Jack Hayes

Today, we published our annual Research, Public History, and Science Outreach report!

Director Katherine McAlpine notes that 2025 saw strong records of volunteer research & media as part of the 200th anniversary of work starting on the Thames Tunnel.

Access the report here: vist.ly/4pfs3

James Reed of recruiter Reed, which was founded by his father, has warned graduates that they should "think about a job that involves working with your hands" as AI takes on white-collar work.

Or consider being born to parents who can give you a role in the family firm?
www.ft.com/content/c894...

How many people could vote in the UK after the 1832 Reform Act? - The History of Parliament Dr Martin Spychal examines how many people could vote in the UK after the 1832 Reform Act.

The 1832 Reform Act marked a pivotal moment in the extension of the franchise, but who was able to vote?

@martinspychal.bsky.social explores topic, which may not be as straightforward as you think.

cartographers faced the same problem, obviously... bsky.app/profile/jack...

Dr. Ann Blair - How Renaissance Scholars and Printers Decided on the Size of Books YouTube video by Harry Ransom Center

thought this was really good — we could spend so much time pondering juxtapositions of texts in multi-work vols, but sometimes it's just filler, whatever can be found lying about (as ever for all their posturing the C16 learned latin humanists and their friends are of course just like us)

Copy of an information, on paper

The Court of King's Bench could hear the most serious of criminal cases. They also had to hear misdemeanours such as this one against John Carver, for "insulting the French Ambassador by knocking violently on his door" [Rex v Carver, East Geo II] TNA KB 33/11/6

Brainwave — Does this say '3 8bre p[ension] p[ermanente] Le Havre ne [s'en est] pas servi'? That would make some sense perhaps... Even if there's no other evidence for MI Brunel changing his mind in this way

French palaeography hive mind ! We've been doing some work @brunelmuseum.bsky.social on Marc Brunel's French naval records from the 1790s and are trying to make sense of one illegible bit.

Any ideas?

'3 8bre p[ension] p[ermanente] le havre [ne ????] pas servi'

From one of our visitors: "My daughters always pictured museums as big places like the ones in [central] London. But after visiting the Brunel Museum, they really opened up to the idea that smaller heritage sites can be just as fun and interesting."

We're nearly ready! Tomorrow at midday we'll launch our Big Give #ChristmasChallenge, when we're hoping to raise £7500 in a week to help keep our families programme free in 2026. See your donation doubled thanks to the Big Give Champions - and help inspire the next generation!

this was high on the list of things i never thought i'd learn about an engineer who died in 1849

today mostly thinking about how in December 1834 Marc Brunel had (at his employer's expense) his entire home at Rotherhithe redecorated, including 'buff blue' wallpaper with a 'chintz border' in the bedrooms (Institution of Civil Engineers, London, TT/CE/3/293)

Map of Guadeloupe — and La Réunion? Slightly odd choice, until I spotted the little note: 'Although this Island is about 3,000 Leagues from Guadeloupe, I have put it here to fill the big Gap which remained' (Georges-Louis le Rouge, 1753)

Monday 10 November 2025 is the 198th anniversary of an extraordinary dinner, held under the waters of the River Thames in the Thames Tunnel!

But it was by no means the only one...

Read now on our blog: vist.ly/4dm6y

We're looking forward to participating in Open House 2025 on 20 and 21 September, part of @opencity_uk!

Book now at: vist.ly/3zr3g

This has been a brilliant project to work on with Arran — to catalogue & completely reinterpret the centrepiece of the Museum's collection.

The drawings are palimpsests! Brunel's signature doesn't mean he drew it! These drawings were shown as evidence Parliamentary Committee 30 years later!

Here’s our Object of the Week, an 1835 watercolour which offers a glimpse into Brunel's vision for the Thames Tunnel.

This image helped promote the Tunnel as a completed project to investors, especially after damaging floods.

Find out more on our website: vist.ly/3m23isi

Was he a genius, or the Industrial Revolution's biggest nepo-baby?

