'In January 1721 the Leeds antiquary, Ralph Thoresby, sat up in bed reading Dr Mead's new treatise on the plague. It gave him bad dreams and convinced him that he was exactly the kind of person most susceptible to the disease'.

I spent quite a few years reading Leeds dissenter and antiquarian Ralph Thoresby's diaries a few years back, and got to know him quite well. I honestly don't think there could be a more Thoresby Anecdote than this one related by Mark Jenner:

🦠🪦

Jacques Callot, 1622-23 Two poor women, the younger one feeding the older with a spoon. A tender 17th century moment caught on the page. (British Museum)

My chapter explores tangled connections between physical, social & emotional health as revealed by 17th-century family letters. The book is brilliantly edited by @siobhanhyland.bsky.social, Paul Jackson & Mark Rothery and published by @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social - ask your library for a copy now!

Well-being Past and Present In this exciting interdisciplinary volume, researchers, archivists, curators and social scientists offer a fresh exploration of the concept of well-being in Bri…

January is often a month of fatigue and stress countered by resolutions aimed at improving physical and/or mental health. But what were the various historical meanings of 'well-being', and how are they relevant today? 'Well-being: Past & Present' has some answers!
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/wellbeing...

Place-themed literacy: a free CPD series and pamphlet | National Literacy Trust Join us for a series of monthly, free teacher CPD workshops exploring how tailoring and theming literacy activities around your local area can increase engagement amongst your secondary school student...

I'm very proud of this work and hope that through the pamphlet and an upcoming CPD session in February, we will continue to support teachers to try this place-based approach in their classrooms: literacytrust.org.uk/communities/... (3/3)

The entry by @kharveyhistory.bsky.social and I reflects on the 'A Time for Letters' outreach project (part of @socialbodiesuob.bsky.social). We used historical letters to foster reading and writing skills, and engagement with local heritage, among almost 500 schoolchildren (2/3)

For anyone working in literacy engagement in schools or community organisations, @literacy-trust.bsky.social and @unibirmingham.bsky.social have published a useful (and fun!) pamphlet on 'Place-themed literacy': nlt.hacdn.org/media/docume... (1/3)

I was honoured to give a keynote paper (on medical care on 17th-century English estates) at 'Servants, Labourers and the Manorial World', a conference of the European Network for Country House & Estate Research, at beautiful Ledreborg in Denmark. A wonderful few days of discussion and exploration!

Sorry for the delay, Jo! I'm at emma.marshall@york.ac.uk :)

A fantastic day - we had 110 participants and 122 submissions at our Transcribathon! These letters will be hugely useful for researchers and members of the public alike. Check out the Social Bodies website to browse or contribute your own transcription 👇📝
socialbodies.bham.ac.uk

"In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox..I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of the parents who omit that operation [...]." Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Posset pot, made in #Southwark, 1657 with intials ' B. E. D.' (British Museum)

Hello! This is 'Material Identities, Social Bodies', a Leverhulme Trust-funded research project at the University of Birmingham. Led by @kharveyhistory.bsky.social and supported by @helenesfandiary.bsky.social, it explores embodiment & social identity in C18th British letters
socialbodies.bham.ac.uk

Conference Visit the post for more.

📣The programme for our 2025 conference is out now!

👉Read it here (scroll down to 'Conference Programme'): socialhistory.org.uk/events/confe...

✨Take a look at the amazing array of social & cultural history on show!🗃️

Thanks, this is really useful! Please could I be added?

Also in 2022, we awarded the @crems-york.bsky.social Teaching Early Modern Recipes & Manuscript Cultures project by @mazinggrace.bsky.social and @earlymodernemma.bsky.social 🏆

They presented a poster about their work at our 'Open Research at York: Two Years On' event, available in our wiki 👇

17th century letter reading "papa vené (papa, come)" in child's handwriting and "mon cher cest de la petite main de notre enfan (my dear, it's from the little hand of our child" below in the mother's writing.

Today's most adorable research find: A child's message scrawled at the bottom of this c1700 letter from Madras, asking their dad to come home

#earlymodern

I argue that throughout the life-cycle, parents who were physically distant from their children (of all ages) used responses to illness to fulfil duties such as protection, discipline & education remotely via correspondence. In the process, they navigated complex identities, relationships & emotions

The History of the Family Mothers and Fathers in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Volume 30, Issue 1 of The History of the Family

📢 My article on parents' letters to/about ill children is out in an exciting special issue, 'Mothers and Fathers in Medieval and Early Modern Europe', ed. @erhodes.bsky.social & Alice Whitehead. It's full of fantastic contributions to the history of parenting! 👇
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rhof20/3...

Seventeenth-century painting of landscape with figures in foreground. Text reads Call for Papers: Bodies and Environments in the Early Modern World. 9-10 June 2025. John Rylands Research Institute, Manchester.

CFP for the 'Sleeping Well' @sleepingwelluom.bsky.social end-of-project conference, 'Bodies and Environments in the Early Modern World'. Taking place 9-10 June 2025 at JRRI, Manchester. Details on our website here: sites.manchester.ac.uk/sleeping-wel...

Deadline 3 Feb. Please share widely!

Hi all! From January, I'm running an 8-week, learning-for-pleasure evening course via the University of York's Centre for Lifelong Learning. It's on Zoom, open to the public and taking bookings now - please share with any friends or family who might be interested! 👇
www.york.ac.uk/lifelonglear...

First of Roseberry Topping's damaged paths restored Walkers are asked to stick to the paths on Roseberry Topping to allow the plants to grow back.

One down, nine to go 💪

Our team at Roseberry Topping are doing great work restoring paths to the top of one of the North York Moors' most popular landmarks.

See their work in detail here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An extract from an old handwritten book, a modernised version of which reads ‘…but it happened the river proved deeper than we expected it. and I kept up my horse as well as I could from standly and so bore up a long time but, when we were gone so far that I could not turn back, the river proved past riding and the bottom could not be come to by the poor mare (which was an excellent mare of my poor brother George Wandesford's). So, I saw myself in such apparent danger and begged of God to assist me and the poor beast I rid on, and to be merciful to me and deliver me out of that death for Jesus Christ…’

In summer 1644, teenaged Alice was saved from drowning in a river by her brother’s horse: ‘the poor mare drew up her fore feet and perceived she did swim ... and ... brought me over that river in safety.’ #EYAAnimals #EarlyModern 🗃️ 📜
More in @hagenilda.bsky.social's blog: https://buff.ly/45H8ilD

Passionflower, Nicolas Robert, 1625-84

(British Museum)

How have I never thought of that before?! It's a girl, Silvi ('Silviana' - she's a Romanian rescue), but I now NEED a Derek Jackabee in my life!

Jackabee!

He's gorgeous! My beagle-jack russell cross is similarly food-obsessed 😂

UK HE shrinking This is a live page of all the redundancies, restructures, reorganisations, and closures taking place across the sector at the moment. Solidarity to all. This sector is vital to the country’s…

With Leeds Trinity and Loughborough we're now actually at 83, or exactly half of the 166 universities @timeshighered.bsky.social counts.

HALF OF OUR UNIVERSITIES ARE SHEDDING STAFF. In a normal timeline, politicians would care about this and try to do *something*, *anything*, right?

I adore this, what a fun way to show how much fabric is involved!

A picture of a guided walk. A group in outdoor clothing look over a field, with a town or village in the distance.

Our Small Grants Programme is now live! If you have a project that supports the study, enjoyment and dissemination of local history we'd love to hear from you.

Find out more: ow.ly/cVKf50TUhP2

#WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll