History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Author Archive | Robert James

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The story of Lucky Jim and Twinkletoe: Is the material culture of folklore providential or problematic for the historian?

By on June 28, 2018 in Learning in Focus

Daniel Millard, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog on the toy mascots carried by Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown on the first Transatlantic flight for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit. Daniel discusses the ways in which we can use these items of material culture to ask better questions of the past. The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. Next year will see the centenary of the world’s first Transatlantic flight. For the historian this offers an exciting opportunity to re-acquaint with two notable aviators from the twentieth-century. I refer, of […]

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“One of the Spaniards Fighting Their Own Battles: A Nationalist Soldier on the Santander Front in a Captured Concrete Dug-Out with ‘Marxist’ Inscriptions—’Death to Spain! ‘ and ‘Long Live Russia’.” Illustrated London News, 20 Nov. 1937, p. 893. The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/6YJha8.

Soviets and the Spanish Civil War

By on June 18, 2018 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

Rory Herbert, final year History student and President of the History Society at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog on Soviet involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Rory is Gale Ambassador at the university and contributes to The Gale Review Blog. The role of the Gale Ambassador is to increase awareness of the Gale primary source collections available to students at their university. The University of Portsmouth Library hosts a large collection of Gale primary sources which History students can use when undertaking archival research for their dissertations and other research projects. Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930) remarked in his manuscript on the Spanish Situation, written for […]

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New University Library online archives available now!

By on June 7, 2018 in News

New via the University Library –  two History online archives! New! Gender: Identity and Social Change   http://www.genderidentityandsocialchange.amdigital.co.uk/   Members of the University can access a great new resource which the library has bought.  You will find primary sources, including images, about gender roles from the 19th century to the present. The collection offers sources for the study of women’s suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family etc. in the UK, USA and Australia. New! Greatly expanded access to State Papers Online https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/port/items/1107978 Following on from our popular access to Tudor and Stuart State Papers, the library has now bought access to 18th Century State […]

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‘A vital part of any university career’: A student’s experience of taking a placement unit

By on May 30, 2018 in Learning in Focus, Public History

Ian Atkins, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on his experience of doing a work placement at the National Museum of the Royal Navy Library for the Public History Placement Unit. The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Melanie Bassett, Research Assistant for Port Towns and Urban Cultures and Part Time Lecturer in History. The Public History Placement unit, a vital part of any university career, is an option that is available to Second Year Students in the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies. Encompassing a wide and varied variability of placements the option aims to give an insight into the […]

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Heritage and Memory: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

By on May 21, 2018 in Learning in Focus

Aimee Campbell, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit. Aimee discusses the process in which memorials gain meaning and serve as sites where past atrocities can be commemorated. The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth.  Heritage presents the past through a memorialised fashion; compromising of tangible memorials, rituals and ceremony. Heritage and memory can be political in certain historical contexts and conditions. [1] In this blog I shall explore whether the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in […]

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Using Material Culture: The Russian Revolutionary Plate

By on May 11, 2018 in Learning in Focus

Cameron Meeten, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on a plate produced in revolutionary Russia for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit. Cameron demonstrates how the plate gives us an insight into the ways in which the Soviets tried to steer and influence ideological thinking in the Soviet Union. The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth.  Material culture is the use of objects created or modified by people which directly or indirectly reflect the ideology of those involved with their creation, as well as the beliefs of the society in which they were created. […]

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