I've used my London Lives datasets of 18th-century St Clement Danes pauper removal orders and settlement exams to make a new interactive map mindseye.sharonhoward.org/dashboards/cdr… #18thc

My new fun interactive toy is a data explorer [big table! many filters!] for the #18thC London Lives Home Office Criminal Registers: mindseye.sharonhoward.org/dashboards/h...

I think it's back up! Phew.

Need an antidote to all that sugar, spice and goodwill? How about a book concerning 203 people executed in public over 69 years? 'At the Tree: Executions in Gloucestershire, 1722-1790', available from Amazon, paperback £10.99, eBook £3.99, or message me if you'd like to buy pb direct from me.

It's been brought to my attention that OBO searches are not working (and have been for a few days). I've contacted the developer but he's on leave till the 5th so I don't know when the problem will get fixed. Static content is working. Sorry about this!

It's here!

If you're seeing these right now... sorry. Developer is looking into it.

Remarkable photo taken inside the Old Bailey in 1907 - Mr Justice Ridley wearing the black cap as he sentences to death J.E. Wyatt for murder of Florence Wakeling. (Penny Illustrated Newspaper, 9 March 1907, via British Newspaper Archive)

I've also been busy exploring the @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social API, which changed a LOT when the site was relaunched 18 months ago and I've been meaning to write up some guidance for that. So here is a new little website. sharonhoward.github.io/obo/

Good news for @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social fans who are Zotero users... the OBO Zotero translator is working again. Except the multi functionality for search results (a bit much for my JS skills; maybe later), but I added bookmarking a session, and tidied it all up a bit.

Didn't realize that the John Johnson Crime ephemera collection is free to access in the UK: johnjohnson.chadwyck.co.uk/geoLocSubscr... hat tip to @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social where I discovered this. #History #DigitalHistory 🗃️

OTD in 1848, some 150,000 Chartists met on Kennington Common to present their third petition to Parliament. Mark Crail on how tracing Chartists, a working-class movement for political and economic reform, became a point of connection between family and academic historians: http://www.historywo...

Last is the online adaptation of my beloved "Crime and Punishment in England, 1500-1900," which draws on the glories of the Old Bailey Online for the second half of study and projects. www.oldbaileyonline.org

Please excuse the self-promotion, but www.Oldbaileyonline.org was recently awarded the Mary L.Dudziak Digital History Prize by ASLH, and Bob Shoemaker and I just received the certificate. We were really honoured, but having no wall space to speak of, I thought it could usefully go here.

On Saturday 7 December, I will be running a short afternoon session on the history of the Old Bailey for the WEA Petts Wood and Orpington Branch. If anyone down that way wishes to come along, you are very welcome. Details are below www.wea.org.uk/courses/huma...

Delighted that the workshop Law and History: Sources and Approaches is now available as an online resource. If you are a lawyer interested in history or a historian interested in law, this is for you. Enjoy watching! #LegalHistory

💃 🕺

Really pleased to announce the launch of a thoroughly updated version of Locating London's Past: locatinglondon.org - new functionality, better mapping, cleaner data. @ihr.bsky.social @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social

Nobody likes it when the server flakes out, but at least we give you cute bugs to look at till it comes back.

And modest. 😉

Putting together a list of digital archives for my research methods students to consult as they consider what topics to write their research papers on, but it's heavily US focused. Can fellow historians help me add some variety? 🗃️

you know that I LOVE @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social so much that my students make fun of me about it

I have 'reviewed' the recently updated Old Bailey Online after 20 years in the public domain for the London Journal. Link works 50 times for those who would like to read what I had to say. Everybody knows about this iconic resource, but as it moves into its third decade new challenges will emerge.

We also think the Old Bailey statistical search pages are much improved, with more visualisation options, and links below to all the trials that contribute to a particular graph or table. This is a multi-line chart of all subcategories of theft, by year. www.oldbaileyonline.org/search/stati...

