Category: Archive

  • 9. 1891 Map from Populations Past

    9. 1891 Map from Populations Past

    By Dr Alice Reid (@amrcampop) This map, from PopulationsPast.org, shows the sex ratio among working-age adults in 1891, calculated from census data. Areas in red have more men than women and areas in blue have more women than men. Geographical differences in the sex ratio reflect nineteenth century migration patterns and employment opportunities which pulled…

  • 3. The Singapore Stone

    3. The Singapore Stone

    By Alasdair Chi  The Singapore Stone, as a stele or shards, remains the longest-enduring extant proof of Singapore’s antiquity. Erected by the mouth of the Singapore River by the 13th century, and possibly even earlier, its 52 lines may have recorded the dealings of some great empire or monarch, or perhaps a more prosaic statement of…

  • 8. School attendance medals: a status symbol?

    8. School attendance medals: a status symbol?

    By Helen Sunderland (@hl_sunderland) In the first decades of mass schooling in late nineteenth-century Britain, attendance was a persistent issue. Parents often resented having to send their children to school, which for many meant forfeiting much-needed income. To improve attendance levels, education authorities rewarded children who had spotless attendance records with medals. A year without…

  • 4. Fuvu la kichwa cha Mkwawa (The Skull of Mkwawa’s Head)

    4. Fuvu la kichwa cha Mkwawa (The Skull of Mkwawa’s Head)

    By Jeremiah J. Garsha (@jjgarsha)  In 1898, Chief Mkwawa committed suicide after leading a seven-year revolt against German rule. His head was severed to claim a bounty, and then displayed as ‘a family trophy’ in the home of a British-born German colonial administrator. It was then defleshed and the skull was shipped to Germany, where…

  • Critiquing cultural spaces: an interview with Alice Procter of the Uncomfortable Art Tours

    Critiquing cultural spaces: an interview with Alice Procter of the Uncomfortable Art Tours

    By Alice Procter (@aaprocter) and  Mobeen Hussain (@amhuss27) Alice Procter is a historian of material culture based at UCL. She has six years of tour guiding experience at heritage sites and galleries and runs Uncomfortable Art Tours, podcasts and writes under the umbrella of The Exhibitionist. I had the chance to interview you her about her work…