History@Portsmouth

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Alex Symonds pic cropped

Putting a positive spin on war-time evacuation

By on April 30, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Public History, Uncategorized

In this blog post, second-year history student Alex Symonds looks at a diary from World War II, now in the Imperial War museum.  The diary, apparently a joint effort by three girl guides, was probably intended for public consumption, and thus downplays the negative impact of war-time life for evacuees. The evacuation of British children in World War II is often depicted as a negative experience for everyone involved.  Children who had never even left their home towns suddenly had to adapt to life in the countryside and living with strangers, while their host families were confronted with dirty, disease-riddled children who were nothing like they had ever seen before.[1] […]

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Four years on: graduation to employment

By on April 7, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this blog post, graduate Chloe Anderson considers her time at Portsmouth and its influence on her career. Chloe comes from the Falklands Islands originally, so is probably the student who has travelled the furthest to study history at Portsmouth.  As she writes below, she is now putting her history training to good use back home. We’re pleased that she offered to put this together for us, as it’s lovely to keep in touch with our graduates and to be able to share their success stories. Whilst some aspects of our course structure have changed since Chloe studied with us, the essential aspects she discusses (our approach, the support and […]

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Windsor Castle

Life after Graduation

By on February 12, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Public History

One of our recent graduates tells us how the skills he gained studying at Portsmouth, and the volunteer experience he gained while studying, helped him secure an exciting job in the heritage sector.  For security reasons, he has not been named. Having graduated in the summer of 2019 and with a firm understanding that it was now time to get back into the world of work, the task was on to find a job, one that both stimulated me and used the great many skills learned through the three years at Portsmouth. Upon entering university I knew that my one objective was to better myself in both educational values and […]

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Emily Burgess working with the RMM medals collection

Volunteering with naval artefacts from World War I

By on January 24, 2020 in Public History, Research in Focus

Emily Burgess, a third year history student at Portsmouth, describes some of the things she has learned and some of the amazing artefacts she has got to work with on a daily basis in over a year spent working as a volunteer first for the National Museum of the Royal Navy and then for the Royal Marines Museum.  She is now devising her own projects and events for the museum and has found the experience invaluable to her studies for her degree. During my first year at Portsmouth University I attended a history volunteer fair held in The Mary Rose Museum. It was there that I met my future supervisor […]

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Railway Safety poster small

New Data Set On Railway Accidents Released & Research Collaboration

By on December 23, 2019 in Events, Public History, Research in Focus

In this post, Mike Esbester, Senior Lecturer in History, introduces the new dataset he’s been working on for the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project. He shows the working behind the data and what’s in it – including why a book of legal cases reveals so much about one of the most dangerous industries of its time. You can find the all the project data here. Back in February 2019 the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project took part in Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine’s ‘Transcription Tuesday’ event. This made a primary source available digitally – scans of a volume detailing a railway trade union’s legal cases between […]

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An archive at threat: Thomas Cook, 2019

By on September 24, 2019 in News, Public History

UPDATE: Since writing this post, things have moved on – thankfully for the better. There was a tremendous response to the Business Archives Council’s (BAC) call for letters of support. The BAC worked with the liquidators, who have agreed that the archive should be preserved, intact, for the nation. Arrangements are now being made for its transfer to a professional archive. So – well done to all involved: advocacy really worked on this occasion! The official update is here: https://managingbusinessarchives.co.uk/news/2019/12/update-on-the-thomas-cook-archive/ How essential is the archive to the historian? In this post, Mike Esbester looks at the very real threat to one UK archive that is nearly 180 years’ old – […]

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