Otd 1953 piano manufacturers Pleyel confirmed the identity of the piano sent to composer Chopin for his winter in Menorca in 1838. His time staying in Carthusian cell no 4 was productive. George Sand was unimpressed. It snowed. He composed. We can still enjoy the results. Photographed last week.

Really looking forward to this. Likely to be of interest to @huguenotsociety.bsky.social as well as more widely.

#GustavHolst, born otd 1874. This is my favourite photo of him, taken when he and his wife Isobel were in the USA in 1923. Daughter Isobel wrote « he was the happiest » person she knew. Photo now at his birthplace museum in Cheltenham. Lots more to see there and excellent mss scores online.

Many happy returns for the great lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson, born in Lichfield otd 1709. This stained glass window is at his London house @drjohnsonshouse.bsky.social, a wonderful place to visit.

Two visits 6 years apart. Today’s treat was the recently restored Crystal Palace subway (opened 1865) in south London. The photo of Cordoba Mosque/Cathedral was taken in January 2019.

I was invited to write a post for the @ihr.bsky.social blog about #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems. 'The book tells a story about how England has been shaped over the centuries - and, between the lines, I think it tells a story about my working life here at the IHR...' blog.history.ac.uk/2025/09/a-hi...

An upcheering sight in the middle of a thundery downpour on London’s Victoria Street just now - @cathamclarke.bsky.social’s new History of England in 25 poems in Waterstones window display.

This is the way to do an online exhibition! Fabulous images and insights from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, superbly curated and including images from the Victoria & Albert illuminated manuscript collection. Sections on visual, physical and auditory devotion, with videos, essays and glossary.

Thorney Abbey door, little changed from when Jean Jembelin was minister of its French church 1685-c.1712. The church notice board of ministers confuses him with a cousin. Thanks to @lampallib.bsky.social for enabling me to write about his sermons in @huguenotsociety.bsky.social journal, just out.

@brixtonwindmill.org is a huge restoration success, with a thriving community centre thanks to decades of tireless work by local heroes. Several open days are coming up - it’s well worth a visit to see this inspirational success story, a short walk from Brixton underground station. Play park nearby.

So glad that you mentioned St Radegund/Kummernis. My interest was piqued by Richard Pynson printing her life as a devotional tract. One of the many saints to whom devotion has waned and who had different names in different languages. This image from Osnabruck c. 1520. Photographed in Berlin.

A challenge at today’s @womenshistnet.bsky.social conference has been choosing between the parallel panels. No choice for me after lunch as a presenter on women and performing arts, enjoying talks from @jesmyth.co.uk, Kirsty Roberts and Christina Guillaumier. So glad to talk about Vally Lasker.

Some excellent training for research historians on offer here, all free to register and all but one session online.

Need a book? Bookseller Crow excellent indie bookshop proprietor Jonathan is gravely ill and they need all the business they can get. booksellercrow.co.uk They’re on bookshop.org too.

Parking near Parliament square in London is always a problem. Unusual vehicle there just now.

Postal deliveries to South London have been an infrequent excitement over the past few years, but this delivery for @womenshistnet.bsky.social was particularly exciting. Really looking forward to getting stuck in.

Volunteering @lampallib.bsky.social is always a joy as well as a great privilege, but late this afternoon three of us cataloguers were treated to this view of Archbishop Laud’s tortoise, which survived him by many years. Inspiring to study this stellar archive so close to where the events took place

The history behind the Copley Medal is curious. It followed a bequest by Sir Godfrey Copley MP, and was his 4th largest bequest, after legacies to his wife & daughter, and to a young girl, who became Sir Hans Sloane’s ward. I’m working on telling her story from many letters @lampallib.bsky.social.

Super post about an important benefactor of the then newly founded French Hospital as well as the church in Threadneedle Street. Of interest to @huguenotsociety.bsky.social. More on this period of Huguenot history in London in the forthcoming Huguenot Society Journal.

Reposting this celebration of @judithpollmann.bsky.social’s research into how people coped with radical social change in the period 1500-1850. Her interview on the website of @somervillecollege.bsky.social (where she taught for 10 years) sets out some of the ideas which the Spinoza Prize may enable.

The BBC written archives were already the most restricted of the many I’ve researched in over the decades. But without them my research on the later career of #GustavHolst would have been seriously incomplete. Holst embraced the BBC in its earliest years, and vice versa. The BBC holds public records

Inspiring break from writing about Samuel Johnson’s words of wisdom on confidence and self-confidence today. Super visit to the London house where he lived, worked on his great dictionary and entertained, with an excellent talk on his letters by @lizison.bsky.social

A huge thank you to @choirofkcl.bsky.social and their Director @josephfort.bsky.social for a wonderful evensong featuring Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s sacred music followed by a recital of his part songs just now. Wonderful to celebrate his music so close to his 150th birthday. Both were sublime.

Today marks the 150th anniversary of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) 🎼 From published scores, autograph manuscripts, and sound recordings, read our new blog post with an overview of our Coleridge-Taylor collections: bit.ly/BLBlogColeridgeTaylor

This is an exciting post as the Parliamentary Archives are being located from within Parliament itself in the Victoria Tower to @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy at Kew. Deadline 31 August.

An elephant for today’s world elephant day from the series of frescoes in the cloisters of the Duomo at Bressanone (Brixen) in north Italy. A real elephant visited the town in 1551, too late for this artist. The Sud Tirol is one of my favourite places to see frescoes, with several stunning cycles.

