Why doesn’t Hobart have a Chinatown? Early Chinese communities might seem to have left little tangible trace. But such an absence does not necessarily mean the absence of a Chinese history.

This was a fun little piece to write with @baibi.bsky.social from our @everydayheritage.bsky.social research.

#history

Why doesn’t Hobart have a Chinatown? Early Chinese communities might seem to have left little tangible trace. But such an absence does not necessarily mean the absence of a Chinese history.

This was a fun little piece to write with @baibi.bsky.social from our @everydayheritage.bsky.social research.

#history

News headline: "Police locate dog seen driving ute on Tassie beach" Police are investigating reports that a dog was allegedly driving a ute on a Tasmanian beach over the weekend. Witnesses said the ute was seen being driven along White Beach at Nubeena about 9:30am Saturday, with a dog in the driver’s seat. “Witnesses reported that a white Mitsubishi Triton was being driven on the beach, with a dog in the driver’s seat and a man in the passenger seat,” a police spokesperson told Pulse. Officers later located the vehicle, man and dog at a nearby property, with police confirming multiple reports were made about the incident. Police are calling for witnesses or footage, including dashcam vision, as investigations continue.

Me, trying to convince friends *waves hands* out there that Tasmania is a normal and real place.

The locals:

The abstract and main image of the article: Unraveling the Concepts of Place in a Colonial Estate Plan. Abstract: Place-based histories often use historical maps to provide spatial clarity or pinpoint a specific location, but sometimes historians forget to interrogate the map we are using. Maps are always created for a purpose, which informs how they depict their scene, and historians need to read them analytically as we would any other historical source. This article demonstrates how to pull apart the narrative of one map of a small property in Van Diemen's Land (colonial Tasmania). In doing so, the ephemerality of both the map and the landscape becomes clear. A multitude of motives underpinned the creation of the map and the farm it shows. It is only by teasing apart its cracks and working in the few documentary records of Edward Foord Bromley's property that one can finally grasp its purpose: it was a form of colonial boosterism designed to encourage colonial settlers into productive agricultural ways.

I stand in front of a campus building at Mississippi State University. My hands are awkwardly in and out of my pockets at the same time, the sky is blue, and the low winter sun is golden across the buildings.

For a few years now, I've been part of an online writing group that finally met in person at Mississippi State last year.

Now our special issue of Agricultural History about place-based history is out online. The group has such diverse research, enjoy!

read.dukeupress.edu/agricultural...

#history

The abstract and main image of the article: Unraveling the Concepts of Place in a Colonial Estate Plan. Abstract: Place-based histories often use historical maps to provide spatial clarity or pinpoint a specific location, but sometimes historians forget to interrogate the map we are using. Maps are always created for a purpose, which informs how they depict their scene, and historians need to read them analytically as we would any other historical source. This article demonstrates how to pull apart the narrative of one map of a small property in Van Diemen's Land (colonial Tasmania). In doing so, the ephemerality of both the map and the landscape becomes clear. A multitude of motives underpinned the creation of the map and the farm it shows. It is only by teasing apart its cracks and working in the few documentary records of Edward Foord Bromley's property that one can finally grasp its purpose: it was a form of colonial boosterism designed to encourage colonial settlers into productive agricultural ways.

I stand in front of a campus building at Mississippi State University. My hands are awkwardly in and out of my pockets at the same time, the sky is blue, and the low winter sun is golden across the buildings.

For a few years now, I've been part of an online writing group that finally met in person at Mississippi State last year.

Now our special issue of Agricultural History about place-based history is out online. The group has such diverse research, enjoy!

read.dukeupress.edu/agricultural...

#history

A ginger cat snoozes on an armchair beside a large window.

My neighbours are moving out, which means my WFH companion is also moving away.

I'm going to have to get a cat of my own, aren't I?

I know what I think this says, but what do you think?

"between the swamps the soil _________ good but _______ to clear, great quantity of fern and sword grass."

Grimes, King Island, 1802-3: nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2322...

#history

A few glimmers of green aurora light up the sky between clouds, above the night lights of Hobart.

Now its the time for the aurora to visit these nocturnal parts.

