Category: Archive

  • 10. Old Sheffield Plate Toaster

    10. Old Sheffield Plate Toaster

    By Meg Roberts (@megeroberts) Fancy some Regency-era cheese on toast? By the late eighteenth century, cheese toasters were all the rage among the British upper classes. The six removable trays in this particular toaster from the period could each hold a small slice of toast or bread, topped with cheese. To make the toast, hot…

  • 16. A Chimpanzee Painting

    16. A Chimpanzee Painting

    By Miles Kempton (https://www.oocdtp.ac.uk/people/miles-kempton) This image shows a chimpanzee painting; not an abstract portrait of a chimpanzee, but a painting by one. The artist was Congo (1954-64), a captive chimpanzee at London Zoo who in the late 1950s caused a scientific and artistic sensation with his uncanny aptitude for painting and drawing. Desmond Morris –…

  • 11. A Knotted Cord

    11. A Knotted Cord

    By Nico Bell-Romero (@NicoBellRomero) Receiving a knotted cord – a strand made from yucca leaves – might seem like a strange gift for Christmas, but in August 1680, during their revolt against the Spanish, the Pueblo peoples of present-day Mexico placed great importance on them.

  • 23. Pseudo-Seneca

    23. Pseudo-Seneca

    By George Pliotis (@gpliotis) How do we picture ancient Romans? In the case of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4BC-65AD), eminent littérateur and statesman of his day, we have no contemporary depiction; but something about this bust (which most likely dates to the Hellenistic period) has made it a persistently popular visualisation since the end of the…

  • Doing History in Public Year in Review: 2020

    Doing History in Public Year in Review: 2020

    By Zoë Jackson (@ZoeMJackson1) & Evelyn Strope (@emstrope) This New Year’s Eve, we look back at 2020, a year many have described as ‘unprecedented’. The coronavirus spread around the world from the start of the year, and the ensuing pandemic and resulting lockdowns have completely altered life as we knew it.