Vacancy with the Royal Historical Society: Membership and Office Administrator bit.ly/46TgZNA We look to appoint a Membership and Office Administrator (0.8 FTE) to join our professional Office to help us support history and historians. £31,904 pro rata. Closing date Monday 8 September #Skystorians

This is a lovely tribute to a wonderful historian of @westminsterabbey.bsky.social and the most inspiring and encouraging tutor. @royalhistsoc.org

Hurray! For the past couple of decades I have kept a private list of exhibitions I felt I really have to see, at first in a slip of paper in my wallet, work and childcare duties permitting in case of a few free hours, latterly in a list on my phone. Looking forward to this greatly on my 2026 list.

RHS Wisley was so beautiful yesterday that we spent most of our day there in the gardens, not the library. But Cicero’s quote « if you have a garden and a library you have everything you need » seems a good choice there. Gardens and libraries are a great combination.

Four weeks tomorrow until this conference. I’ve just finished the 1st draft of my slides and talk, exploring how Vally Lasker worked with #GustavHolst as an amanuensis and what that actually meant. Focussing on manuscripts of the Japanese Suite and Vally’s role in preserving his music and letters.

It is touching too that after Gustav Holst’s death Vaughan Williams worked hard to secure his musical legacy, fundraising for Morley College’s Holst room and in 1956 sponsoring a concert of his lesser known works @southbankcentre.bsky.social. He also supported Gustav’s widow, Isobel. A true friend.

This time two years ago our family holiday was on the Austrian stretch of the Jakobsweg, but this summer we hope to finish the North Downs Way. Today’s section Lenham to Chilham mostly repeats the Pilgrim’s Way we walked in day stages as we emerged from the Covid lockdown. 7 miles more to Canterbury

Happy International Friendship Day! The history of friendship is a growing field of historical scholarship. Search ‘friendship’ in the subject tree on the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) to find some fascinating histories buff.ly/3L7a33B

Many thanks to all the many @britishlibrary.bsky.social staff who managed the fire alarm evacuation so well this afternoon. It could have been a scrum but was all very orderly and swift. Much appreciated. I even reached my reading target for the day.

Composer #GustavHolst and his fellow teacher and amanuensis Nora Day posing c. 1930 with their lunch @rbgkew.bsky.social. Holst loved the trees at Kew Gardens (his eyesight was too bad to see flowers) and enjoyed taking friends and pupils to sing there. Snapshot from Vally Lasker’s collection.

Really looking forward to this lecture and to the exhibition based on the Arundel choir book. The discovery illustrates the exceptionally wide range of @lampallib.bsky.social’s collections.

Really looking forward to attending and speaking about the widely scattered archival evidence for how Vally Lasker collaborated with composer #GustavHolst WHN Annual Conference 2025. Lots of super talks and virtual attendance is free. Register here at. womenshistorynetwork.org/whn-annual-c...

Winner of the RHS Early Career Article Prize (2025): Michaela Kalcher for 'The Self in the Shadow of the Guillotine: Revolution, Terror and Trauma in a Parisian Diary‘, published in History Workshop Journal (2024). bit.ly/4ljXySE 1/2 #Skystorians

Procedurally speaking, no-one dies in the House of Lords, although they may be registered dead on arrival at St Thomas’s hospital. The reasons behind this are set out in the first note I was asked to write, in autumn 1982. But huge thanks to @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social, who is surely BlueSky’s star

My top tip from last week’s concerts - super sacred music by the new Spiritus choir & ever-wonderful @brittensinfonia.bsky.social on Thursday, outstanding Thomas Trotter organ recital at Thaxted Festival on Saturday and singing with Dulwich Choral Society yesterday. Wear a neck fan in the breaks.

Wonderful organ recital by Thomas Trotter today as part of Thaxted Festival, always my favourite music festival. He brought out the best on this 2014 restored organ, previously played by #GustavHolst. Thaxted is always the bringer of jollity, great buildings, great music and great friends.

Many Huguenots fled abroad after the Revocation in 1685, but not all. To learn more about those who remained, visiting the Museum in the Desert is a must. Follow the link to learn more. museeprotestant.org/en/notice/th... #Skystorians #huguenots Musée du Désert, Mialet © O. d'Haussonville

Now digitised in full @camdiglib.bsky.social cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-NN-0...

Mold / tondo relief for Crusaders for Freedom - Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, 1962, by #MetaVauxWarrickFuller (American, 1877-1968). On view at Danforth Art Museum; source, omeka.flo.org/fsu/s/Meta-V... #Juneteenth #womenartists #artherstory #womensculptors #HappyJuneteenth

Yet another reason for wishing I could be @stdavidscathlib.bsky.social for their conference this week!

The Society welcomes applications to join at any time from historians of all backgrounds and career stages. This includes the many who practice outside #History depts / HE or work independently bit.ly/43Y2u8g For these historians, we hope to offer community, support and collegiality #Skystorians

On a fine day like today the walk - now 18 minutes - between @britishlibrary.bsky.social and @ihr.bsky.social is full of delightful surprises and memorials, and still quicker than public transport, as was always the case. Grateful thanks to both wonderful and wonderfully welcoming institutions.

The Huguenot antiquary & Librarian @lampallib.bsky.social Andrew Ducarel was born #OTD in 1713. On my shelves is this copy of his ‘Account of the Alien Priories’ (London, 1779) which he inscribed to William Vyse, later Archdeacon of Coventry, whom he probably knew as Rector of Lambeth.

Including a wee little piece (Open Access) by yours truly on uncovering female voices in male-authored medieval manuscript sources…