museums | Doing History in Public

Jan 5

10 lesser-known medieval and early modern places in Greater London

By Spike Gibbs

Spike is a first year PhD student in working on office-holding in late medieval and early modern England.

London can appear to be an overwhelmingly modern city with its towering 20th century office blocks and grand Victorian architecture. Whilst there are some very famous medieval landmarks such as the Tower of London, and early modern ones such as St Paul’s Cathedral, these can appear to be oases in the capital. However, if you know where to look London has many surprises for the pre-1750 historian and here are ten of my favourites: Read more

Nov 12

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Dressing up and steaming ahead: must-visit museums

There are around 2,500 museums in the UK. Many of the larger ones, particularly in London, contain internationally-renowned collections of great historical and scientific significance, and are always worth a visit. In some cases, however, it is the local and specialist museums that provide the most inspiring, entertaining, and educational days out. In celebration of this, the Doing History in Public team has put together a collection of our favourite museum experiences.

If you have a favourite museum, we’d love to hear from you!

Living, breathing, history

By Carys Brown @HistoryCarys

As a lover of history, few things excite or engage me more than dusty manuscripts and stories from the past: the shocking, the inspiring, the scandalous, and even the mundane. Although my obsession may be particularly acute, it’s not unusual – as Laurence Goldman pointed out while opening the Royal Historical Society’s Public History Workshop at the Institute of Historical Research on 29 October, ‘history is booming’. The workshop was the first instance of what the organisers hope will be a yearly event, along with the RHS’s Public History Prize and proved an inspiring day, with many different perspectives on what it means to do ‘public history’. Several key themes emerged:

“Do Not Touch”: Academics in the Museum

By Carys Brown @HistoryCarys

Museums are wonderful yet bizarre places. A treasure trove of pieces of the past. Hundreds of objects, rare, fragile, ordinary, extraordinary, arranged in glass cases, beautifully isolated from their original surroundings. This perhaps slightly sterile environment allows us to appreciate the beauty and ingenuity of objects. But is this really how we ought to view their history?

History in the Public Eye

By Amy Schaffman

Amy is a Modern European History MPhil student in the Faculty of History. She is currently researching WWII Anglo-American relations through the lens of the overseas evacuation of children.

Public history occupies a strange place within the field of history. Its non-academic components are many and varied: museums, memorials, television programs, popular literature, and private genealogies. Public, not academic, history is what most people experience in their daily lives. Read more

A collective project by historians for the public

Posts tagged ‘museums’

10 lesser-known medieval and early modern places in Greater London

Dressing up and steaming ahead: must-visit museums

Living, breathing, history

“Do Not Touch”: Academics in the Museum

History in the Public Eye

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