Free to read and download until May 4:

A History of Policing Cities by Anastasia Dukova

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

#History #UrbanHistory

For #NationalTeaDay, what I think is the first statute to mention Tea. Taxes it, of course.

A Grant of certaine Impositions upon Beere Ale and other Liquors for the encrease of His Majestyes Revenue dureing His Life.

www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-rea...

#History

Manchester University Press is proud to launch Radical Histories, a new series dedicated to the individuals, movements and ideas that have challenged political, social and cultural authority.

Call for proposals now open. Find out more: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/04...

Call for papers for Law, race and empire conference: By popular request, we are pleased to offer an extended deadline of Tuesday 28th April for proposals for this exciting event. The law and its authority has always been a contested space. From the adversarial trial and debates on legal reform to discretionary decision making on who was tried, and pleas for clemency, the way people have navigated legal landscapes has always been both fraught and multi-faceted. This complexity is exacerbated in the imperial context, where the law could be both a symbol of the metropole’s control and, conversely, a safeguard against oppression. Over the last half century studies of legal practice, race relations and the maintenance of empires have flourished, deepening our understanding of these aspects of 18th and 19th century life. Yet this was an age where the abolitionist movement ensured that race and the law were a key part of the social agenda. Simultaneously, European militaries engaged in imperial expansion and policing, often forming racialist attitudes in the process which were both adopted, and influenced, by the metropole. Race, law and empire, therefore, should not be considered in isolation. This conference, which forms part of the Leverhulme Trust Funded ‘Sepoys and Slave Soldiers’ Research Fellowship, aims to take a holistic view of the intersections between race, law, armed forces and imperialist projects. In doing so, it seeks to widen our understanding of constructions of race, the rule of law and the operation of empires. This international, hybrid conference welcomes proposals for 20 minute papers, or full panels of three papers, which explore any two of the conference’s three core themes of race, empire and law between 1750 and 1850. 300 word paper proposals, with a 150 word biography and a stated preference for in person or online attendance, should be submitted to Dr Zack White (zack.white@port.ac.uk).

Race, Law and Empire, 1750-1850 Conference
University of Southampton AND online
17th - 18th July 2026

Call for Papers extended by popular request.

Full details below. Please share widely.

Established, emerging researchers are very welcome.

Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk

A man of property Just outside the City of London, in the secluded streets once occupied by the monastic precinct of the Black Friars, is an unassuming warehouse building

As a supplement to the piece in The Times Literary Supplement (@thetls.bsky.social), www.the-tls.com/regular-feat..., here’s a (rather long!) thread on Shakespeare’s house in the Blackfriars, what we knew, and what we now know, with some links to key documents. (1/20)

And the last Northern Ireland PRO vols released by Google Books into the #PublicDomain:

Irish Economic Documents: books.google.co.uk/books?id=3bi...

Sources for the Study of Local History in Northern Ireland: books.google.co.uk/books?id=HMK...

The Rise and Fall of Jukeboxes A controversial history and a slow fade out…

NEW! The Rise and Fall of Jukeboxes.

Lovely long read.

open.substack.com/pub/davehasl...

Front cover of 'Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire', by Rowan Thompson

Published today: 'Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain' by Rowan Thompson bit.ly/4syLgIz

Rowan's new book is the 26th title in the Society's 'New Historical Perspectives' series for early career historians, published. Available Open Access and p/back print @uolpress.bsky.social #Skystorians

A man of property Just outside the City of London, in the secluded streets once occupied by the monastic precinct of the Black Friars, is an unassuming warehouse building

Found a Shakespeare thing; wrote about it in @thetls.bsky.social: www.the-tls.com/regular-feat....

Peter McLagan (1823-1900): Scotland’s first Black MP This is the first article in a new series for the Victorian Commons on Peter McLagan (1823-1900), by Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of Commons 1832-1868 project. McLagan was…

Later this month we will have a new article from @martinspychal.bsky.social as part of his series on Peter McLagan, Scotland's first Black MP. Here's a reminder of Martin's first article on McLagan and the process of researching his background: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2025/06/12/p...

PAST Early Modern Legal: Online Overview A one-day online introduction to Early Modern Legal records.

On 11 June 2026, I'm running an online intro to early modern legal records, part of The National Archives' Practical Archival Skills Training #TNAPAST workshops. More details can be found via the link. For accompanying on-site workshops, see the below thread www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/past-early...

HELP NEEDED IN UPDATING Bibliography of the 1926 General Strike In 2006, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (HSIR) 21 published ‘The General Strike and Mining Lockout of 1926: A Select Bibliography’, compiled by John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, …

Are you a historian of the 1926 General Strike? If so, we need your help updating the strike's bibliography to mark its centenary. sslh.org.uk/2026/04/02/h...

And also because evidence does not simply find itself.

The 2026 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History - Digital History Seminar SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION HERE BEFORE 31 MAY Richard Deswarte (1965-2021) was one of the founding convenors of the Digital History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of Lon...

📢The 2026 Richard Deswarte Prize in Digital History is open for nominations until the end of May. Nominate your work or a work you love published since Jan 2026. All formats welcome. Help us celebrate the best of digital history internationally. Details ➡️ ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/12/the-...

