by Tessa Boase is a light but informative exploration of the real lives of five 19th-20th century …

HISTORY OF COFFEE: INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY September 29 is National Coffee Day in the U.S. and 16 other countries. But October 1 is International Coffee Day, shared by the National Coffee Day in 12 countries. …

Many apologies to subscribers who received a notification of a new post earlier today. Unfortunately this was an error on my part. I was working on an upcoming essay and managed to hit the “publish” …

When we think of people moving writing on papyrus, we probably think of one of the ‘bucket’ shaped cases from ancient statues of orators and paintings at Pompeii. These had a handle or straps so …

Men are apparently sharing their fascination with Roman history on Tik Tok, Instagram, and other online platforms. “It’s been almost 2,000 years since the Roman Empire reached the historic peak of its power. But many …

This week at The Archive we have reached the milestone of 71 million pages, having added 224,018 brand new pages over the last week alone, alongside one very special new title, the Walthamstow Express. We’ve …

Fireside this week! I know we’re all anxious to get to the last part of our look at the Roman Republic – a discussion of Roman courts and the legal system – but academic job …

I am afraid that this review is 18 months late, due to running out of spoons in 2021 after moving house whilst also work being very busy and the ongoing pandemic running as a stressful …

As my new project on the history of travel, health risk and preparation begins to get underway, one of the things that I am thinking about is the place of travel within early modern medical …

In Our Name: Royal Letters, Power and Diplomacy in Scotland and England (1513-1542) Performing and Resisting Power in Early Modern Life Plate 1 from Thomas May, Arbitrary government displayed to the life, 1690. Image from …

100 years ago, almost to the day, a terrible fire wiped out 640 homes in Berkeley: The 1923 Berkeley, California, fire was a conflagration that consumed some 640 structures, including 584 houses in the densely-built …

This paperback I read about 25 years ago. In the western section at my library. It is part of a series of novels ranging from the F&I to Pontiac and on to the Revwar which …