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‘Marie Antoinette’: the true stories behind the BBC/Canal+ drama
By Zara Kesterton, @zarakesterton Warning: Contains spoilers! On 29 December 2022, the BBC released its new historical drama about the life of French queen Marie-Antoinette, which was produced in association with Canal+ and written by The Favourite’s Deborah Davis. I am currently writing my PhD on fashion during the reign of Marie-Antoinette, so I was intrigued to see…
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4. The History of Pantomime
By Zara Kesterton (@ZaraKesterton) In 1728, the English dancer and writer John Weaver published The History of the Mimes and Pantomimes. Weaver has been widely credited with introducing the pantomime to England – although his pantomime of the eighteenth century is not what we would recognise today. Audiences at a modern British pantomime expect a…
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6. Eighteenth-Century Neon
By Jake William Bransgrove (@Jake_Bransgrove) At times of public celebration, the nocturnal Georgian city – otherwise dark, dangerous and shrouded in shadow – would be bathed in exceptional quantities of light. The act of illumination, as it was known, saw urban spaces lit in spectacular fashion. An instance of circumstantial festival, the mass deployment of candles, lamps,…
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13. Lady Harriet Acland, the American War of Independence, and Tales of Female Heroism
By Molly Groarke This 1784 painting by Robert Pollard depicts a scene from the American War of Independence, shortly after the Battles of Saratoga in 1777. The British forces had been defeated and one of their officers, Colonel John Dyke Acland, had been wounded and captured. In the painting, his wife Lady Harriet Acland, who…
doinghistoryinpublic.org 