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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · 5d

Choosing to read the potential increase in one dollar coin circulation as a sign Trump is warming to the U.S. becoming Canada's 4th territory.

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Reposted by Thomas Larkin

History at Bristol @uobrishistory.bsky.social · 8d

Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 29

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I've then combined the datasets so that all GPS points fall within the attributes table for the lots with which they align. The effect is that we can light up the lots that contain Carl Smith data and embed links to the archive, providing an alt. spatial/temporal means to search the index!

Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 29

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Eric has also converted the dates into integer values so that we can isolate cards by date range, as many cover a few decades of history. I have then overlaid this data on the MHHK maps that fall within that date range (here's 1866).

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 29

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Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.

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Reposted by Thomas Larkin

Vivian Kong @viviankonghk.bsky.social · Aug 28

We are recruiting a Postdoc Research Associate (Oral History) at the Hong Kong History Centre at Bristol! Please feel free to circulate to any friends and colleagues, and/or get in touch if you're interested.

Hong Kong History Centre @hongkonghistory.bsky.social · Aug 27

𝐉𝐨𝐛 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲

Closing Date: 24 Sep 2025

The postholder will be a core member of this exciting initiative and will bring oral history experience and skills to the Centre.

Details:
tinyurl.com/HKHCRA

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 22

Wasn't totally satisfied with last week's map transformations, so I've been playing around with Thin Plate Spline transformations on the larger maps this week using the same reference points. Instantly better look, with much more accurate coastlines for Hong Kong and Kowloon.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 12

The interns' primary role is to assist in creating a suite of georeferenced maps of Hong Kong from 1841-1997 using provided archival materials.

Their secondary role will be to enter data into selected maps from a variety of photographic and textual archival sources related to Hong Kong land use.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 12

Candidates should have some background in late-19th/early-20th-century Chinese, British imperial, or colonial history, an interest in mapping, spatial history, and/or historical geography, and be in good academic standing. No prior experience with mapping software necessary.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 12

"Mapping Historic Hong Kong explores how digital mapping tools and new technologies can be integrated with historical research to encourage urban heritage and an appreciation for histories of urban space and/or place, while benefiting both academic researchers and the wider public."

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 12

Applications are open for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship, and we're looking for two undergraduate students to participate in the MHHK project next summer at UPEI. Internships are fully funded. Deadline closes 17 September.

Project ID is 49248

www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...

Embark on a Global Research Journey with Globalink Internship

Join Mitacs Globalink Research Internship for Students. Expand your academic horizons with international research experiences.

www.mitacs.ca

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 10

Kowloon also appears to have been a rush job or afterthought in many of these earlier maps. Its shoreline is highly approximate, requires a lot of manipulation, and no two maps that I've found from the era are quite the same in where they place things.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 10

These maps have given me MHHK's first territory map. Ordnance Mapping of mid-nineteenth century HK proved really accurate to a point, but precision fell away once coastlines get involved. The result is that the maps have been easy to centre, but very difficult to precisely align along the shore.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 10

Spent bits of the last week correcting new maps pulled from the HKPRO. Some truly interesting ones of the development of The Peak and Cheung Chau. I've pulled a series that I'm excited about as well that surveys Kowloon, NT, and Sai Wan village lots (still to be processed).

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Aug 5

Academic hack: if I split my time between PEI in the winter and HK in the summer, I can gain almost another month of forced vacation on account of weather.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jul 4

Coastline change, for comparison.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jul 4

This week's MHHK update. Stonecutter's Island, reclamation projects, and the villages to the west of Kowloon (1964). Not sure how accurate the source map was on rural lots and buildings, so will have to check these against the far more detailed large-scale surveys from the following decades.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 27

Today’s best archival find is Caleb Cushing trying to figure out a suitable Chinese name. He eventually settled on 顧聖, but I think 鼓聲 (drumbeat) should have stuck. Would have looked better on the Treaty of Wangxia and the dozens of red calling cards he had written up.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 26

Discounts, friends!

Columbia University Press @columbiaup.bsky.social · Jun 26

Our books in U.S. History focus on shedding new light on the evolution of economic, political, and social systems in the U.S. and how international forces have shaped—and been shaped by—it. Browse more at: buff.ly/JR4AqnU #SHAFR2025 #USHistory #USForeignRelations

Save 20% with code cup20SM at cup.columbia.edu. Featured titles: United States and the World. It includes the covers of Days of Opportunity, To Stand with Palestine, Smoke on the Water, The China Firm, Fighting on the Cultural Front, and Chinese Encounters with America.

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Reposted by Thomas Larkin

Hardeep Dhillon @migrantherstory.bsky.social · Jun 16

publication day.

the history of racial violence against immigrants in the early 20th c. remains as important to history as it does to our present

academic.oup.com/jah/article/...

With many thanks to those who supported me on this journey.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 25

This is a fantastic article and such an important project! It sets a high bar for how colonial heritage projects and co-creation should be conducted. MBC also rejects extractive research practices through its efforts to bring research back to the community.

Congrats on the pub @brebisz.bsky.social!

Beth Rebisz @brebisz.bsky.social · Jun 25

🔊 New Article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @memorystudies.bsky.social

Reconstructing the legacies of colonial detention: Digital heritage, memory, and the Mau Mau Emergency, 1952–1960 - Bethany Rebisz, 2025

This article examines the legacies of colonial detention in Kenya and considers the adaptive digital heritage practices used by the Museum of British Colonialis...

journals.sagepub.com

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 24

Archives imitate life.

“I am still in Washington and for most of the time we are sweltering in tropical heat”

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 23

Love visiting a country where the museums have signs reminding you that you can’t bring your gun along.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 20

This week's MHHK. So many lots to fill. Is the task hypnotic? Yes. Is it therapeutic? No. Have I watched two HBO miniseries while doing it? Absolutely.

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Thomas Larkin @thomaslarkin.bsky.social · Jun 19

While I don't fully agree with the periodization (there are parts of the last 5 months that feel more at home in the Smoot-Hawley era), Immerwahr draws some important comparisons - and also helps us think through the puzzle of Trump's awkward historical self-comparisons.

Now someone do Lincoln.

Marc Palen @mwpalen.bsky.social · Jun 19

Daniel Immerwahr with a timely @newyorker.com piece on "Tariff Man" Trump's William McKinley infatuation. Especially one for all you historians of the Gilded Age.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Why Donald Trump Is Obsessed with a President from the Gilded Age

William McKinley led a country defined by tariffs and colonial wars. There’s a reason Trump is so drawn to his legacy—and so determined to bring the liberal international order to an end.

www.newyorker.com

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