Author: Doing History in Public

  • Stamford’s Urban Renewal Projects: Local Archives and Narratives of Progress

    Stamford’s Urban Renewal Projects: Local Archives and Narratives of Progress

    In the 1960s and 70s, Stamford, Connecticut, demolished 130 acres of its downtown in an attempt at revitalization. The record of these Urban Renewal Projects lend insight into how power imbalances are created and perpetuated in local historical archives.

  • The Gentleman Pirate Isn’t Such a Gentleman: a historical analysis of erasure in ‘Our Flag Means Death’

    The Gentleman Pirate Isn’t Such a Gentleman: a historical analysis of erasure in ‘Our Flag Means Death’

    By Jendayi Omowale, @jen_omo Our Flag Means Death, a show about queer pirates roaming the seas produced by Taika Waititi, made a big splash on HBO. It became one of the most in-demand shows in the U.S. last year, beating Marvel-backed shows like Moon Knight.[i] I came across the show as I have many shows before it,…

  • ‘St Patrick’s Well Lane’ and the Origins of St Patrick’s Day

    ‘St Patrick’s Well Lane’ and the Origins of St Patrick’s Day

    By Kate Collins (kec66@cam.ac.uk) If you find yourself walking around Dublin this St Patrick’s Day, take a look up at the street signs and you might just see a reminder of how the annual celebrations on the 17th of March are said to have begun. All streets in Dublin have two names, in Irish and…

  • Indian Independence 8,290 miles away: U.C. Berkeley and the Fight for Self-Rule 

    Indian Independence 8,290 miles away: U.C. Berkeley and the Fight for Self-Rule 

    By Madhumitha Krishnan (@MadhumithaKris)[1] ‘…[India’s] teeming millions are dying of abject starvation, ever increasing famines and devastating epidemics. The present-day India needs readjustment and reconstruction socially, morally, and economically.’[2] So proclaimed Dr K. D. Shastri in his inaugural address at the 1915 International Hindustanee Student Convention in Chicago. Dr Shastri, a religious and social reformer, levied…

  • Pearly Queens: Eleonora di Toledo vs. Elizabeth I 

    Pearly Queens: Eleonora di Toledo vs. Elizabeth I 

    By Ellie Doran (@Elena_Doran) Figure 1 (left): Agnolo Bronzino, Ritratto di Eleonora di Toledo con il figlio Giovanni, (c.1544-45), oil on panel, 115 x 96cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1890 n.748. Available here: https://www.uffizi.it/opere/%2Feleonora-di-toledo Figure 2 (right): Unknown English artist, The Armada Portrait, (c. 1588), oil on panel, 97.8 x 72.4 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 541. Available here: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02077/Queen-Elizabeth-I Elizabeth I,…