Dr Leona Watson (formerly Skelton)

Local timber dominated pre-industrial construction: Insights from archival and dendrochronological data In pre-modern Europe, timber was notoriously difficult and costly to transport on land, therefore it is usually assumed that ordinary buildings – exce…

Where did ordinary building timber come from before 🚂 made transport cheap? In our new paper, we analyzed 1231 dendrodated constructions and coeval archival data to show that timber was most probably sourced locally. (But watch out for 🌲🌳 floating!) #envhist
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

View from bridge if River Wensum; blue sky reflected in water. Right bank with woody vegetation; left bank with grass and trees.

The winding River #Wensum from Bishop Bridge #Norwich - "with an antique bridge communicating with a long and narrow suburb, flanked on either side by rich meadows of the brightest green..."
George Borrow, Lavengro (1851); author of Wild #Wales (1862).
#envhist #literature #England

YouTube video by History of British Columbia History of The Spiral Tunnels

History of The Spiral Tunnels

"In this episode we explore the history of the Canadian Pacific Railways construction through the Kicking Horse Pass in the Rocky Mountains."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wci2...

#cdnhist #bchist #envhist #envirotech

‘THE LIGHT OF DAY WAS OUR COMRADE’: ECOLOGIES OF FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND THE CHALLENGE OF UNFAMILIAR ENVIRONMENTS In this blog, originally published as an Environment and History ‘Snapshot’ in August 2024, Dimitrios Bormpoudakis uses the case of forced exile in Greek islands to illustrate how ecolo…

We’ve added a blog post, being a recent ‘Snapshot’ from ‘Environment and History’; Dimitrios Bormpoudakis on ‘“The Light of Day Was Our Comrade”: Ecologies of Forced Displacement and the Challenge of Unfamiliar Environments’. whitehorsepress.blog/2025/04/02/t... @eandhwhp.bsky.social #envhist

Environment and History 31.2 is available online now! This is a special issue entitled 'Sensing the World: Exploring Sensory Histories of the Environment,' edited by @gpetrick.bsky.social & @gfitz.bsky.social liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/whpeh/31/2 #envhist @eseh.bsky.social

Introducing Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts - Railway Work, Life & Death Introduction to a new piece of work, looking at historical railway staff accidents in the Portsmouth and Havant area.

Currently taking a roundabout route home, involving passing through Havant.

Also reading some of the Portsmouth Area Railway Pasts project preliminary research - about #Havant railway staff, from members of the Havant Local History Group!

www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/introducing-...

If you're interested in early modern meteorology, barometers, naval battles or fish, then come along to my hybrid lecture (link in comments) @unibern.bsky.social !

📆 25/03 🕐 18:15 CET

@northernenvhistory.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social @whitehorsepress.bsky.social @eseh.bsky.social

We are still accepting submissions for Snapshots! Reach out to deputy editor Tyson Luneau (@tluneau.bsky.social / tyson.luneau@cortland.edu) with any questions or proposals!

X has been used to represent love and kisses for centuries. But how did it start? While the origins of the cross as a kiss are still debated, the answer likely lies in the letters of working-class lovers like these.

theconversation.com/x-has-been-u...

Call for submissions!

Snapshots are short essays which focus on environmental challenges of the 21st century, looking to historical perspectives to inform a more sustainable world.

See the attached call & send a pitch to @tluneau.bsky.social, deputy editor (tyson.luneau@cortland.edu) #envhist

Tyson's first activity will be to devise a new call for the journal's popular editor-reviewed short 'Snapshots' section – so please feel free to start hitting him with your ideas! Contact info here: www.whpress.co.uk/EH.html

A warm welcome to 'Environment & History's new Outreach Editor, Alex A. Hibberts. Alex (Uni. of London) is an environmental historian of the cultural history of environmental change, among other areas; and a great new addition to the team!
@eandhwhp.bsky.social @hibbertsalex.bsky.social #envhist

I'm looking for scholarship on place-based methodology & the value of visiting and experiencing spaces/environments we write about. Any recommendations? Some of this is for a grant proposal but it's also a pedagogical idea I've been interested in recently 📗 #envhist #history #envhum

Manchester was one of the first British cities to repudiate the first generation of tramways - the electrified system opened in 1901 (under municipal control) having started life as horse drawn tramways in 1877. By the late 1920s the city decided to replace the tram system with buses - and, although the Department felt put upon, trolleybuses. The trams would most likely have gone c1941/2 but for the outbreak of war - it took another decade to finally scrap the system. Now, of course, Manchester is in the vanguard of re-introducing electric traction to the UK in the form of Metrolink. The cover commemorating the end of the system on 10 January 1949 shows the whole gamut of varying forms of transportation that formed part of the history of the tram (including horse drawn ones) - the last illustration is of the last type of cars built for the city, known as Pilcher cars, many of which saw secondhand service in other towns after Manchester scrapped them. All text and illustrations are in white on a blue background and the city's coat of arms is also shown

On this day, 10 Jan 1949, Manchester finally managed to abandon its first generation electric tramways - a process started over a decade earlier but delayed by war. The brochure commemorating the event. @showmeasign.online #transport #manchester

↘️ flic.kr/p/absDCF

York in 1858

Enlarge this image to really appreciate York's transport past. The city's railway station history started with a makeshift wooden station. The first permanent one, designed by George Townsend Andrews, opened in 1841 inside the City Walls on Toft Green. There area locomotives all over if you

One for the design nerds: John K Peck traces the history of Berlin's public transport map designs…

www.slowtravelberlin.com/mapping-berl...

