History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | heritage

Benin bronze cropped

An African slave trading commodity washed up off the Isle of Wight

By on July 15, 2024 in Learning in Focus

Many of our UoP history students take the opportunity to do voluntary work in one of the many museums in Portsmouth or nearby.  Second-year UoP History Isobel Turtle started volunteering even earlier.  Having decided to defer her university entry,  she started working at the Isle of Wight shipwreck centre in 2021.  It’s given her lots of unique opportunities to learn how a museum works: highlights have included seeing how a museum becomes accredited by the Arts Council, how grants and funding are secured and used, how exhibitions are created from scratch, working on databasing the collection, helping with visiting school groups and managing volunteers. She has worked her way up […]

Continue Reading 0
mary rose cropped

An inventory of Henry VIII’s navy

By on September 8, 2023 in Public History, Research in Focus

UoP second-year history student Francesca Raine has recently had a guest blog published for the Mary Rose collections, discussing the Anthony Roll.  This list of Henry VIII’s ships was presented to King Henry VIII in 1546 by its creator Anthony Anthony, an official of the Ordnance.  Beneath each ship is an individual inventory detailing information on the weaponry, crew, and tonnage, an in-depth Tudor catalogue. This document holds the only illustration and final report of the Mary Rose from its active life.  Click here to read more.

Continue Reading 0
Birmingham Museum Trust tapestry

The Lost Crafts of the Past

By on August 16, 2023 in Events, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

As part of their work on the second year core module ‘Working with the Past’, three University of Portsmouth History students – Chanel Parker, Loraya Head, and Gemma Norris – collaborated with Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery to curate a three-month exhibition that both celebrated the crafts of our ancestors and highlighted the importance of preserving the craftspeoples’ skills for future generations. In this blog, written for Hampshire Archives Trust, Chanel Parker discusses the research methods the group used when curating the exhibition. ‘Working with the Past’ is coordinated by Mike Esbester. To read the blog, click this link.   Slider image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust

Continue Reading 0
city museum featured image

Enhancing students’ skills and experiences: A Twitter takeover, an exhibition and a podcast

By on May 11, 2023 in Employability, Events, Learning in Focus, News, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

As a team we always encourage our students to enhance their skills while studying for their History degree with us, and one way we do this is by offering them opportunities to work with some of our external partners. In this post, we demonstrate how this is undertaken in one second year core module, ‘Working with the Past, co-ordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their studies during their History degree, our students have worked with a range of local and international institutions, including the Mary Rose Museum, Lloyd’s Register Foundation,  the D-Day Story archive, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Pompey History Society, and have undertaken a wide variety […]

Continue Reading 0
cinema in wartime 2 cropped

Bridging the gap between the academic and non-academic worlds III: Sharing local histories

By on February 20, 2023 in Alumni, Employability, Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

In this blog Josh Wintle, who graduated with a History degree from Portsmouth last year (well done, Josh!), discusses a project he worked on in his second year with some of his fellow History students for the module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their project, the students looked into how academic historians take their work ‘out of the academy’ and into the public realm. Josh and his fellow students interviewed our Dr Rob James, who researches leisure history, to find out how he has tried to engage the wider public in the history he researches. The aim of the interviews we conducted with […]

Continue Reading 0
Pompey History Society project exhibition 1

Pompey: Champions of England: A research collaboration between the History team, students and Pompey History Society

By on November 22, 2022 in Employability, Events, Learning in Focus, New Publications, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

In this blog, our Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the local history project he worked on with one of our local community partners, Pompey History Society, that culminated in the publication of a book which includes a chapter written by Rob and four of our History students, Sam Ewart, Maria Kopanska, Dan Ward and Jack Woolley. Rob’s research explores society’s leisure activities and feeds into a number of optional and specialist modules that he teaches in the second and third year.   On 26 October 2022, I attended the launch of the book POMPEY Champions of England: The sporting and social history of Portsmouth FC’s league title wins […]

Continue Reading 0