Dr Laura Humphreys
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bogarty.bsky.social
Dr Laura Humphreys
@bogarty.bsky.social
Historian & Researcher 🏚️
Science Museum Group collections 🛰️
Returned Cardiffian 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Plant Nerd 🌱
Views my own. She/her/hi
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, was present at the end of the universe, having witnessed every black hole evaporate and every proton decay. Even so, Death would not come.
December 24, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
Excellent news: from January 2027, British students will once again be able to take part in the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme.

This is something I have long campaigned for and is a huge win for London and our young people.
UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme
Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say
www.theguardian.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
What do McLaren and the Concorde have in common? 🏎️✈️

The 2025 double-winning F1 team was also the first to put carbon fibre into race-car structures back in the ’60s, thanks to engineers who came straight from working on the supersonic plane.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/48pTlbR
December 8, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Well this has spread quite far, which is wonderful.

Oprigtig tak/ Sincere thanks to colleagues @sciencemuseum.org.uk, @wellcomecollection.bsky.social and at #Mindelunden for their work on this repatriation and the article to share how we managed this.
Super proud of this one - sometimes in museums we get to do the right thing & correct a historical wrong.

Honoured to have played a part in returning Preben Holger Larsen's remains to Denmark, and I hope sharing our methods helps other museums follow difficult research threads.

bit.ly/4iZXCpX
Museum-led repatriation of Second World War human remains: the case of Preben Holger Larsen - Science Museum Group Journal
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Super proud of this one - sometimes in museums we get to do the right thing & correct a historical wrong.

Honoured to have played a part in returning Preben Holger Larsen's remains to Denmark, and I hope sharing our methods helps other museums follow difficult research threads.

bit.ly/4iZXCpX
Museum-led repatriation of Second World War human remains: the case of Preben Holger Larsen - Science Museum Group Journal
bit.ly
December 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
In a brilliant alignment of work & fun, I've been doing a lot of research about McLaren & F1 recently. V. convenient they've now won the double world championship!

Have some fun facts about #McLaren, #F1 and the history of Carbon Fibre as a treat.
blog.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/papaya-rules...
Papaya Rules: McLaren, Concorde, and Carbon Fibre - Science Museum Group Blog
After McLaren‘s double victory this year in Formula 1, Curatorial Lead Laura Humphreys looks at their history of innovation in materials science through the collection.
blog.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk
December 8, 2025 at 11:32 AM
This is some depressing, but entirely believable, reading. Over 500 museums closed since 2000 - particularly grim reading about local authority museums.

www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
Almost 530 museums have closed since 2000, study finds - Museums Association
Research project shows that first decade after opening is the most precarious for museums
www.museumsassociation.org
December 3, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
📢CfP: DIFFICULT COLLECTIONS📢

What can practitioners & researchers do with difficult heritage preserved in galleries, libraries, archives and museums?

- Paper Trails (a Book as Online Open Content) Special Issue
- Proposal deadline: 31/01/2026
- Details: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

🗃️ #GLAM
Call for Papers: Difficult Collections | UCL UCL Special Collections
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
The Atlantic’s holiday gift guide is out and my contribution is hot dog.

www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
November 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
‘Before the kits, almost a third of the evidence collected from sexual assault victims in Cook County, Illinois had been inadmissible; after they were introduced, that figure fell to 2 per cent.’

Tess Little on how the ‘rape kit’ transformed sexual assault prosecutions
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Tess Little · Nutshell Crime Scenes: The Rape Kit
The​ rape kit is a cardboard box containing ordinary items anyone might own: envelopes, combs, swabs, nail clippers....
www.lrb.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Why yes, of course I am well-versed in project management methodologies in museums...
October 31, 2025 at 3:36 PM
A weird question for my museum collections nerds on a Monday:

Human Hair in collections. Who's thinking about/ writing about/ discussing this? What hair have you got? How do you approach potential sensitivities?

Please share far and wide! #Museums #Collections #CulturalHeritage
October 20, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
We used to be a country
October 18, 2025 at 8:46 AM
I feel like you lot will appreciate this Cardiff postbox...
October 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Turns out that paddock cat might be some kind of vengeful ancient god? #F1 #BakuGP
September 20, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Self portrait in the heat shield of a 1992 McLaren F1 car.

Some days, museum collections are very cool indeed.
September 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Cardiff has quite possibly the most dense concentration of artisan bakeries in Europe and I for one am *honoured* to live in such a city.
September 14, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
We're 300 followers away from 70,000. 300 more would be really nice. But you know what would be even better? 300 plus 30,000.

Bluesky: help a museum out
August 13, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Amazing opportunity here to have a say in MA policies and procedures, representing the UK's four nations. Do apply to represent your nation and the devolved issues of culture you're dealing with.

#NIMuseums #ScottishMuseums #WelshMuseums #EnglishMuseums
Opportunity | Become a member of our Nation Committees 👤

We're looking for 12 members to join our committees to support our work in the four nations of the UK, with places available for 3 members to join each of our England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales committees.

Apply by 14 September 👇
Opportunity | Become a member of our Nation Committees - Museums Association
We're looking for 12 members to join our committees to support our work in the four nations of the UK
www.museumsassociation.org
August 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
Like many of you, we’re heading to the Wales for the summer holidays with this beautiful painting for #OnlineArtExchange @artukdotorg.bsky.social in celebration of Oriel Môn's exhibition 'From the Collection' 🖼️

🖼️A Sketch in Wales
👨‍🎨William James Müller (1812–1845)
📸Sheffield Museums
August 14, 2025 at 8:57 AM
When anyone talks about "labour saving" tech I love to tell them that actually it just raises standards, costs money, & doesn't make anyone's life easier.

When they don't believe me: EMAIL. Basically free, instant, and easier than post. But tell me - how much labour has email saved you lately?
August 13, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
Still stumped by this one… #palaeography
#palaeography help please! What is thus contraction mark? It looks like a capital I like on Item or It. Ibidem? It’s from 1551 from the Edinburgh Hammermen: ‘…be our soverane and proveist and baillies of I[ ] this burght’ Ibid would fit?
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Dr Laura Humphreys
I see grocery/takeout shaming discourse going around again, so this is your periodic historian reminder that cooking from scratch daily while working has never been sustainable, and for millennia everyone either relied on takeout & restaurants or ate in huge households w/ big dorm-like group dining.
July 25, 2025 at 10:40 PM
An excellent opportunity to join the curatorial team at the Science Museum has come up! Please spread the word.

🌍Curator of Climate & Earth Sciences
⚗️Part of the excellent Team Science in London Curatorial
⌛ Permanent, Full-Time
💲 £41k p/a

bit.ly/4m3uQFp
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July 21, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Some good news for Welsh heritage and museums here. Much needed.
News | Caerphilly Castle to reopen following two-year restoration – elsewhere, Cyfarthfa Castle and Shire Hall Museum receive funding for transformative projects
Caerphilly Castle to reopen following two-year restoration - Museums Association
Elsewhere, Cyfarthfa Castle and Shire Hall Museum receive funding for transformative projects
www.museumsassociation.org
July 17, 2025 at 10:53 AM