Tiny Traces: African and Asian Children at London’s Foundling Hospital

Hannah Dennett, University of Warwick Hannah.Dennett@warwick.ac.uk This blog reflects on Hannah Dennett’s work to produce the ‘Tiny Traces’ exhibition, which was given a special commendation in the Social History Society’s 2023 Public History Prize. After a long campaign by its founder Thomas Coram, London’s Foundling Hospital opened its doors on 25 March 1741 to receive … Continued

‘Always at Work’: Oh to be a Post Office Horse?

Image of post office cart

Natasha Preger, King’s College London natasha.preger@kcl.ac.uk We are delighted to share this blog, which was runner up in the 2022 SHS Postgraduate Prize. You can read the announcement here. He begins his week’s work at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon; he ends it at half-past ten on Sunday morning; and at any time during that … Continued

‘We moved together, we breathed together’: disabled women on stage in 1980s Britain

Beckie Rutherford, University of Warwick b.rutherford@warwick.ac.uk @B_Rutherford_ We are delighted to share this blog, which is winner of the 2022 SHS Postgraduate Prize. You can read the announcement here. In 1980, Nabil Shaban (a disabled student and aspiring actor) and Richard Tomlinson (an English lecturer at Hereward College in Coventry) co-founded Graeae Theatre Company. It … Continued

1918 Allotment

JC Niala, University of Oxford Jc.niala@stcatz.ox.ac.uk @jcniala This blog describes a public engagement project that won the SHS’s 2022 Public History Prize. You can read the announcement here. I was already researching urban allotments in Oxford before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oxford did not have a city-wide waiting list before the pandemic started. … Continued

Unheard and Unseen: Mining Women in British India

Urvi Khaitan, University of Oxford urvi.khaitan@history.ox.ac.uk We are delighted to share this blog, which is runner up in the 2021 SHS Postgraduate Prize. You can read the announcement here. Somi Bowri would have been happy doing anything other than working in a coal mine. Born in the 1910s in an Adivasi (indigenous) Bowri community, she … Continued

Photographing Fairies

Dr Alice Sage, Goldsmiths, University of London @aliceemmasage This blogpost explains Alice Sage’s winning Pamela Cox Public History Prize project. You can read the announcement and watch an interview between the SHS and Alice here. This exhibition and engagement project was inspired by the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Cottingley Fairy Photographs in … Continued

‘Manifestations of Warmth’: Emotions in Trade Unions

Edda Nicolson, University of Wolverhampton @Edda_Nicolson This blog by Edda Nicolson was commended in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. ‘May I ask the delegate, if he has any charge to make against the Gasworkers’ Union, to make it definitely? At the present moment I am the Chairman of the whole of the organisations in this … Continued

Turning a 13C Jewish Manuscript into Public History through Comics

Kremena Dimitrova, University of Portsmouth @KremieDimitrova This blog by Kremena Dimitrova was commended in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. At the end of 2019, I was commissioned by Professor Alex Samely and Dr Stefania Silvestri to work on the 50 Jewish Objects project. The commission involved researching and visually investigating, employing a graphic narrative format, … Continued

‘All her copies’: The will of Anne Boler as evidence for her career as a Stationer

Joseph Saunders, University of Glasgow j.saunders.1@research.gla.ac.uk @joe_saunders1  This blog was commended in the 2020 SHS Postgraduate Prize. In her will of 1638 Anne, widow of James Boler bequeathed her husband’s estate to her children with ‘such increases and improvements’ as she had made. James had been a bookseller and member of the Company of Stationers, … Continued