Jon Winder

Dive into find out more about how public baths, pools, shorelines, rivers, fountains, and in New York sidewalk fire hydrants, lured overheated urbanites seeking watery coolness.

@chrisjpearson.bsky.social @chloeduteil.bsky.social

Sensing Heat, Finding Cool: The Search for Water in Summertime Paris, New York, and London, 1880–1930 Abstract. At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris, New York, and London were epicenters of urban modernity, but these cities and their inhabitants were

Our @meltingmetropolis.bsky.social article on keeping cool in summertime Paris, New York and London is free to read in the Journal of Social History. doi.org/10.1093/jsh/...

Societies & groups for historians, UK and Ireland Join the conversation

If you're looking for #history networks on BlueSky in 2026, our Starter Pack - recently updated - has details of 150 leading societies, organisations and groups active in the UK and Ireland bit.ly/4ptl0On

#Skystorians

Potentially of interest to our followers, Landscape Review’s latest issue is out and it is a special issue on Heat!

You can see the issue here: journals.lincoln.ac.nz/index.php/lr...

Calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: current programmes - RHS The Society currently invites applications for the following six schemes — open to historians across a range of career stages and backgrounds — with closing dates from 23 January to 6 March 2026. For ...

New calls for research funding: bit.ly/44d2mTb

Today we open calls for the Society's next rounds of 'Early Career Fellowship Grants' and 'Open Research Grants'. These schemes offer support for post-doc and later career historians to pursue research.

Closing dates: 6 March 2026 #Skystorians 1/2

Great to see Playthings & Playtimes published and free to read online (including my chapter on the curious place of the child in the city!)

Broken Climate, Broken Britain? Crafting a response  — Melting Metropolis Approaching the midpoint of the project, PI Chris Pearson reflects on what to do with climate brokenness.   There is a lot of talk these days about living in a ‘broken Britain’ under a ‘broken c...

Approaching the midpoint of the Melting Metropolis, project PI @chrisjpearson.bsky.social reflects on what to do with climate brokenness: www.meltingmetropolis.com/teamblog/bro...

🌟 Join us at #ESEH2025 for a special NEXTGATe event!
Failure Session: Monday 15:30, Humanities Theatre.
We reflect on our academic journeys with the wonderful Sasha Gora, @wildpasts.bsky.social & @robgioielli.bsky.social

Failure happens: what we do with it matters 🌿

#envhist
@eseh.bsky.social

Low-income and minority ethnic people in England most at risk from dangerously hot homes Exclusive: Homes are heating up as summers get hotter but least well-off are shouldering greatest risk, study finds

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This is going to be fab, hope to see lots of folk there...

Photo of Antoine Marc and Bumi Thomas with Bryony Ella's artwork My Body is a Sundail

☀️Come to a FREE Melting Metropolis event at Orleans House Gallery on #Summer #Solstice 21 June 2025: Stand of the Sun ☀️

Art, music and dance, with Bryony Ella, Bumi Thomas and Antoine Marc

Booking essential:

www.ticketsource.co.uk/richmond-art...

#climatecrisis #londonart

So excited that this project is going to be happening with us in History! Such a great job for someone too 👇

Interesting postdoc at Newcastle being advertised - oral history, archives, environment, wellbeing, with funding from @wellcometrust.bsky.social jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...

Revisiting the Playground Were playgrounds originally designed and intended for children's use? Jon Winder explores.

OTD in 1931 the British engineer, businessman, and entrepreneur Charles Wicksteed died.

Best known as a manufacturer of playground equipment and founder of Wicksteed Park, he revolutionised children's play.

Jon Winder (@drjonwinder.bsky.social) explores in this piece from our archive.

Two fully funded PhD studentships in history have just opened @liverpooluni.bsky.social - deadline for applications is 30 May www.liverpool.ac.uk/histories-la...

The bust card: policing, race, welfare, drugs, and the counterculture in 1960s Britain Abstract. Bust cards first emerged in the late 1960s as a way of obtaining help following arrest, giving the user the number of a 24-h telephone line to ca

Starting a not-quite-so-grey day with more shiny new publications! My article with @drjonwinder.bsky.social & Ellis Spicer on bust cards & policing from the 1960s is now out in advance access in @mbhjournal.bsky.social! Read it open access here: academic.oup.com/tcbh/advance...

Raising the healthiest generation in history: why it matters where children and young people live - Town and Country Planning Association Recommendations and an evidence review from the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee inquiry into children, young people and the built environment (December 2024) For decades, governments, ...

Where a child lives - the built & natural environment around them – is crucial to giving them the best start in life.
Our report reveals how better planning & urban design can help to raise the healthiest generation in history.
www.tcpa.org.uk/resources/raising-the-healthiest-generation-in-history/

Thanks so much for pulling this together - could you add me to the second pack please?

Thanks so much for pulling this together - I'd appreciate being on the list.

Thanks for pulling this together!

Thank you so much for pulling this starter pack together, really appreciate it!

Designed for Play is out today (I'm so excited!).

It's free to read online and available to download from bit.ly/3VBUN4V

Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching and Scholarship) (Grade 7) at University of Liverpool Explore an exciting academic career as a Lecturer in Environmental History (Teaching and Scholarship) (Grade 7). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

The history department at Liverpool have an opening for a fixed term lecturer in environmental history. More details here:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DHN283/l...

The front cover of Designed for Play showing a group of children on a plank swing in the early twentieth century

I'm very excited to share the front cover of Designed for Play, my book on the social and environmental history of the playground, due out in July with University of London Press. It will be free to read online! #playgroundhistories

Heat, Health and Human Geographies: Exploring Caribbean Responses to Urban Heat Stress through Creative Ethnographic Methods at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Heat, Health and Human Geographies: Exploring Caribbean Responses to Urban Heat Stress through Creative Ethnographic Methods at University of Liverpool, listed on FindAPhD.com

Join the fab Melting Metropolis team on a fully funded #PhD exploring heat, health and human geographies. Deadline for applications 28 June #phdchat #phdlife
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Join our NYC team! Our postdoctoral fellow in environmental history ad is out now!

Come and work with the Melting Metropolis team!

New postdoc position available, based at Queens College-CUNY and working with the amazing @KaraSchlichting on histories of heat in New York.

Full-time, 3 year position, deadline to apply 18 March.

www.rfcuny.org/careers/post...

I'm not sure I use it to its maximum potential, but happy to help if you ever get stuck!

I've been using it for 5 or 6 years and think it's really useful...

Join our NYC team! Our postdoctoral fellow in environmental history ad is out now!

Come and work with the Melting Metropolis team!

New postdoc position available, based at Queens College-CUNY and working with the amazing @KaraSchlichting on histories of heat in New York.

Full-time, 3 year position, deadline to apply 18 March.

www.rfcuny.org/careers/post...

History & Policy: Mobilising the Environmental Humanities

I've booked a place at this History & Policy workshop on Mobilising the Environmental Humanities - and am really looking forward to exploring how #envhist and #envhumn can contribute to addressing climate emergencies...

www.history.ac.uk/events/histo...