Its 10:30pm and the beach has the gentle hum of a few small groups watching the lights, while the waves sway back and forth in time with the sky's dance.

It is in the book bin.

OH NO I JUST PULLED IT OUT FROM THE SHELF AND WE GASPED.

A snippet of the "Riviere du Nord" from an 1808 French atlas, showing the river edge change from a solid line to a dashed one.

Ah, they're describing the point where the line turns from solid to dashed, as seen clearly in this 1808 version of the expedition's maps.

www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...

That's my thinking too.

Merci! You have agreed with some of mine, so sadly I'm still stuck on whether they're descriptions of the landscape or instructions about what to put on that section of the illustration...

Where are my old-ish French handwriting readers?

How did Freycinet's people describe the landscape around today's New Norfolk in Tasmania? I have bits and pieces, but some words are defeating me.

Full map available from: nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2323...

#history #archives

A meme of 'Is this an archive?' showing a grid with various classifications of things that might be archives based on their content and structure.

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre palawa kani language program map of First Nations place names across the island, with a side bar showing instructions about how the public may use the place names.

Love to see that the Tasmanian Aboriginal palawa kani place names map has had a whole makeover. Great user info, a better layout, it's beautiful.

tacinc.com.au/map/map

(Of course, I discovered the update because an article in press has the old URL in a footnote & it's too late to change it...)

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre palawa kani language program map of First Nations place names across the island, with a side bar showing instructions about how the public may use the place names.

Love to see that the Tasmanian Aboriginal palawa kani place names map has had a whole makeover. Great user info, a better layout, it's beautiful.

tacinc.com.au/map/map

(Of course, I discovered the update because an article in press has the old URL in a footnote & it's too late to change it...)

Lunch menu for the buffet tables, including boar salami sandwiches, wallaby burritos, and camel sausage rolls. Other options, including vegetarian, are also listed.

I think we can agree this conference catering is putting all others to shame.

This is what happens when a conference is at Tasmania's favourite eccentric museum, MONA.

Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place Discovery Course 1

Are you using #maps in research?

Want to learn about their history and use as sources?

In London in late January?

Sign up for @ihr.bsky.social short course, Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place!

#maphistory #skystorians 🗃️

We are reaching the end of semester and the due date for final assignments.

I have one phrase running permanently through my head, threatening to come out.

Yes, that was me 4 months ago—they said they were waiting for one review & needed a little longer.

I went with them (not "Loxford") because they were one of few who were accepting at the time (several Aus UPs told me they have "too much Australian material"), but perhaps now I have more options.

Today I filmed my last lectures in our wonderful media studio.

I don't know what we will have in our new building, but it seemed only right to mark this occasion with all due solemnity.

Ooh, no I don't. I don't often use KML files so I haven't had to fiddle with their inner workings very much.

geojson.io | powered by Mapbox A quick, simple tool for creating, viewing, and sharing spatial data.

Or geojson.io, if you have a KML file already?

Ah right, you need something web-based. I've just come across Allmaps, which looks interesting but I haven't tested it so I can't say if it's useful...

allmaps.org

It's been a few years, but I am pretty sure you can add a georeferenced layer into GoogleEarth - would that suit the needs of your class?

A clipping of a handwritten record that says "A small hut only on this allotment (P)". The cursive writing makes the word "hut" look a little like "idiot".

Me reading what was on a block of land in 1826: "A small idiot only on this allotment."

Sure, that tracks.

Oh, it's hut, not idiot. Well, it was the colonies, there was a high chance of an idiot on the allotment too.

#history 🗃️

🤣

The transcriber must have been using the Monty Python book of ancient professions.

A clipping of a handwritten record that says "A small hut only on this allotment (P)". The cursive writing makes the word "hut" look a little like "idiot".

Me reading what was on a block of land in 1826: "A small idiot only on this allotment."

Sure, that tracks.

Oh, it's hut, not idiot. Well, it was the colonies, there was a high chance of an idiot on the allotment too.

#history 🗃️

My cranky bus driver may have been driving like the road was out to get him, but at least he was blasting ABC Classic so I could get motion sick to the soothing tones of Gabriel's Oboe and then be roused back to jollity by a brass marching band.