Ok, I could ask actual people I know, but I'll throw this out here instead.

I know there is a great scene-setting piece out there that I can use for week 1 of my cultural heritage unit, but cannot find it or remember the details.

- Under 20 pages
- Summarises the history of Western collecting institutions
- Opens up good first week (therefore also get to know you) conversations about why those institutions / collections / etc can be problematic.

Whatcha all got for me?

#histodons #history #CulturalHeritage #MuseumStudies #GLAM

New article alert, and it's even published fully open access thanks to a nifty agreement our library has with the publisher.

I do a deep dive into the earliest comprehensive European survey of the land around timtumili minanya – the Derwent River in lutruwita (Tasmania). This map was deeply influential on the shape the southern colony would take, but it was never (as far as I have been able to tell) copied in full or taken beyond the island. It is a curiosity, but more than that, it is a reminder of the importance of the most innocuous-looking documents.

'Meehan’s Mapping of the Derwent River in Van Diemen’s Land, 1803–04' in Australian Historical Studies: https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2212690

#histodons #history #cartography #hgis #tasmania #academic #oa #article

Ok Family Historians and Handwriting Nerds, what do we think someone's name here is?

...case of my female assigned servant Anna ???? ....

#Genealogy #FamilyHistory #Histodons #History #Handwriting

Yesterday, while feeling somewhat braindead, I started a public Zotero library of digitised historic map collections.

It's mostly Australian at the moment, and mostly the stuff I am always sending my family history students to, plus a few other places I use regularly for my own research, but I have grand intentions of adding to it over time – I keep a 'resources' folder in my own Zotero after all.

Feel free to shout your thoughts and additions at me here!

https://www.zotero.org/groups/5068384/map_collections_online/items/9GJ29ZGC/library

#zotero #histodons #history #cartography #hgis #maps #archives #Genealogy #FamilyHistory

"My mother did not know until last year that you were married, much more that you had such a marvellous progeny; this as you may suppose astonished her, as during all your communications with her you had never informed her of such an event, altho' it must have been many years since it took place..."

And who had this man failed to tell about the family he had formed in a colony on the other side of the world? Only his own sister.

Classic.

#histodons #history #letters

Me looking out at a slightly stunned audience of retirees at the end of a talk: "Apologies if that was a little enthusiastic, I've been watching Eurovision all weekend and am still full of fluro energy."

The audience smiles, nods and visibly relaxes.

#AcademicLife #Eurovision