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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 16d

Also published this week in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'

"Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography", by Alana Harris & Laura Mitchison bit.ly/4gH9e0f

What are the ethics of historical research using asylum photography?

First page of new TRHS article: 'Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography'

Abstract in full
‘Us and Them’ is a community history project and artistic collaboration exploring physical and intellectual disability and mental illness, in the past and present. It is part of a broader initiative to open out wider conversations about the history of psychiatric care in Epsom (Surrey, UK) and to explore ways in which medical histories, creative engagement strategies and oral history praxis can illuminate the instability of contemporary understandings of ‘healthy minds’ and ‘normative bodies’. This article charts our recent reuse of asylum photography and the restaging of wet-plate collodion portrait making, opening out key ethical questions about our complicity as consumers of historical sources, the role of re-enactment and empathy, and the place of the haptic and the ludic in exposing the porous and precarious boundaries between ableism and disability. Exploring our own vulnerabilities and solidarities in co-producing a public history project with our disabled artist collaborators, it offers insight into our evolving ‘micro ethics’, foregrounds lived experience perspectives, and offers some initial thoughts on ways to rethink critically some core tenets of oral history methodology.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · 21d

Can’t wait to read this Matt - and I’ll be at the event too. Look forward to seeing you then!

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · 21d

Any excuse! It’s so wonderful isn’t it?

Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · 22d

Yes! Every Friday. Perhaps with those involved reading aloud from the volumes as they promenade through city & town centres…

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · 22d

A line of Yale University librarians carry rare 18C volumes from the old library to the brand new Sterling Memorial Library building in July 1930. I love the way library staff turned this humdrum task into a celebratory piece of street theatre!! #WeekLforLines #AlphabetChallenge 💙📚

A line of more than a dozen librarians carrying books across a street towards the entrance of a gothic stone structure. A couple of passers by look on. The black & white photo is from the collections at the Yale University Library.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · 29d

From the 1930s, Britain’s #PubLibs were increasingly staffed by female librarians - usually overseen by a male manager. This fab photo (from the archives at Havering Libraries) shows a group of smartly-dressed assistants shelving books at the shiny new Upminster Library building in Essex c.1963 💙📚

A black & white photo shows 6 white women, young-looking, squeezed into a narrow bay or corridor in a library. Three of the group are holding armfuls of hardback books; the remaining three appear to be replacing volumes on a stack of shelves on the left of the photo. All are looking directly at the photographer and appear cheerful.

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

The Society of Antiquaries of London @antiquaries.bsky.social · Sep 4

Join us on 12 Sept for a free evening which includes performances that re-voice & unravel the Magna Charter’s most famous clauses, has creative workshops using oak gall ink, features longsword demonstrations, personalised crown workshop, dressing up, sweets & more! www.sal.org.uk/event/age-of...

The seal of Richard de Clare, featuring a knight on horseback.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Sep 7

The corrugated plastic, lovingly tacked on with pins…the hand-drawn sign, the colour scheme carried across from the unit to the signage…it’s a real labour of love.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Sep 7

Railway reads. Found near the train track not far from Lincoln station 💙📚

A bright blue shelving unit holding a few paperbacks. One half of the unit is covered with a tatty piece of corrugated plastic. A hand-made sign pinned to to top of the unit says ‘Railway reads’.

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Sarah Wise @misssarahwise.bsky.social · Aug 13

My autumn adult ed Sept-Dec courses are now booking.
Here’s what I’m up to:

1/ Borderlines of ‘Madness’ in 19th-Century Fiction, the Mary Ward Centre, East London, starts Tues 23 Sept, 6.30pm, 6 weeks.
Includes Charlotte Bronte, Poe, Wilkie Collins and Gogol www.marywardcentre.ac.uk/course-detai...

Borderlines of Madness - Mary Ward Centre

We will explore various themes related to insanity and altered states of consciousness by examining a number of 19th-century works of fiction.

www.marywardcentre.ac.uk

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Aug 31

Yes, those Victorian & Edwardian clubs were built on firm foundations! The American Women’s Club in London has moved location a couple of times but is still going strong.

Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Aug 31

The American Women’s Club was a philanthropic organisation set up in London in 1898. Members incl. the wives of Herbert Hoover & Gordon Selfridge. In 1916, a clubroom opened in Mayfair complete with Italian-style gardens, a ballroom with a huge pipe organ (v fashionable at this time) & a library 💙📚

A black and white postcard showing a small, wood-panelled library with books along one wall. There are three or four armchairs arranged around the room and a rectangle table displaying journals and magazines. The postcard dates from around 1920.

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Garstang Museum of Archaeology @garstangmuseum.bsky.social · Aug 2

Our #Objectoftheday is this ancient Egyptian little blue faience seal in the form of a crouching oryx gazelle. Interestingly the stamp on the underside also depicts an oryx . It would have been used to mark ownership.

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#ancientegypt #gazelle #sealstamp #museum

The the underside of the stamp also depicting an oryx

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Society for the Study of Labour History @sslh.bsky.social · Aug 14

Come and join us for Chartism Day 2025. All welcome; booking required.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chartism-d...

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · Jul 28

Come for the new history of 1920s and 1930s London, stay for the discount...

Waterstones are offering 25% off pre-orders Songs of Seven Dials this week: just enter SUMMER25 at checkout.

Book is out on 21 Oct – in time for autumnal nights & Christmas gifts.

www.waterstones.com/book/songs-o...

Waterstones' promotional flyer for Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London. The flyer includes an image of the book and the discount code you can use to preorder it on the Waterstones website: SUMMER25

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 26

Hopefully the celebrations can begin now

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 26

They’re gorgeous. Happy Birthday!

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 26

In 1969, ‘shapely’ library assistant Deborah Kerr failed to bring the Miss Book World title home to Upminster Library in Essex. Never mind. Losing the contest gave Deborah more time to focus on her studies. #PubLibs💙📚
📷 Havering Express, 19 March 1969, from Havering Libraries - Local Studies

A cutting of a newspaper article alongside a photo of a smiling young woman. The title of the article is ‘Deborah shelves title bid’.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 26

This looks excellent. Would you mind reposting the event with an active link and/or info on the location? Thanks!

Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 24

WE LOVE HOSTING YOU KATE!!! It’s always a delight XX

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 20

I’m afraid I was superficially focused on the moustache and the big books. Yes. Putnam devised his own Library of Congress Classification that’s still in use today…

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 20

Ha ha, yes, definitely.

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 20

The female gaze
Herbert Putnam, c.1900
Librarian of Congress (1899-1939)
💙📚

A well-dressed man stands before a glazed bookshelf. He holds a large volume, open, in his right hand. His left hand turns a page. He looks directly to the camera.

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Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen

Georgina Wilson @georginaemw.bsky.social · Jul 14

Applications for 2 artists' residencies now open at Thin Ice Press! Deadline 25th July www.thinicepress.org/research/pri...

print matters artist’s residencies — Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print, offering memberships, workshops, equipment hire, events & exhibition space.

Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print welcomes applications for two artist’s residencies, to take place across five days between August and September 2025 as part of our research project: Print ...

www.thinicepress.org

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Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Jul 13

Meet John Mullins, the mildly terrifying chief librarian of Birmingham Free Library from 1858 to 1898. Mullins was famous for his Daily Routine Book. The book listed 100 checks the library staff were expected to complete each morning before opening the reference room doors to the public #PubLibs 💙📚

A nineteenth-century drawing of a bearded, bespectacled man seated at a desk, flicking through the pages of a slim volume. This is John Mullins in his library office. The image is taken from from Thomas Kelly ‘Books for the People’ (1977).

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