More Northern Ireland PRO vols released by Google into the #PublicDomain

Exhibition of Irish Economic Documents: books.google.co.uk/books?id=hTA...

2000 Years of Handwriting: books.google.co.uk/books?id=aAM...

Aspects of Irish Social History 1750-1800: books.google.co.uk/books?id=GkI...

Champion Black Boxers and businessmen in 1800s London In advance of the blue plaque in Trafalgar Square, a film/talk on Bill and Tom and the real history in TV hits like Bridgerton,1000 Blows

We're in a big auditorium at UCL on Weds for Champion Black Boxers and Businessmen in 1800s London - talk, film, panel, about Bill Richmond, Tom Molineaux, Bridgerton, A Thousand Blows!

Join Tony Warner, Roberto Nigro, Luke G. Williams, S. I. Martin & me:

FREE: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/champion-b...

Today in radical history: National Conference of Women meets, Central Hall, to discuss basis for WW1 peace, 1915. On 14th April the Union of Democratic Control (UDC) summoned a National Conference of Women to discuss the basis of a permanent peace settlement” at Central Hall in London. This was designed …

#OnThisDay in radical history: National Conference of Women meets, Central Hall, to discuss basis for WW1 peace, 1915.
wp.me/p74yfw-6S

1926 General Strike Centenary Open Day The People’s History Museum in Manchester is hosting a special open day to mark the centenary of the 1926 General Strike on the 9 May 2026. The event will delve into the strike’s contin…

The People's History Museum is hosting a special open day on the 9 May to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike. We are delighted to support this event! sslh.org.uk/2026/04/13/1...

Map of Britain made from early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps. It includes pins which link to digitised documents and links to a timeline.

New 1926 General Strike map online!

Using early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, the online resource shows strike events (through archive sources) in their contemporary landscape.

Explore the map, digitised sources and more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

NB - contrary to the expectations of some people (good morning to the shade of Eric Hobsbawm, for example), @vch-london.bsky.social addressed the 'Cutteslowe Walls' (and much else), in @vch-oxon.bsky.social's volume on the City of Oxford (published 1979) and available @bho.bsky.social: 🗃️

Samuel Pepys had significant professional and social connections to transatlantic slavery in the years covered by his diary and afterwards, mediated by his involvement with two English slave-trading companies – the Royal African Company and the Company of Royal Adventurers trading to Africa. He also owned and sold at least two enslaved people in London in the 1670s and 1680s. This article uses previously neglected manuscript evidence to reassess Pepys’s involvement in enslavement and his status as an enslaver. It emphasizes three themes: the relationship between Pepys’s official connections to the African companies and his private ownership of enslaved people; the development of his involvement in slavery within his extensive social and professional networks; and Pepys’s own agency in curating his official and personal archives to shape and limit our knowledge of his slave ownership. In doing so, it considers how the consciously expressed professional and ethical priorities of administrators and slave-owners like Pepys shaped the complex archival traces of slavery in England and erased the experiences and voices of enslaved people.

📣Out now on #firstview

Michael Edwards @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social on 'Samuel Pepys, the African Companies, and the Archives of Slavery, 1660–1689'

#Archives #Letters #Diary #History 17thc 🗃️

👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Pepys ‘curated’ letters to conceal being offered enslaved boy as bribe – research Cambridge University historian uncovers letter to diarist who was a naval official in 1670s

Pepys ‘curated’ letters to conceal being offered enslaved boy as bribe
Cambridge University historian uncovers letter to diarist who was a naval official in 1670s

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The actual #OpenAccess research:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#History #EnslavedHistory

Any #Skystorians I could speak to about grants of property/court of augmentations under #HenryVIII for a story I'm writing, please? Need some help understanding the broader context of a few entries in the @bho.bsky.social Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. Thanks!
#History 🗃️

Vincent Hiribarren: Historian vs AI: who reads and analyses archives best YouTube video by IHR Digital History Seminar

📢 If you missed Vincent Hiribarren's recent @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar 'Historian vs AI: who reads and analyses archives best', the talk is now on our YouTube channel youtu.be/VO26YAK1mu0 #dhist

The many Calendars of State Papers, Rolls, etc. that BHO has transcribed, have their origins in the formation of the Public Record Office and consequent cataloguing.

Fully-funded #PhD opportunity on the early history of the Public Records Office starting this October phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2475... with @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy @universityofleeds.bsky.social Available full or part-time. #archives #skystorians

Who were the ‘peasants’ of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt? New database has answers Our research has built pictures of people involved in the events of 1381.

Who were the 'Peasants' of the 1381 Peasants Revolt? New article in for @theconversation.com introducing the People of 1381 database: theconversation.com/who-were-the...

Great #OpenAccess #CarceralHistory article:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#History #PrisonHistory

There is no such thing as the history of science People on the internet are arguing about what ‘science’ means and what properly belongs to the ‘history of science’. (Aparna Nair’s thread on Bluesky is a good introdu…

There’s no such thing as the history of science (and this is a blog post about it)

(inspired by a great 2017 article by Lorraine Daston)

williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/t...

🗃️

✨ Nominations for the Deswarte Prize in Digital History are open until 31 May. Details on how to nominate and what is in scope are found ⤵️