-
Recent Posts
Archives
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- May 2010
Categories
Meta
Twitter feed
- RT @janeyellene: Prison Hulks on the River Thames in Woolwich in 1856, this is possibly the only know photograph of these hulks shortly bef… 2 hours ago
- Classifying The Mistakes We Make When We Transcribe | FromThePage content.fromthepage.com/classifying-tr… 5 hours ago
- DR KAHN'S OXFORD STREET MUSEUM buff.ly/3edSAa4 https://t.co/CzWC3zwcG8 13 hours ago
- William McGonagall’s Life and Rhymes, And photographs from Victorian times - Historic Environment Scotland Blog… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 13 hours ago
- Horseman's Word: a secret society of horse wizards - The MERL buff.ly/3c6NiKN https://t.co/hyEwNGfooO 13 hours ago
Geeky stuff
Building an archive solution
Author Archives: dgm
Christmas Bills
This year’s festive tweet was a little different, I’d come across the poem while researching something entirely different. I’ve been working my way through Juliet Barker’s magisterial history of the Brontës, more as a way of understanding life in late … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
The precariat of the nineteenth century …
T Today, we often talk about the precariat. However, there’s also a subtle shift underway in meaning – rather than simply gig workers such as Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders – increasingly the term precariat is applied to people in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
The Iconography of John Sobieski Stuart
In my previous post about the Sobieski Stuarts (and my non connection with them) I reproduced the above photograph, which is attributed to the noted early Scottish photographer, David Octavius Hill, who had set up a photographic studio with Robert … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Nothing to do with Bonnie Prince Charlie
Every so often I mess about with family history. Not seriously. Really I do it to keep my skills in tracing documents back through the archives up to speed and to practice reading nineteenth century handwriting. The only real mystery … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
Did Charlotte Bronte smell?
When you visit old early nineteenth century houses one thing you notice is the absence of a dedicated bathroom. The Brontes didn’t have one in Haworth, nor did Hamilton Hume in Cooma Cottage. Privies, yes, sometimes, as can be seen … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Caribbean Slavery and the Highland Clearances
Back in August I wrote about how the payout from the emancipation of slaves in West Indies may have financed the development of the squatocracy and their landholdings in Australia. I’ve just come across an interesting discussion paper that argues … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
The Port Fairy mailbox
Back in 2018, I wrote how there was still an early Victorian short door mailbox still in use in Port Fairy. At the time the mailbox was looking a bit faded and unloved, and in need of a coat of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Sir Humphry Davy and Frankenstein
Humphry Davy, the noted chemist, and technology evangelist (satirized by Rowlandson above) was a friend of William Godwin, and was also known for his experiments with electricity, including building a truly ginormous voltaic pile around 1806. Remarkably, Davy was also … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Mary Shelley and the Bracknell vegetarians
In among other things, I’ve been continuing to delve into Mary Shelley’s time in Dundee. It’s all taken longer than I meant it to, in part because I bought a couple of books on the subject and one of them … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Collodion what?
Yesterday I was puzzling over the rise in the use of the word collodion as a term for early photographs. The term derives from the collodion process (or wet plate process) which allowed photographs to be made using glass plates … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment