History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | beauty

The impact of beauty on women’s lives from the sixteenth century to today: a prize-winning poster

Having successfully completed a first-class degree in history at Portsmouth, followed by a master’s degree, Jaina Hunt is now in the midst of studying for a PhD in history.  Below she writes about her thesis on early modern beauty standards and about her poster presentation which won awards in 2024.  In addition to working on her thesis, Jaina has worked as a teaching fellow at Portsmouth, as a project administrator for the British Council, a PhD tutor for the Brilliant Club, delivering university-style tutorials to high-potential students from underrepresented backgrounds, and a research-assistant on a UoP BA/ Leverhulme funded project on  young women and body image.  Jaina’s PhD supervisor is […]

Continue Reading 0

Projecting youth, purity and marriageability: students reconstruct sixteenth-century beauty recipes

For their first year module, Beliefs, Communities and Conflicts, 1400-1750, UoP history students are asked to do a practical activity and then write a report about it, reflecting reflecting critically about how it relates to the themes explored in the module.  This, the first of two posts, looks at what students learned from trying to reconstruct early modern cosmetics.  The tutors on this module were Dr Maria Cannon and Dr Fiona McCall. Rosie Wells chose to adapt the recipe for Rose Lip Balm from Italian doctor Giovanni Marinelli’s Gli ornamenti delle donne (The Ornament of Ladies) (1562) a manual on female beauty containing recipes at first purporting to be taken […]

Continue Reading 0