Tim Hitchcock

Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections

Bodleian Library, Sassoon Visiting Fellowship in South Asian and Black History for the 2026-2027 academic year.

It's a great scheme, with a deadline of 28 November 2025. Check it and Bodley's other visiting fellowships out here.

The Foundling also represented an attack on working class motherhood and parish relief. And that is before we start counting the 10,000 babies who died under its care during the general reception. Presenting the FH as an unproblematic good hides a more powerful story.

Me with book

Thanks to @reaktionbooks.bsky.social for making my history of protest in England's public spaces into a beautiful, well produced book with a fab cover.
Buy it here reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/contest...

Travel Journals and Other Traces of Servants on the Grand Tour British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar

Great to see the recording of @richardjansell.bsky.social 's recent paper on travel journals and servants' lives on the Grand Tour is now avaiable on the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social website. @long18thsem.bsky.social See: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Bound Labour, Narratives of Nationhood, and the Rhetoric of Slavery: Liberty, Identity, and Scottish Coal-Miners in the Long Eighteenth Century

Very much looking forward to Polly Lowe @polly-lowe.bsky.social speaking this Wednesday on bound labour and Scottish miners in the 18th c. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social Everyone welcome - either in person or hybrid, but please register at www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Settling in for the @wikimediauk.bsky.social / @britishlibrary.bsky.social / @wikimediafoundation.org #KnowledgeIsHuman symposium. Going to be a full day of discussion about the information ecosystem in the age of AI.

The Society's latest volume of the "Record" is now available - the 33rd volume since 1900. It includes essays dealing with the development of London from the 1530s to the 19th century's growth of suburbs in what had been open countryside. londontopsoc.org/product/lond...

At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!

And north Wales, where it has been in operation for 40 years.

The October updates include, for example, 162 titles about the history of Wales, 229 records re histories of African nations, 359 publications re Scottish history, 448 records discuss the histories of the Americas and Atlantic Ocean, 468 publications focusing on Irish history, and much more.

‪ANN SAUNDERS ESSAY PRIZE FOR 2026

A prize of £1,000 is offered annually for an original and unpublished 8000-word research essay on the topography, development or buildings of London in any period.

Submissions by 1 April 2026.

Details can be found at: londontopsoc.org/about-us/ann...

Council member Simon Morris will be speaking at the Warburg Institute's Maps and Society series at 5pm on Thursday 6th November. His subject will be 'London Parish Maps', based on the 2020 LTS publication. warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org

Fantastic to see the London Topographical Society is now on here! @londontopsoc.bsky.social Do give them a follow.

Poverty and the Parish - Southern History Society Join us for a deep dive into the impact of poverty on Southern history at Poverty and the Parish - Southern History Society!

The Southern History Society is holding a conference at Winchest on 18 October, on 'Poverty and the Parish'. It looks great. Registration is here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poverty-an...

A photo of a seminar room with an audience facing forward. The speaker is at the front behind a podium

Just listening to @richardjansell.bsky.social talking eloquently about servants and their journals on the grand tour @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social

National project launched to rediscover Henry VIII’s long-forgotten ‘Tudor Domesday Book’ A nationwide survey commissioned by Henry VIII on the property and wealth of 16th century England and Wales is to be made publicly accessible for the first time. The survey, known as the Valor Ecclesi...

'A nationwide survey commissioned by Henry VIII on the property and wealth of 16th century England and Wales is to be made publicly accessible for the first time.

The survey, known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus, set out to discover the financial state of the Church'.

A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar

If you missed my @long18thsem.bsky.social talk last week on Lord Mansfield and the Chevalier d'Eon, fret not, as the recording is now up on the IHR website. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

This book applies the innovative work-task approach to the history of work, which captures the contribution of all workers and types of work to the early modern economy. Drawing on tens of thousands of court depositions, the authors analyse the individual tasks that made up everyday work for women and men, shedding new light on the gender division of labour, and the ways in which time, space, age and marital status shaped sixteenth and seventeenth-century working life. Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, the book deepens our understanding of the preindustrial economy, and calls for us to rethink not only who did what, but also the implications of these findings for major debates about structural change, the nature and extent of paid work, and what has been lost as well as gained over the past three centuries of economic development. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Cover of Whittle, Jane, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb, and Taylor Aucoin. The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. of Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Who did what in early modern England?

New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️

Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

And it is always a sub-set of people. It is not even like terfs are arguing for single sex spaces for all 'sexes'. As a result it ends up being a direct attack on universal human rights, in favour of 'rights' for privileged sub-groups (race comes next)

A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar

Great to see the recording of Dan Gosling's excellent talk on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' @long18thsem.bsky.social posted on the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social website. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

The Wolfson History Prize - Celebrating Outstanding History The Wolfson History Prize is awarded annually to promote and recognise outstanding history written for a general audience.

The Wolfson History Prize shortlist for 2025 is announced. Good reading.

Join Dr Richard Ansell (Birkbeck) for a free online seminar. 5:30-7:30pm London time on Wed. Oct 8 via zoom. “Travel Journals and Other Traces of Servants on the Grand Tour”. From valets to maids, dis... TikTok video by Long 18th Century Seminar IHR

Really looking forward to Richard Ansel's talk on servants during the Grand Tour next Wednesday @long18thsem.bsky.social Here is a quick taster: www.tiktok.com/@long18thcen...

Collapse in Chinese student numbers ‘highly likely’ by 2040 Long-term trends including declining birth rate mean number of students looking to study abroad set to be much lower in only 10 years’ time

'A steep decline in the number of Chinese students studying abroad is “highly likely” in the next decade but universities reliant on these enrolments for survival remain mostly oblivious to the scale of the coming challenge, experts have said.'

Vaccination and the price of forgetting History shows how dangerous anti-vax sentiment can prove

Eighteenth-century precedents and 21st-century threats.

The bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva which was discovered in 1727 during the construction of sewer under Stall Street in Bath. Now part of the museum collections at The Roman Baths in Bath. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #RomanBritain #Bath

It didn't occur to me that one of the problems with getting older is witnessing the culture debate and process the same things over and over. Like, as a historian it's fascinating and useful to analyze these continuities. As a human it's exhausting.

Title slide of a PowerPoint presentation

This Wednesday 24 September, I'm speaking @long18thsem.bsky.social on the various "judgments" made on the Chevalier d'Eon's sex in 1777. To whet your appetite, here's the title slide, and you can register for this (free) hybrid talk via the link. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Events Stay up to date with the upcoming events organised or hosted by the Institute of Historical Research

History curious? You don't need to be in London (or the UK) to attend many Institute of Historical Research seminars, although if you're in Bloomsbury you'll enjoy doing so. Most are hybrid (online/in person). They're free, usually fortnightly and open to the public.

Starting this week:

A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon

Very much looking forward to Dan Gosling (TNA) speaking on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' this Wed. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome online or in person, but please register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...