@drolibetts.bsky.social
National Railway Museum Research Lead. Historian of industrial working-class worlds 1850-1950. Passionate about connecting museums and universities.
If #Railway200 has sparked or rekindled your interest in #RailwayHistory, and you fancy study at Masters or PhD level - then come & study with Dr Mike Esbester at the University of Portsmouth!
An expert in railway, transport & mobility history:
www.port.ac.uk/about-us/str...
Cover of the Journal of Transport History. A dark blue background, white sans-serif text, with 10 small images of various forms of transport & mobility – an airship, a bridge, a compass, a shoe, a propeller aeroplane, an early pneumatic tyre, bicycle gears, a steam locomotive boiler, a tunnel and a late pneumatic tyre.
🚨What's that?🚨
You want FREE access to 17 brilliant #RailwayHistory articles from the @jtransporthist.bsky.social?
All yours!
For #Railway200 the JTH has put together a virtual collection of articles, & until 15 October they're free!
Download & read now: journals.sagepub.com/topic/collec...
It might be worth asking @rs4vp.org for a retweet, as someone there might recognize it!
16.09.2025 09:49 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Just a little memory nudge for kids of a certain age...
🎶See, I reckon you're about an eight or a nine
Maybe even nine and a half in four beers' time🎶
Hi everyone!
I am beginning my search for prospective PhD supervisors for a September 2026 start. If you specialise in Caribbean slavery and/or the East India Company, and are interested in supervising my doctoral research, I would be delighted to hear from you! #Skystorians #AcademicSky
“So, it’s science. It’s not only speculation.”
Deep, horrified, screaming!
Please forgive the shameless self-publicity, but a collection of essays on transnational working-class literature which I helped to co-edit (and also contributed to) has been published today! See the link below for details & ask your library to order a copy!
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
As we commemorate the bicentenary of modern railways in 2025, what narratives are we leaving out? 🚂
1/6
Such an amazing story, thank for sharing!
I'd come across her because one of the many things she did was pioneer early railway computing in the UK, but hadn't appreciated how huge and varied her career was.
Just because you weren't successful doesn't mean you or your work were somehow lacking.
They were good applications in a very tough funding landscape.
You've heard about Rail200 this year, but what about Braille200?
Our amazing WROCAH placement student @tillyguthrie.bsky.social explains the dual history of Braille and the Railways in Britain:
blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/braille-200/
You've heard about Rail200 this year, but what about Braille200?
Our amazing WROCAH placement student @tillyguthrie.bsky.social explains the dual history of Braille and the Railways in Britain:
blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/braille-200/
Do I, or any of you, know anybody who has worked or is working on the household of Juana of Castile (1479-1555)?
07.08.2025 13:11 — 👍 20 🔁 26 💬 2 📌 0
Wasn't sure we were allowed to do that as historians... 🤣
From Frank Pick's Oxford DNB page
A historiography day...
06.08.2025 11:57 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Introduced my children to Willow over the weekend and glad to report its held up 100% (at least for me!)
Its on ITV player right now if you fancy a catch up.
What a fascinating, but sad, story!
Having had a look at the Science Museum object, my guess (without checking the records) is that the rope probably came from Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors which often featured famous murderers and objects associated with them!
Do you have any traveller ancestors? We have a handy guide to researching people from travelling communities in Derbyshire: recordoffice.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/t...
19.06.2025 14:30 — 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1According to the newspaper "The public would not believe the statements of officials that the wreath was nowhere about" and even forced their way into the Lord Mayor's private apartments hunting for it.
It took Town Hall staff, police, and Hackney Cab inspectors (!) to finally disperse them.
I thought you'd like to know that the crowd to see Manchester's funeral wreath arrangement for Queen Victoria was so big it blocked traffic for hours.
Officials told the crowd it would be moved to the Town Hall, and a huge group pushed inside looking for it even though it hadn't yet been moved.
Honestly who wrote the second season of The Night Agent?!
The first series was fun and compelling. This is just a mess of people wandering onto screen announcing their motivations and blundering about!
four black and white photographs of Yvonne Mitchell.
We have a brand new catalogue online to start a brand new week! The archive of multi-talented actress and writer Yvonne Mitchell is now available to search on Borthcat: borthcat.york.ac.uk/ymit
21.07.2025 11:09 — 👍 17 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 0
Honestly sometimes the only thing that keeps me in this job is how lovely it is to work with the team of colleagues here.
Also the PhD students
Its maternity cover, so fixed-term, but this looks like a fun (and potentially remote-working) job:
www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/our-pe...
Very happy to talk to anyone interested in coming into the Heritage world and would like advice on applying 😀
Free, on Friday, online: conference on the impact of the landmark 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. Hosted by the Open University.
I'll be talking on how the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act was used to police sexual behaviour www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1885-and-i...
Really sad to be missing #SHSConf2025 which looks completely fab and loaded with all the best people!
08.07.2025 13:50 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
A blue and white china mug, mass produced as a souvenir in the 1830s, showing the early engine "Novelty" that competed in the Rainhill Trials of 1829, and other railway scenes.
Trying to make my research project bid sound a little more sophisticated than just:
"Let me come and touch your early railway engines for.....history reasons"
Just out of a very enjoyable meeting of non-Uni research people who work regularly with Universities and discussing how we witness so much drama in the sector.
The idea of a reality "Keeping up with the Unis" programme pitched to much agreement!
Screen shot of word document detailing information about the “power couples” conference. Please email z.thomas@bham.ac.uk for more info.
Call for Papers, please share! “Power Couples? Collaborations at work and at home, c.1750-1914” workshop to be held at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany 11-13 May 2026. Deadline for expression of interest 1 Sep 2025. Please see more info in the attached & email me if any questions.
02.07.2025 13:05 — 👍 92 🔁 73 💬 4 📌 4Over the years NRM curatorial has collectively sampled most of the Indian restaurants in the centre of town there and can't recall a bad one!
02.07.2025 15:41 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
