Ok, this is next level archiving #ArchiveHour

Women of 1000 || Meg Hyland@womenof1000.bsky.social · 2w ago

My favourite archive exterior has got to be Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick.

Keir Starmer is a bad person who used his power to make the United Kingdom a more unequal place and dismantle the possibility of opposing oppression and genocide, and to drive trans people from public life. If you think he is decent, I have news for you about your own moral judgement.

Can anyone read 17th-century shorthand? 🖊 Coming across shorthand is a good reminder that the volumes of secretary hand that we find are only half the story. Many official records would have been written up from shorthand or other rough notes. 📷 COL/CA/05/02/001 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

Some snark from 1542: asked her age by the inquisitor, Ana de Leão responded that "she did not know because she did not see herself being born" (nam sabia porque nam se vyu nacer) but admitted she was probably 19, "more or less."

📍St Bartholomew-the-Great The oldest parish church in London at over 900 years old, it started life as an Augustinian priory and was lucky enough to escape the Great Fire of 1666 My favourite feature is the brutalist tower of the Barbican peeking out behind, highlighting London's blended history.

The NHS prescription cost is capped at £9.90, but what did an apothecary charge in 1678? 💊 The bill from Oct 1678 for the treatment of Elizabeth Noel includes 'a cordial potion' and 'six purging pills', coming to £1 3s 3d, nearly £200 today. 📷 COL/CA/05/01/0001, @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

Two matching sides of an apprenticeship indenture from 1673 While we have thousands of indentures, we so rarely have the two matching sides! This apprentice, William Pott from Cumberland, requested to be made free early as his master was ill 📷 COL/CA/05/01/0001 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

The 1678 poll tax 📜 Unlike other poll taxes from this period, the returns for 1678 included the names of servants! This return from the ward of Bassishaw shows the house of Sir John Stamp, including his wife, his three maid servants, his coachman and his footman. 📷 COL/CHD/LA/03/067/003

This engraving, based on a print by William Hogarth, featuring Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn with a *very salty* Cardinal Wolsey on the right absolutely sends me 📷 Special collections, @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

👉🏼 Manicules always fascinate me, as we never know for sure why the scribe drew it. Did he need to come back to this page? Was this entry particularly important? Was it part of his own indexing or tracking techniques? 📷 COL/CA/01/01/088, @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

I spent the weekend devouring this book and I have never read something that so perfectly captures the experience of trying to recover the lives of women from the past. The frustration, excitement and obsession that come with trying to fill the silences and gaps left in the archive…

I wonder how the repentant John Rand would have felt knowing that his grovelling petition asking for forgiveness from the City of London was later used as paper to make rough notes? 🤔 📷 COL/CA/05/03, @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

Noted, thanks Mel. We should probably hold off on making any firm decisions about REF2029 until we've heard from the bloke who made Angry Birds.

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Peer-reviewed papers are ‘old hat science’, says millionaire investor. Candy Crush businessman Mel Morris says universities “must embrace AI” to transform into economic powerhouses. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...

We still have a few remaining tickets for our STAR workshop on Wednesday, book your ticket below 👇

The London Archives @thelondonarchives.bsky.social · 3mo ago

⭐️ Our final Skills Training in Archival Research (STAR) workshop of the 2025-26 year is on 3rd June! ⭐️ Are you doing archival research for a degree or work? Or just want to learn more about how to research at TLA? Then come along! Book your place using the link 👇

📍St Lawrence Jewry, City of London One of my hobbies this year is to visit every church in the City of London. Where better to start than the official church of the City of London Corporation and perhaps one of the grandest churches in the Square Mile.

“I’ll just check a reference really quick…” 🫠 These are files of actions from the Mayor’s Court in the City of London. The court dealt with all sorts of cases, from apprenticeship disputes to debt recovery and merchant law. 📷 CLA/024/04/005, @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

One of my favourite finds nosying in boxes recently is this *tiny* book with the most beautiful end papers. It’s an ‘Almanach de Goth’, a directory of European royalty and nobility from 1775. 📷 A/ATB/258 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

⭐️ Our final Skills Training in Archival Research (STAR) workshop of the 2025-26 year is on 3rd June! ⭐️ Are you doing archival research for a degree or work? Or just want to learn more about how to research at TLA? Then come along! Book your place using the link 👇

Skills Training in Archival Research (STAR) Workshop

Join us for a hands-on workshop designed to help postgraduate students and researchers make the most of archival collections.

eventbrite.co.uk

An awful day in the office if you’re a seventeenth-century clerk… @thelondonarchives.bsky.social #Archives #EarlyModernHistory

For the @thelondonarchives.bsky.social exhibition 'Londoners on Trial', I researched the story of Jenny Diver, an 18th-century pickpocket who was transported twice and still returned to London! Read more about her exploits in my blog post 👇🏼 www.thelondonarchives.org/blog/jenny-d...

In the 17th century, the people of Farringdon Within had a bone to pick with the City of London, complaining of adverts giving ‘intelligence of a safe & speedy cure for a clap & pox’ acting as a ‘a great encouragement… to giddy and unthinking youths’ 📷 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social - COL/CA/05/02

#OTD in 1536, Anne Boleyn was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. This Victorian print reimagines Anne’a few weeks while imprisoned, with incredibly vivid colours. The last photo is from a visit to Hever Castle, Anne’s childhood home. 📷 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social - SC/GL/GRA/005/098

I’m back with more burnt archives! 🔥 This register from the late C17th records admissions to the freedom of the City of London, damaged by fire in 1786. We keep it to show the effects of fire on parchment, but also because one day we may be able to read it. @thelondonarchives.bsky.social

I don't think people fully understand yet just how fragile university-hosted digital resources are after external funding ends (especially if the lead academic retires or moves or is made redundant).

IrishPhilosophy@irishphilosophy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Does anyone know what's happened to the Irish Legislation Database? When I go to www.qub.ac.uk/ild/ I get a not found message and a search isn't yielding anything. @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social @qubhistory.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social Panicking just a little here...

📍Matera, Italy

While I admit the Uffizi Gallery is full of iconic art, I was enamoured by the ceiling…

Quite something to think we are staring down the barrel of a crisis which will end high level research and teaching as something spread evenly across the country's cities and towns, accessible to all, and both UK and devolved governments just don't seem to particularly care?

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4mo ago

News I'm hearing from across universities is disastrous. The sector has been falling apart for months, but the process is now continuously speeding up. Outside a small handful of institutions, HE as we've known it has basically zero future. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Booksellers’ Staircase, built in 1480. 📍Rouen Cathedral, France

Although not relevant to my research, the scribbles left by clerks on the endpapers and back covers of volumes are always the most fascinating. Quick sums, lists, and handwriting practice left by City of London clerks in official records ✍🏼 📷 @thelondonarchives.bsky.social - CLA/002/05/012

The Elizabethan Hall @middletemple.bsky.social completed in 1574. The Hall has a double hammerbeam roof, and a minstrels gallery. I was lucky enough to visit the hall before it was closed earlier this year for inspection and preservation, which takes place every 10 years.