Ancestor of Mondrian's geometry: the mesmerizing Avenue at Middelharnis plots out a carefully cultivated world. By Meindert Hobbema, #BTD 1638.

Shoulder straps taken from German prisoners. #WW1 #HISTORY

Misty in east Cork.

Sunrise over the Mersey this morning.

Two Minutes’ Silence by Charles Spencelayh exhib. 1928 #remembrance

The Armley hippo. Skeleton on show in Leeds. news.leeds.gov.uk/news/object-...

The Bethnal Green rhinocerous, of which there were hordes, in some warmer epoch. Or so the Eastern Argus alleged (4 April 1885)

Headache? Bad eyesight? Just shove salt, rosemary, orris-root & lavender in your eyes – the ingredients in Grimstone’s famous (fraudulent) eye snuff, for which this is his advert. On the left is the start of today’s Charing X Rd (yesterday’s Crown St) and in the mid distance, St Giles-in-the-Fields

Colonization was like a powerful jigsaw ripping apart nations' families, shredding them into the darkness of a denied past. Now, Indigenous people work to rebuild the puzzle, reclaiming the tiny pieces of history scattered to the winds and reclaiming their identities, histories, and homelands.

I’ve never seen an American elected official fight so hard to starve people.

Misty morning and I'm on my way to Inverness!

PHOTO OF THE DAY. A policeman stops traffic to let a man carrying an inflatable rubber giraffe cross the road on his way to the British Industries Fair in London (1935) 📷 google images

Plastic flowers and foliage picked up from Cornish beaches.

Oh grab a beverage and just relax for 50 odd seconds... and Breathe...In...and out....in and ....out....😴😁😉...☕☕😎 Felixstowe Suffolk UK just now.. 🌊☀️🌊📷 #Relax #Breathe ##Nature #Photography #EastCoastKin #MentalHealthAwareness

Claude Francis Barry’s paintings of WW1 are amongst the most accomplished of his works, with his images of searchlights across London being the most evocative - here (1918) he used small concentrated dots of colour to create an atmospheric haze of light.

Nuking my original website sarahwise.co.uk/index.html this weekend. So you may wish to have a final tool around for things I cut out of my first three books - miscellanea on London's social history, 19th century mental health history, and my early journalism/TV/radio &c

This little bird survived a volcanic eruption! Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago! Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy 📷 by me #FrescoFriday #Archaeology

The witch in legend of the Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border turned herself into an elder tree. Local lore held that if the tree was cut it bled. #FolkyFriday

Does anyone on here work with race and medicine in the southern US in the early 20th century? Niche, I know, but I came across something very weird in my late father's stuff that might be of interest. Feel free to share.

Man alive, we need local journalists. The difference between how Farage is perceived and projected by the national press and how bad Reform local councillors are is unfathomable.

If you want a sneak peek at my forthcoming book, Temperance Lives: Life Assurance, Drink and Medicine in Britain, 1840-1918, you can read part of the introduction and check out the contents and indexes with this widget bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/690c7... @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social

I’ve just seen a narrowboat that looks like it’s entirely crewed by cats, and it’s not even 10am

Evening all. I'm running a study day on Sat 13 Dec at Highgate Lit & Sci about 19th/early 20th century mental health history. We'll explore various diagnoses/labels plus the administration of ‘lunacy’ law and the private and public asylums in the London area. Now booking hlsi.org.uk/courses/day-...

'Remember, remember the 5th of November!' 🔥 These are thought to be the earliest photographs of a bonfire. These photographs were taken in 1853 by John Dillwyn Llewelyn at Penllergare in Swansea 📷 museum.wales/articles/972... #Wales #BonfireNight #History

Elon Musk was right. This is the scene in the Cotswolds right now.

Bowels Set To Be Opened

The great collective rebellions of nineteenth-century Wales. The Merthyr Rising. The Rebecca Riots. The time when Lady Llanover's friends all refused to wear her awful Welsh costumes at the eisteddfod

Clown, Ringling Brothers Circus Weegee, 1944

“It is also November. The noons are more laconic and the sundowns sterner...November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.” -Emily Dickinson, letter to Elizabeth Holland (Nov 1865) #everynightapoem #november

Purely medicinal - recovering from a week full of Pip & bracing for another of George whining. #TheArchers

Here's the mask I made representing the Bean-nighe a spirit from Scottish folklore, also known as the "washerwoman," who washes the bloodstained clothes of those about to die. She is considered a harbinger of death, similar to a banshee, and is typically found by desolate streams, pools, or fords.

Ok, right. Missing from Calder’s account are the rest of the train crew, the existence of secure comms, route knowledge on the part of the driver, and Control, who orchestrated all this with the Police. Professionals doing what professionals need to do (at quite literally 100 mph).

Lerici, where Shelley drowned

Step back into London's Music Hall! 🎩 🏛️ Join The London Archives for talks, rare document displays & expert insights : www.thelondonarchives.org/whats-on/cen... 🎭 Head to @canalmuseum.bsky.social for 'Gatti's Music Hall' – a live Victorian performance www.canalmuseum.org.uk/whatson/musi...

Goodnight

Grecian Theatre, Shepherdess Walk. J.P. Emslie: Five views showing the grounds of the Grecian Theatre and the Chinese pavilion, interior of the theatre, an upper room and a staircase during demolition.Five colour photographs of watercolours, 1899.

London Backwater, near St Pancras', Woburn Walk by James Finlay Watson (1898–1981) (Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens)

From the HO/45 series at the National Archives, file of anonymous intel supplied to the Metropolitan Police: ‘East London Cemetery said to be a night burying place for murdered girls’ (June 1906)

[elbows way through slew of Halloween posts] It’s eerie, it’s a bit revolting, it’s rammed with history – my ‘Bodysnatching & Anatomy in London’ study day is now booking, at Highgate Lit & Sci, Sat 22 November: hlsi.org.uk/courses/day-...

Remember ladies….

6pm, 27 Nov: free screening of 1972 Man Alive documentary 'Alright, We'll Do It Ourselves', a fascinating snapshot of Stepney in the early 1970s, including oral histories from residents www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alright-we...

OMG the FT is hiring a junior arts editor -- what a terrific opportunity! job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

New to the #HistParl site, @kathrynrix.bsky.social looks at the provision made for women to witness debates in the temporary chamber used by the Commons between 1835 and 1852: historyofparliament.com/2025/10/30/t...

Normal day for a historian

i cannot believe that “mamdani calls a close adult relative an ‘aunt’ even if they are not literally their parent’s sister” is what counts as a “scandal” these days

'A Lambeth Alley' (1920s) by Douglas Percy Bliss (Private collection)

'Early Evening, Piccadilly Circus' by Rob Pointon robpointon.co.uk

My favourite thing in all of Wanstead - the sign marking the good cherry pie of 1752, which one of the builders nicked from a passing pie-seller, for which charged half a guinea. That day we had good cheer / I hope to do so many a year.