I have not - but will add that to the watch list!
When you work with a large advertising archive you get used to lots of things being sold as "Rivieras" but the idea of a DANISH Riviera is a new one for me!
Franz Sedivy for LNER c.1930 (c)SMG
It's always a little disconcerting to miss a couple of emails about an object move and then walk into something that wasn't there yesterday.
Especially with objects as big as ours!
I quite liked the short David Shafer history from 2005. I felt like it was a good introduction to the key themes, people, and events.
There's also Laura Foster's lovely new book about the aftermath, especially the Commune's refugees and legacy in the UK.
Its only a month or so into 2026 and I've already spoken on two podcasts about the Rainhill Trials - at this rate 2029/2030 is going to be intense!
Love the blink-and-you-miss-it exasperated side-eye from this young woman working the computers for the delegates from British Railways Head Office.
Clearly a woman who has spent her entire day being patronised by male senior managers.
British Pathe 1957 - A Computer for British Rail
I've worked at the Railway Museum for over a decade and I'm still mystified why Britain's railways are allowed to sell more tickets than seats in each carriage.
At this point regularly having people standing in the vestibules is dangerous and unnecessary.
Strange sense of deja vu looking over these locomotive enthusiast books. Railways were never my obsession as a child but I did have books exactly like this with colour plates of Napoleonic uniforms...
Great news! 🙌
Art UK will be relaunching our crowdsourcing platform Art Detective, thanks to a grant from @wolfsonfdn.bsky.social
Find out more 👉 artuk.org/discover/sto...
🧑🎨 Mary Winifrid Smith (1904–1992) © the artist's estate. 📷 @nationaltrust.org.uk
I think they'll do it through employers, and incentivize companies to take it up that way, honestly. There's already a lot of uncertainty in industry about what AI can bring without much knowledge, so potentially an easy sell to senior management etc.
I think you could overdo the comparison, of course, but I think there are some interesting parallels. Lots of threads online of people sharing ideas on how to disable or work-around AI features.
This massive programme of training which might largely de-value current worker skills and the never-ending intrusion of AI into computer systems for office and home workers means that there's going to be an amazingly relevant thesis on the Luddites to write in the near future!
Very exciting!
Love the cover!
Thinking Andy Burnham is the solution to Labour OR the country's woes is like thinking swapping to decaf tea in the evening is going to be THE thing to fix your health...
Inspector: "How long have you been on this line?"
Guard: "Ten years, Sir"
Inspector: "Oh I suppose you came down from London"
Guard: "I only joined the train at Maidstone".
---
Posted notice:
"You must go over by the subway unless you want to be dead for the rest of your lives"
Would you like to hear some c1920s railway jokes I found tucked into a book this morning?
"The last train tonight does not start until the first thing tomorrow morning"
"A description of a petrol loco on the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway which 'never derailed when running normally'"
Was this in Croydon, Kat? I could ask some of the Science Museum curators I know to see if they have any info.
I've never heard of it!
I always think our image of the Regency period is so historically mixed. This was two years after Waterloo, the same year Persuasion was published...
Nice little piece of Luddite history on display at Nottingham Castle Museum - the sword of a Luddite leader captured in 1817.
I'm never convinced MPs have much of a grasp of political history tbh.
About ten years ago I was at a conference where several tried earnestly to convince me that Michael Gove was the greatest British political thinker since Beveridge.
Our Special Issue @genderandhistory.bsky.social is now out!! Many congrats and thanks to stellar co-editors @writinghelena.bsky.social, Lisa Hellman & Rachel Jean-Baptiste, and to all our fabulous authors. Fab seeing all 140,000 words brought together! 🌟 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680424...
A little Christmas treat to you from us at the Railway Museum - watch us make (and judge) early c19th mince pies from George Stephenson's own recipe book:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQMz...
Caution: may contain curators...
Good to see the BBC leading with a story on essay writing mills at University level, but its also depressingly predictable in its details.
*of course* the guy they interview is now based in Dubai.
*of course* he's absolutely unrepentant about the work.
and *OF COURSE* he's now using AI.
On the whole I agree with you, although I think the communication from HS2 about what the project is and why it's needed has been shockingly poor from the start and has definitely coloured public discourse around it.
I enjoyed working with Gemini to transcribe documents in our collection for publication on the Arts&Culture platform.
I also did A LOT of proof-reading, but it was nice to be able to share transcripts with the public, who generally haven't spent years learning to tell an c18th F from a S or a TH!
Nothing more fun than a ceremonial Victorian trowel 😍
Honestly I think Ripper stuff is about 50% or more of Victorian history in the public eye these days.
Imagine if anything else c19th got anywhere near as much attention. 😔
I think one of the fascinating (if depressing) things about watching Farage squirm under these racism allegations is that he really isn't very used to direct press criticism of himself.
Would anyone be interested in being part of a roundtable on Working-Class Victorians in heritage/fiction/public imagination today at next year's BAVS conference?
Let me know if you're keen 😁
