Simon Jones

The diminutive, 5 foot tall sharpshooter would become the second highest paid performer on The Wild West Show

The diminutive, 5 foot tall sharpshooter would become the second highest paid performer on The Wild West Show, only Bill Cody made more. During the tours, she became closest of friends with the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, who, seeing her shooting skills, felt she was gifted with

Annie Oakley, troupe member of Bill Cody's ("Buffalo Bill") ‘Wild West Show’, at the World Exposition, Paris, 1889. Roland Bonaparte Collections | © Musée du quai Branley-Jacques Chirac

Annie Oakley, troupe member of Bill Cody's ("Buffalo Bill") ‘Wild West Show’, at the World Exposition, Paris, 1889. Roland Bonaparte Collections | © Musée du quai Branley-Jacques Chirac

Annie Oakley, troupe member of Bill Cody's ("Buffalo Bill") ‘Wild West Show’, at the World Exposition, Paris, 1889.

Roland Bonaparte Collections | © Musée du quai Branley-Jacques Chirac

Thanks Tom that's v interesting. I'm just trawling through the D Express and have got to May 1915, and Christitch is about to go to Serbia.

www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

cutting from Daily Express 9/9/1914, p. 4, photo of young woman wearing form of nursing uniform, captioned: A member of the "Daily Express" Nursing Corps photographed yesterday at Selfridge's wearing the special badge with the regulation overall and cap. Inset is an enlarged reproduction of the badge.

Does anyone know of any work on the ‘Daily Express Nursing Corps’, formed in August 1914? I’m researching someone who apparently paid for the training, exams, & uniform but then was unable to secure relevant employment. #WW1 #NursingHistory #histmed #medicalhistory

'Tintagel'. Oil on board. Painted in 2019.
Walking along the National Trail, Coastal Path, the majestic cliffs of Tintagel come into view, and this is one of those landscapes that can never fail to impress at any time of year.

A school friend's father worked for the Daily Mirror, so of course Maxwell stole his pension.

This feels like the kind of book I'd like to hold in my hands rather than read on my electronic device (actually I'd like to do both).

Cover of book with text in yellow reading: The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires, overlaid on an image of an angel in seventeenth-century dress with wings and a long gun.

Hello Bluesky! My new book, THE FIREARM REVOLUTION, is out on 14 April. It’s about how a new technology changed society, and how hard it was to control. Here’s a little thread of what’s inside:

Alt two women treat a male casualty in a low ceiling room

Mairi Chisholm born #OTD 1896, left, with Elsie Knocker in their 3rd Aid Post after the first two were destroyed by shelling, 700yds from front line at Pervijze, Belgium, Sept 1915 until gassed March 1918. Taken 6/8/1917 by Ernest Brooks. Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

black and white photo woman on motorcycle, dog in foreground.

Mairi Chisholm born #OTD 26 February 1896, famous with Elsie Knocker for treating wounded in the front line 1914-18, seen in 1913, age 17, London to Exeter motorcycle run. They met before the war during motorcycle events & went to the front as ambulance drivers. Source: Hulton via Ancestry.co.uk

Book with a cat for no good reason.

Yes, tell me what you need Simon.

Egyptian geese and goslings.

The behaviour of some dog owners last week around these newly-hatched goslings showed exactly the need for this.

BTW I'd blame the funding model forced on British archives & museums for the levying of charges for the reproduction of public collections that should be in the public domain.

Courte Chausse, tunnel Marchand, travaux de sape périeux, à air comprimé. [légende d'origine] Courte Chausse, tunnel Marchand, travaux de sape périeux, à air comprimé. [légende d'origine]

European archives generally not charging repro fees for public domain images (depends on when the photographer died). 300dpi images from French defence archives cost 8€ each, ie just cost of buying digital file, where in public domain.
imagesdefense.gouv.fr/fr/courte-ch...

Netherlands National Archives, if out of copyright, hi res for download & royalty free. I'd source images here and gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/h... rather than the Imperial War Museum or commercial picture libraries, which still demand a reproduction fee for out of copyright images.

Yale Center for British Art - very high res downloadable, public domain, free to publish.
collections.britishart.yale.edu

"Bexhill And The Y.W.C.A. Hut Fund.
Mrs. Tuckwell and her donkey, "Jenny," which has collected £7 for the Bexhill Hut Fund."
Bexhill Observer 23.2.1918. #Bexhill #Sussex #Donkey #WW1 #History #1910s

Muriel McPhee made this nightdress for a marriage that never happened.
Muriel created the dress to be part of her wedding trousseau, but after her fiancé died in the First World War, it was packed away forever
nma.gov.au/exhibitions/...

National Museum of Australia
@nma #globalmuseum #costume #WW1

The Louvre has been crumbling for decades. Away from the Mona Lisa the galleries are neglected and often deserted.

The alt text 😍!

There's no excuse for the regressive attitudes encountered by @barnabyphillips.bsky.social over the Asante loot. It's wilful ignorance.

Bookclub - Lissa Evans - Old Baggage - BBC Sounds Lissa Evans discusses her novel Old Baggage with James Naughtie and a group of readers.

This is a lovely listen after reading the trilogy.

photo of Orde Wingate, bearded man in pith helmet, hands on waist.

photo of Leonard Rossiter, sleevless carigan, hands on waist.

Sadly the great Leonard Rossiter is unavailable to play Orde Wingate.

Royal Artillery under fire after denying access to looted Asante treasure ‘Extraordinary’ golden lamb’s head pillaged in 1874 from what is now Ghana remains hidden in officers’ mess

“When you see those things, and you realise no one else can see them, and they will never leave this place, it’s like a punch in the stomach.”

'-but be warned: this ensemble cast is comprised of many unreliable narrators. If at times certain stories seem inconsistent, it is because they are formed of stratified lies – layer upon layer of them. You will never be left to' From the introduction to The Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold

What more thrilling words could there be in the introduction to a book – fiction or nonfiction?

HMS Oracle at Anchor, by John Nash.

IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 707)

Interior of Hagia Sophia mosque, Istanbul. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Central_nave_-_Hagia_Sophia_(8291196158).jpg

I've found the church that's been converted into a mosque. It happened in 1453.

🎵 You see, I’ve been through the desert on a