Canadians cheating and being rude? What is the world coming to? 🥌

Around 1650, Sweden’s ships sailed beyond the Baltic for the first time. Dutch captains and lieutenants in the Swedish navy guided this expansion. Join our online lecture on Monday, 1pm CET, in the Ships & Seafaring series: www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seaf... #earlymodern #maritimehistory #history

Thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded a research scholarship from @gerda-henkel-stiftung.de to continue my work at the German Maritime Museum as Senior Fellow on my new project “Convicts’ Letters” (Calcutta to Australia, 1803) including research trips to the UK and Australia #earlymodern #history

JOB! Lecturer in early medieval history at my lovely once and future department! www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/136727-...

“To achieve the recognition of this common ground, this mutual need, a new xenia needs to come into being, a renewed ethic of hospitality &revived sense of sanctuary, a fresh ethos, which is composed of ideas &beliefs, formed &carried by stories.”

Check out this Postdoc position below!

Matthew Howles (Science Museum) on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”. Exhibition introducing the image of Versailles as a "place of serious scientific" pursuits using objects from Versailles and other institutions.

Louis XV and Louis XVI had more personal interests in science, such as botany and astronomy for the former. Matthew Howles (Science Museum) on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”.

Louis XVI founding the Royal Academy of Sciences in the 1660s. Matthew Howles (Science Museum) on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”.

Louis XIV "also understood science as a tool for diplomacy". Copies of these instruments were given as diplomatic gifts to Persia, Siam, and China. Matthew Howles (Science Museum) on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”.

The Versailles landscape was carefully mapped by a scientist during 1660s. Finding water sources to create reservoires. Over eight million cubic waters then channelled to the palace, largely to supply the fountains. Matthew Howles on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”

The Marly Machine was used to pump huge quantities of water uphill. Fountaineers would whistle to each other when fountains were to be turned on as the King was strolling in the garden. Matthew Howles on “Curating Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Science Museum”.

A large menagerie was situated at Versailles. Used both for scientific investigation and to showcase gifts sent to the French King. "Star of the show" Louis XV's rhinoceros (died in the revolution, possibly stabbed by revolutionaries...). Matthew Howles at SCS

A botanical garden was also part of Versailles. For example producing the first pineapple grown in France. Matthew Howles at SCS

By the reign of Louis XV the setablishment of the Royal Academy of Surgeons. Also included here an obstetrics model. Matthew Howles at SCS

Next week (26/01 @ 1PM), the Ships & Seafaring Talks - a Prize Papers Talks Special Edition with the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven welcomes a very special guest: underwater archaeologist Felix Rösch from the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, who is excavating a very special Hanseatic merchant ship!

Important perspective from Greenland.

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism (Venice: Venice International University, 26-28 JUN 2026) [DEADLINE: 16 JAN 2026] 📣 esclh.blogspot.com/2026/01/call...

Tidskriften "Glänta" prisas. Alla är välkomna! 15 januari, Humanistiska teatern, Uppsala. www.khvsu.se/arguspriset-...

BSECS 2026, Day 2, Reviewed. #BSECS2026 conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/b...

LOOK! My conference paper and my location are in perfect synch! #BSECS2026 #foodhist #skystorians #18thC 🗃️

If you ever wondered what biochemical traces of past users of medical recipes may tell us about early modern haircare, see @uk.theconversation.com's discussion of our @historians.org article: doi.org/10.64628/AB.... Research supported by @thejohnrylands.bsky.social & @britishacademy.bsky.social

Birkbeck is hiring a Lecturer in Medieval Studies (c.1300-1500), full-time and open-ended. They will be formally based in English but expected to be able to contribute about 0.5FTE to History, including teaching and supervision. Closing date Feb 23rd: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

This celebratory volume gathers distinguished eighteenth-century studies scholars to honour the achievements, professional generosity, and sociability of Greg Clingham. Available online at📚 buff.ly/pvnBBVb @bucknellupress.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social #BSECS2026

We are delighted to welcome our keynote speaker @chloewigstonsmith.bsky.social to #BSECS2026. Professor Wigton-Smith will be addressing the conference on 'Thinking With and Against Small Things' at 2pm today in the Pichette Auditorium #skystorians #18thC 🗃️

BOOK: Gregor ROGHMANN & Ulla KYPTA (eds.), How to Ensure Predictability in Legal Pluralism. Merchants and their Interaction in Late Medieval Europe (Wien: Böhlau, 2025), 298 p. ISBN 978-3-412-53376-2, € 60 📖 esclh.blogspot.com/2026/01/book...

