Hard to beat a day spent unfurling long-furled geological wall charts held in the @theul.bsky.social, from painted Humboldtian vistas to a full set of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's diagrams of extinct animals. A treasure trove.

Lectureship in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds; full time; ongoing contract. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Lectureship in Creative Writing

Ranked 29th in the world (QS 2026), the School of English at the University of Leeds operates at the leading edge of recent developments in literary studies and creative practice. Located within the F...

jobs.leeds.ac.uk

Thought I'd have a look at a few Darwin related things in Edinburgh following the fantastic HSS/ESHS conference this week, including the grave of Charles Darwin (1758-78), a medical student in the city and son of Erasmus Darwin, and a memorial to his more famous nephew.

That was a fantastic conference in beautiful Edinburgh! #ESHS-HSS A huge Thank You to all, from the organisers to the venues' staff, for making a gathering of this challenging size possible! 🙏 Safe travels home and feel free to share your impressions and highlights below.

This is wonderful and was digitised this year with the support of a Collections-based Research in the Humanities grant from the Isaac Newton Trust and Trinity College. cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-...

Treasures of the Library : Naturalist's calendar

Revett Sheppard (1779–1830) was a clergyman, naturalist and early member of the Linnean Society, but when he began his ‘Naturalist’s

cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University Library@theul.bsky.social · 4w ago

Many years ago, a snake shed its skin in Norfolk. A clergyman and naturalist, Revett Sheppard, found it and pasted it into his ‘Naturalist’s Calendar’. Sheppard (1779-1830) began his ‘Naturalist’s Calendar’ in 1798, when he was a young student in Cambridge. #WorldSnakeDay MS Add.9839/22/1

We have made the news! #eshs-hss (overlooking the blandly sweeping statements made about Edinburgh and #histSTM) www.heraldscotland.com/news/2627512...

Thousands of academics descend on Scottish capital for 'landmark' event

The five-day conference is being held at Edinburgh University, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), and the National Museum of…

heraldscotland.com

British Library's EThOS platform for its online database of 650,000 doctoral theses back online. Hooray!

EThOS records restored

We are pleased to share that EThOS (E-Theses Online Service) is now available again following restoration work after the cyber-attack.

bl.uk

Also pleased to get to Axminster, just up the road from Lyme, where a local historian assured me that this was William Buckland's birthplace and childhood home. William Daniel Conybeare's huge rectory, next to the parish church, was just across the road from the original Axminster carpet factory.

Really enjoyed finally seeing the new(ish) Mary Anning statue in Lyme Regis last week.

Where’s Andy Burnham going?

(Free) tickets are still available for this event today...

Jon Topham@jontopham.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm looking forward to talking at Leeds Public Library next week about their copy of William Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, recently returned after a 50-year absence. "Who Read Our Overdue Book? A Geological Bestseller at the Dawn of the Victorian Age." libraries.leeds.gov.uk/events/who-r...

Please help spread the news far and wide! We have a new, full-time, permanent Lecturer in Global History of Science job @stsucl.bsky.social Don't be fooled by the application of deadline of only 9 June 2026. This is an open search #histsci #skystorians www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

ucl.ac.uk

I'm looking forward to talking at Leeds Public Library next week about their copy of William Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, recently returned after a 50-year absence. "Who Read Our Overdue Book? A Geological Bestseller at the Dawn of the Victorian Age." libraries.leeds.gov.uk/events/who-r...

Surprised by a leveret in the garden this afternoon. I kept my distance, so hope it and its mother weren't too disturbed by the encounter.

Thinking of doing a Masters degree with us? @leedsprhs.bsky.social has just announced some school-based Masters scholarships to add to the innumerable scholarships offered by the University of Leeds. Check it out: ahc.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/n...

The joy of having grandchildren!

Good place to have lunch

What a day!

Looking for an intellectual treat? @petermandler.bsky.social 's Ford Lectures on 'The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life' begin Thursday 22 January and continue weekly through 26 February in Oxford. #Skystorians

The James Ford Lectures in British History

The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life - Peter Mandler (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge)

history.ox.ac.uk

JOB ALERT! 3-year postdoc at @girtoncollege.bsky.social - research anything you like in History, Archaeology or Anthropology in a wonderful, welcoming scholarly community. PLEASE SHARE! Closes 12 January www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...

Mood.

Funny weather in Leeds this morning. The Town Hall was momentarily golden and framed by a rainbow.

Grimwith Reservoir. NOT living up to its name.

Finally, the recording has landed! If you missed @jontopham.bsky.social's inaugural lecture on "Science and religion from the ground up" back in April, you can now catch up online at mymedia.leeds.ac.uk/Mediasite/Pl.... @bshsnews.bsky.social @leedsprhs.bsky.social

BBC History Extra has chosen Vanished as one of its books of the year! Amazed and grateful that my roar has reached far further than I imagined. I was also on a podcast for them earlier this year. Link here: historyextra.supportingcast.fm/listen/histo.... www.historyextra.com/magazine/his...

Best history books 2025: BBC History Magazine’s Books of the Year

In the roster of laudable history books published in 2025, authors tackled topics as diverse as Gaza, Indian partition, extinction, medieval and Stuart monarchs – even historians themselves. Here, a p...

historyextra.com

This is an exciting find: the remains of the building used by the House of Commons as its temporary chamber between 1835 and 1851. If you want to know what that building looked like, see our short article: historyofparliament.com/2025/09/25/t...

‘A place of business’: the temporary chamber of the House of Commons, 1835-1851 - The History of Parliament

As part of our series on parliamentary buildings, Dr Kathryn Rix of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project looks at the temporary chamber used by the House

historyofparliament.com

UK Parliament@ukparliament.parliament.uk · 9mo ago

What's buried under Peers' Car Park? 🚗

Oh what a beautiful morning!

So, our concrete jungle may be deemed architecturally significant, but I definitely get more out of the heron.

Nominations are open for the BSHS Pickstone Prize 2026, recognising the best scholarly English-language book in the history of science. 📆 Deadline: 31 Jan 2026. Anyone may nominate (self-nominations welcome). Submit via our online form on the BSHS website www.bshs.org.uk/the-bshs-pic...

Don't miss out on this super talk about scientific printing by our own @edwinrose.bsky.social later today - join us either online or in person.

Leeds Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science@hpsleeds.bsky.social · 9mo ago

HPS/Centre CHoP Talk: Edwin Rose (19 Nov) Announcing HPS/Centre CHoP Talk, 19 November: Edwin Rose: A Surplus in the Sciences? Printing, Publishing and Distributing Cambridge’s first Scientific Journal, 1821-1928 Next Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 4-5pm, in the School of English (Ground Floor of…