Whatever the case may be, today's his birthday: Happy Birthday, Isambard Kingdom Brunel!

(spot here one of our newest objects - a £2 coin, produced for the bicentenary of Brunel's birth in 2006, now LDBRU:2025.2)

'Material masculinities: men and goods in eighteenth-century England' is out with @manchesterup.bsky.social today! A book on the materiality of men's lives 1660-1832 covering the significant changes in what it meant to be a man & what it meant to own 'things' during the time. Thanks to follow below:

This was great! And thanks to those from @costume-society.bsky.social who made it along - an ideal audience for the whole thing

A paperback copy of Small Things in the Eighteenth Century in the sunshine in front of King’s Manor in York.

📣 now out in paperback 📚 Small Things in the Eighteenth Century: The Personal and Political Value of the Miniature, co-edited by yours truly and the amazing Beth Fowkes Tobin from @cambridgeup.bsky.social

YouTube video by The Material Culture of Wills Project Wills Project Webinar 2: An Update on Our Progress, March 2025

🚨If you missed the Wills Project Webinar yesterday the recording is now available:

🙋 Progress towards transcribing 25,000 wills
🧀 Objects found
🎵 Collaboration with musician
📜 What happens once the wills are transcribed?

#EarlyModern #MaterialCulture 🗃️ @leverhulme.bsky.social

youtu.be/XnNF9j1HfKU

Colin Burrow · Ogres are cool: Grimm Tales The only rule of a tale is that everything gets used, even apparently superfluous details – though you’re allowed...

thought this was v good

Screenshot showing a force-directed network graph on the right and an open panel for calculating degree centrality on the left

I've just learned about kumu.io, and I am really liking it! Browser-based, clear documentation, intuitive UI, easy annotation and metrics. A quick google turned up an easy way of doing dynamic time slices. Here is an example with the networks in Venetian spy reports🕵️ #digitalhumanities #dh 🗃️

Intrigue - Word of God - Word of God: 1. In the Beginning Was the Word - BBC Sounds How the world's top Bible museum became embroiled in a scandal over thousands of artefacts

If you enjoyed Thief At The British Museum, BBC Radio 4 have another series on ancient artifacts and modern skulduggery — this time on the Museum of the Bible and the Hobby Lobby papyri scandal.

Anne Lister both a queer icon and a West Yorkshire icon!

This was fun to do

Here's a brief round-up of the online accessiblity of 19th-c. letters. With a few bright exceptions (Darwin, Carlyles, Brownings, Collins) the situation is not good. In fact it's a real mess. www.victorianresearch.org/other.html#l...

Ai Musei Capitolini di Roma ha aperto la grande mostra sui capolavori della Collezione Farnese A Villa Caffarelli di Roma ha aperto la grande mostra dedicata alla Collezione Farnese: in esposizione più di 140 capolavori

Exhibition at the Capitoline Museums in Rome of the collections of the Farnese family, some of the greatest collectors and patrons of the sixteenth century #earlymodern #arthistory

Why doesn't this vase have room for flowers? - Brunel Museum Tucked amongst the collection of Thames Tunnel memorabilia on display in the Brunel Museum is a small ceramic vase depicting a couple and their countryside cottage. It has a single, thin hollow stem, formed from a tree growing behind the cottage. Unlike all the other examples of Tunnel memorabilia at the Brunel Museum, it does …

This week's #OnlineArtExchange theme is Valentines and 'palentines' — look at this happy couple!

But what is it? It's not for flowers, though that may be romantic. It was actually used to keep homes brightly lit (or for perfect mood lighting).

Learn more on our blog: https://vist.ly/3muvgya

Today with staff and volunteers at St Alfege’s in Greenwich finding out how they ran their award-winning, volunteer-led social history project on the 1718 Pew List - lots of great ideas for how we @brunelmuseum.bsky.social could do similar with our lists of Thames Tunnel investors