As part of the latest update, the OBO bibliography, which is maintained as a Zotero library, has been substantially updated. Browse on the site from here www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/biblio... or more searchably on Zotero www.zotero.org/groups/34674... (the latter might have a few newer items too)

Miaow. 😹

Usually I'm crabby about updates to beloved, oft-used online history resources, but the Old Bailey team seems to have made it genuinely better! The initial scatterplot visualisation when you search for anything is very snazzy and actually really helpful. www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/whats-...

What's proximity searching and why is it great that we've got it back? Thanks to the Internet Archive, you can find out here web.archive.org/web/20061029...

A startling scatter graph via the new version of the Old Bailey Online: there were a lot of coining offences in c19th London, and surprisingly few in the c18th: www.oldbaileyonline.org/search/keywo... #History #DigitalHistory #MonetaryCrime

We discovered the earliest ever professional tattooer in England in this database. ♥️

For Zoterophiles: the OBO translator is not working and will need significant rewriting. I'm looking at it but it'll take me a little while to get my head round it. (If you have the expertise I lack, do feel free to take it on...)

A note for #DigitalHumanities people. The API has also been totally overhauled; if you're using it for anything it'll be borked. New documentation here: www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/api

Oh yeah baby 💃🕺

Hello Bluesky! I’m new on here and looking forward to chatting (mostly!) about historical murder cases, Victorian detectives and the history of forensic science. Do let me know if you’re interested in these topics and I will follow you 🔎

How do we know what eggs cost in the 18th century? People stole them, and Courts would list the prices of stolen goods. Here are some examples from @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social From these, we can see that 60 eggs are about 4 shillings.

Unopened 18th-century love letters to French sailors read for first time Letters from loved ones of captured ship’s crew during seven years’ war lay forgotten for centuries 🗃 #skystorians #c18th

Up to £1000 for research and events via the Social History Society Joint BME Small Grants Scheme. Deadline Dec 1st socialhistory.org.uk/funding/bme-...

In 1730 a guy was on trial for beating a man to death with a unicorn horn. Yup... a unicorn horn. It was probably a narwhal or walrus tusk. It's by far the weirdest trial I've ever seen in @oldbaileyonline.bsky.social #c18th Old Bailey Online www.oldbaileyonline....

'Under the colour of conjuring' - a new post on frauds, fakes, and magic in the Court of Star Chamber. legalhistorymiscellany.com/2023/10/31/c...

Yes we're a nosy bunch, but always interested in what you've been getting up to on the website.

*burnishes halo*

Privileged to have had Professor @elainefarrell.bsky.social and Dr Leanne McCormick deliver an outstanding Royal Historical Society lecture for us about their internationally renowned Bad Bridget project tonight at University of Hertfordshire. Keep an eye out for the article version, people!

Inspired by @bethanyqualls.bsky.social 's 18th Centuryist feed, I made a 19th Centuryists one. For all things 19th-century. Use #c19th, #19thC, or #c19 for posts on topics from around the globe: literary, history, political philosophy, fashion, material culture! bsky.app/profile/did:...

Read all about the Annie Tugwell anonymous letters here: www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...

Hefty girls wanted for police force. THEY MUST BE HEFTY.

Hey BlueSky did you know if you work on 19thC materials & have a dataset we would be happy to review & maybe publish it so other scholars can see your data & maybe work with it, too? c19datacollective.com please share!

Our project Living with Machines funded a series of digital residencies to support work using one of ur datasets or tools/workflows. This is a blog about the first of those by Yann Ryan on his fantastic online guide to accessing and analysing newspaper data livingwithmachines.ac.uk/lwm-digital-...

Do come along! All welcome to attend our forthcoming Royal Historical Society Sponsored Lecture by noted historical superstars @elainefarrell.bsky.social & Dr Leanne McCormick on Monday 16 October 2023, 17.30-1900. Tickets are free and available via this link: www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/new...

So what have you been researching on the website lately?

Warning: a very, VERY addictive website detailing medieval homicides in London, Oxford and York - maps, stories, stats and all. Such a beautifully executed (pun intended) project. medievalmurdermap.co.uk 💀🗡️🎓