Colour photograph of British Rail era electric slam door multiple unit stock in sidings in an urban environment, under a blue cloudy sky.

COMING SOON!

The next @ihr.bsky.social Transport & Mobility History seminar:

Building a British Rail in Britain: Advocating For a Nationalised Industry 1960-90
Lewis Smith, Brunel University

13 Feb 2025, 17.30 UK, online

#Railway200

Booking free - all welcome:
https://buff.ly/4gT5fwT

This is the first pocket edition of the diagrammatic style of Underground map designed by H C Beck. The main features of this diagram are the use of 45 degree angles and diamonds to illustrate interchange stations. All the lines are shown in their entirety except the District line which is only shown as far as Mile End, the rest of the stations eastbound are listed to Southend. The Piccadilly line extension from Enfield West to Cockfosters is shown as opening Midsummer 1933. The logo on this map is a red and black roundel with UndergrounD printed on the bar. The reverse of the map lists places of interest and theatres, with their closest Stations. Printed on paper.

#OnThisDay 93 years ago, the first of Harry Beck's revolutionary and iconic pocket Tube diagrams were handed out at Baker Street. Rejected at first, a limited trial run of 500 were distributed in 1932 before full adoption in 1933. @ltmuseum collection https://buff.ly/3Pygr64

New book: Ranjan Chakrabarti 's Climate, Calamity and the Wild: An Environmental History of the Bengal Delta, C.1737-1947

reurl.cc/RLoNRg
#envhist
#climate
#disaster

ESEH Summer School - ESEH CONFERENCE 2025 ESEH Summer School 2025 - applications now open for the ESEH summer school at KTH Stockholm coinciding with the Climate Histories conference.

Come join the 2025 ESEH Summer School in Environmental History, to be held in and around Stockholm on the topic of Anthropocene Histories!

#sts #eseh #kth #anthropocene

'Environment & History' has a new Deputy Editor (with Leona Watson now co-editing alongside David Moon). Tyson Luneau (SUNY Cortland) is an environmental historian of colonial North Africa, among other areas; a fantastic addition to the team! @eandhwhp.bsky.social @tluneau.bsky.social #envhist

Journal of Energy History 2024/1 (No 12) Black and Green? Environmental Histories of the Oil Industry

Very happy to see this #specialissue on #oilhist and #envhist out in the world: stm.cairn.info/journal-of-e....
With great articles by @renaudbecot.bsky.social, Reynaldo de los Reyes Patiño, @mattinbiglari.bsky.social, Randal L. Hall, Jelena Stanković, @michielbron.bsky.social, and Robert Lifset.

#Sedburgh (Cumbria) means ‘flat hill’ in Old Norse. This 9th/10th century finger ring was found by a farmer digging a drainage ditch. It is a beautiful rare type made from gold hoops incised with grooves, triangles and lozenge shapes. #dales countryside #museum #medievalsky #cumbria #vikingsky

Painting in a medieval manuscript. A man sits on a stool with his hands raised towards a small fire in the fireplace. His boots are off and one foot also raised towards the fire. He is looking back as a woman places a towel on his back. There are bits of snow on the floor in front of him and behind her.

The February Labour of the month in MSL/1910/2385; NAL:f2r (© Victoria and Albert Museum, London), a woman dries off a man sitting by the fire. She appears to have snow on her boots as well.

Ivory netsuke of an octopus, with wide eyes and a mouth that appears to be going "oooooooooooohhhhhhh"

Today's museum find:

An 18th-century Japanese netsuke of an octopus, carved from ivory. Part of the Met collection, but not currently on display

Image Attribution: The Met (Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891, Object 91.1.966)

#octopus #MuseumFind #18thc 📜🗃️

NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service) The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

While I can't confirm anything at this point, it looks like the National Park Service has taken down web pages for:

National Japanese American Memorial
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial
Stonewall National Monument

www.nps.gov/index.htm 🗃️

Hidden Viking History w/ Eleanor Barraclough In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara is joined by historian, BBC broadcaster and writer, Eleanor Barraclough. They discuss Eleanor’s new book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age.

Another great #podcast episode on Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria: this time, Viking historian Eleanor Barraclough talks about her new book, EMBERS OF THE HANDS: HIDDEN HISTORIES OF THE VIKING AGE. 🗃️ 💙📚 #medieval www.carasantamaria.com/podcast/elea...

Oceanic history: Developing a "single ocean" global trade network By Bram Hubbell Bridging oceans We grow up thinking that history happens on land. We’re taught that societies are land-based and that oceans are borders and barriers. For example, in “America the Beau...

I wrote about oceans as bridges in world history
🗺️🗃️
community.oerproject.com/b/blog/posts...