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Two Maps of the Mediterranean

Two maps of the Mediterranean, one included in the medieval cosmological treatise Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes (Kitāb Gharā’ib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʿuyūn) and the other frequently reproduced in modern scholarship, first appear very distinct, but perhaps share a similarity: they reflect a mariner’s view of the Mediterranean.
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Claribel-ware: Ballads, Royalties, and the Birth of the Music Industry in 1860s Britain

By Whitney Thompson, Linktree “It would be a curious though a humiliating study,” begins a January 1867 article in the music periodical The Orchestra, “to speculate to what extent the future historian of art in Great Britain (…) will ascribe the decline of song music to the influence of the Royalty system.” Although the “royalty…
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‘Out of the Shadows’: A DHP Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

By Zara Kesterton On 24 May, Doing History in Public hosted our first ever Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Edit-a-thons are events where new and established editors get together to learn new skills, and work towards improving information on Wikipedia around a theme. Our theme for this event was ‘Out of the Shadows’. We aimed to improve knowledge…
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Alex White – Historian Highlight

Alex White (@alex_j_white), interviewed by Zara Kesterton Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge. We ask students how they came to research their topic, their favourite archival find, as well as the best (and worst) advice they’ve received as academics in training. History is…
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‘Turning Botches into Beauty’: The Early Modern Origins of the Pimple Patch

by Marlo Avidon (@MarloAvidon) Today, it’s not uncommon to see someone walking down the street with a hydrocolloid patch stuck to their cheek, chin, or forehead to cover and treat a pimple. While many of these acne patches are designed to remain unseen, a scroll through the websites of popular beauty suppliers reveal a diverse…