Habit à la disposition https://botfrens.com/collections/223/contents/100516

Så här blir det när man är arg när man skriver. www.dn.se/kultur/anna-...

This wonderful publication on #portrait #miniatures has just been released, featuring 22 articles by specialists from around the world, including my piece on the topic of portrait miniatures as ‘portable dynasties’ within European court culture. www.imhof-verlag.de/portrait-min...

Our President's Prize is awarded to the best paper delivered by a #PGR at #BSECS2026. Nominate papers electronically (see the QR code in your programme) or do it the old fashioned way by handing over your handwritten form at the registration desk. Deadline Sunday 11 January at MIDNIGHT #skystorians

We're at #BSECS2026 in Oxford this week! Stop by our stand for 50% off all books and to chat about publishing in our series Studies in the Eighteenth Century. buff.ly/NJ6en7k @bsecs.bsky.social. #skystorians #c18 #18thC #cfm

What #Greenland -ers want

This includes my forthcoming book, What's in a Name. Order now! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526191908/

Today is publication day for Salem's Centuries! It is my department's contribution to the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the English settlement of Naumkeag/Salem. My pieces on the Native dispossession of Naumkeag and the work to confirm the execution site on Gallows Hill are included.

Kick started the new work year with another installment of my 'research walk', retracing the parish boundaries of 17thC Portishead for my book on 'Everyday Life in the 17thC Village'. Got a taste of the 'Little Ice Age' - a period of colder temperatures that impacted the 17thC - by going out in -1!

This is Anastasiia and her three-year-old son, Maksym. Russia attacked their home in Kharkiv with a missile and killed them. This is what russia does to civilians in Ukraine.

Fashion plate from 1788 showing a man dressed in a green, yellow and crimson striped coat, moiré waistcoat with wide stripes, apple green breeches and striped stockings. Woman dressed in a redingote of white Pékin with green Pékin petticoat, hat 'au bateau renversé' #FashionPlateFriday #dresshistory

Continuing our countdown of our most popular articles of the year, the number 4 spot sees Dr Simon Payling's investigation of the Shropshire town of Ludlow during the Wars of the Roses:

{New book} 25% off with Arc25 How Medieval Songs Come Down: Essays in Memory of Carter Revard Edited by Susanna Fein and Thomas Goodmann www.arc-humanities.org/978180270285...

Royal Studies Journal 12.2 is now published, featuring the RSJ Article Prize Winner 2025, a global diplomacy cluster, five research articles and seven book reviews. 📖 Read the issue here: rsj.winchester.ac.uk/31/volume/12... 🎧Listen to the prize winner podcast here: bit.ly/4s5g7xI

The complete Bayeux Tapestry has finally been released and proves that Bishop Odo had absolutely nothing to do with the illegal Norman invasion of England.

Santa managed one book from my list this year, and I’m right pleased it was this one @maryhicks.bsky.social Thanks for the work Dr Hicks! #MaritimeHistory

New article by Sunit Singh titled "Against a Mercatorial Sovereignty: The British Imperial State and the East India Company, 1783–1784" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I finally get to hold a physical copy of my first (edited) book

Listening to Susanah Romney in 2015, about intimate networks. “Small scale connections that individuals were making across the oceans really added up to something that was a lot weightier than what just the companies were doing or just the colony governments were doing.” #genealogy #earlymodern

Last week was a big week for CECS at York! We launched our #18thCentury (a very long one) art wall at our new home in Heslington Hall, with help from the Univ of York’s art curator @helenacoxcurator.bsky.social. York’s VC Charlie Jeffery joined us to toast our wall and cut a festive red ribbon.

Don't steal pies this Christmas.

I love how the @bucksarchives.bsky.social does outreach! This post starts with the (seemingly) "dusty" archival boxes, gives a sneak peek of the reluctant, stern county archivist (brilliant!), and offers a riveting human story, which is what archives are all about!

The first half of "Ships and Seafaring 1500–1800" has wrapped up! Last Monday’s talk closed this year’s program, and we’ll be back with more in 2026. We wish you all a well-deserved Christmas break. We’ll be back on January 12 with our next talk—until then, you can check out the whole program below