Dr Michelle Johansen
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historitage.bsky.social
Dr Michelle Johansen
@historitage.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1K following 240 posts
Social historian, researching &
writing about British librarians & #PubLibs in the long nineteenth century. Learning & Outreach Manager at the Society of Antiquaries, London.
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historitage.bsky.social
In the 1870s, George Gissing & his brother William were furious at the ‘scandalous condition’ of #PubLibs in England, contrasting progress unfavourably with the USA - where every town had ‘its excellent Free Library’. From Letters of George Gissing to Members of his Family (1927). 💙📚
A white man in a suit sits at a writing desk. He has thick, wavy hair swept back from his face. One hand is held up to his chin. The other holds a pen with which he writes on a sheet of paper. There are books in a pile beside and in front of him. A caption reads: George Gissing, May 1901.
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
historitage.bsky.social
Thinking about the 130 or so British librarians killed in WW1. Their colleagues raised funds to create a lasting memorial to their sacrifice. Sadly, the tablet they commissioned is now displayed behind the scenes at the British Library, visible only to staff.
#fwwhist #PubLibs 💙📚
Photo of a stone tablet with five columns listing the names & institutional affiliations of approx 130 British librarians killed in WW1. The tablet border is inscribed “IN MEMORY OF THE BRITISH LIBRARIANS FALLEN IN THE WAR MCMXIV-MCMXVIII”.
December 11, 2023 at 6:01 PM
historitage.bsky.social
CLOSED. My second failed attempt to visit the Morrab Library in Penzance last month. Founded in the early 19C, the library is one of only around 60 independent libraries still in existence in the UK (& the only one in the whole of Cornwall). I did admire this cute sign on the front door though.
Close-up photo of painted red door showing a weathered wooden sign stating CLOSED in faded black letters on a white background.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
historitage.bsky.social
Here I am, caught on camera at #HistDay25 getting over-excited about the fact that a 1960s folk-rock band named themselves after a medieval legal document!! I was at the event with my fab @antiquaries.bsky.social colleagues & we chatted to over 100 students & history-lovers. A truly inspiring day.
November 6, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
antiquaries.bsky.social
Do you dare stare into the eyes of spooky child this Halloween? Take your chance today at our Haunted by the Past event until 3.30pm today! www.sal.org.uk/event/haunte...
A creepy portrait of a child with a rattle.
October 31, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
ihr.bsky.social
1 week to go until History Day - don't forget to sign up! Read about why History Day is such a fantastic event in this blog by Claire Langhamer: buff.ly/ySfBuWR

#HistDay25 @senatehouselib.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
historitage.bsky.social
1850. The Public Libraries Act means councils in England & Wales can now spend local taxes on libraries. Some London regions are VERY slow to adopt the act. St Pancras rate-payers object to “wasting” money on “showy luxuries”. Fifty years pass before a free library opens in the district #PubLibs 💙📚
A typed hand bill, printed c.1900. Under the title “FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES” SCHEME IN ST PANCRAS, opponents of free libraries in this central London region set out four reasons for their opposition.
October 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Utterly fascinating talk. Exciting new book about 1920s and 1930s London (and beyond). I’ll never refer to ‘interwar’ again. Sadly no #PubLibs featured at the event but we were surrounded by beautiful art books & you can’t have everything ha ha.
tricksterprince.bsky.social Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 29d
This is what publication day looked like.

I am buzzing but broken this morning. Thank you to everyone who made time to talk to me or came out to hear me talk about Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.

The book is out now with @manchesterup.bsky.social
Matt Houlbrook sits in a chair holding a microphone as he talks about his new book Songs of Seven Dials in Waterstones Covent Garden. Matt Houlbrook's step count for 21 October 2025 showing that he walked 18114 steps around London on the day his latest book was published. A group of people standing in a bookshop after the launch of Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials. Matt Houlbrook looking ridiculously awkward in the BBC Radio London studios.
October 22, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
johnsimkin1945.bsky.social
I left school at 15 without qualifications but educated myself via the Harold Hill library and ended up with three university degrees.
historitage.bsky.social Dr Michelle Johansen @historitage.bsky.social · Sep 14
From the 1930s, Britain’s #PubLibs were increasingly staffed by female librarians - usually overseen by a male manager. This fab photo (from the archives at Havering Libraries) shows a group of smartly-dressed assistants shelving books at the shiny new Upminster Library building in Essex c.1963 💙📚
A black & white photo shows 6 white women, young-looking, squeezed into a narrow bay or corridor in a library. Three of the group are holding armfuls of hardback books; the remaining three appear to be replacing volumes on a stack of shelves on the left of the photo. All are looking directly at the photographer and appear cheerful.
October 21, 2025 at 7:17 AM
historitage.bsky.social
I’ve been discovering David Ackles via Mark Brend’s beautifully-written biography. Down River (2025) details the curious recording career of a relatively unknown US singer songwriter in the late 60s & early 70s. Elton John was a fan. Sadly, no #PubLibs are featured in the biog. Excellent otherwise.
A book cover shows a man in profile. He is white with curly dark hair and his eyes appear closed. Is he singing or performing?
October 20, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
royalhistsoc.org
Also published this week in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'

"Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography", by Alana Harris & Laura Mitchison bit.ly/4gH9e0f

What are the ethics of historical research using asylum photography?
First page of new TRHS article: 'Us and Them: Disability Ethics, Oral History and Inclusive Praxis in the Reuse of Asylum Photography' Abstract in full ‘Us and Them’ is a community history project and artistic collaboration exploring physical and intellectual disability and mental illness, in the past and present. It is part of a broader initiative to open out wider conversations about the history of psychiatric care in Epsom (Surrey, UK) and to explore ways in which medical histories, creative engagement strategies and oral history praxis can illuminate the instability of contemporary understandings of ‘healthy minds’ and ‘normative bodies’. This article charts our recent reuse of asylum photography and the restaging of wet-plate collodion portrait making, opening out key ethical questions about our complicity as consumers of historical sources, the role of re-enactment and empathy, and the place of the haptic and the ludic in exposing the porous and precarious boundaries between ableism and disability. Exploring our own vulnerabilities and solidarities in co-producing a public history project with our disabled artist collaborators, it offers insight into our evolving ‘micro ethics’, foregrounds lived experience perspectives, and offers some initial thoughts on ways to rethink critically some core tenets of oral history methodology.
September 27, 2025 at 8:49 AM
historitage.bsky.social
A line of Yale University librarians carry rare 18C volumes from the old library to the brand new Sterling Memorial Library building in July 1930. I love the way library staff turned this humdrum task into a celebratory piece of street theatre!! #WeekLforLines #AlphabetChallenge 💙📚
A line of more than a dozen librarians carrying books across a street towards the entrance of a gothic stone structure. A couple of passers by look on. The black & white photo is from the collections at the Yale University Library.
September 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
historitage.bsky.social
From the 1930s, Britain’s #PubLibs were increasingly staffed by female librarians - usually overseen by a male manager. This fab photo (from the archives at Havering Libraries) shows a group of smartly-dressed assistants shelving books at the shiny new Upminster Library building in Essex c.1963 💙📚
A black & white photo shows 6 white women, young-looking, squeezed into a narrow bay or corridor in a library. Three of the group are holding armfuls of hardback books; the remaining three appear to be replacing volumes on a stack of shelves on the left of the photo. All are looking directly at the photographer and appear cheerful.
September 14, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
antiquaries.bsky.social
Join us on 12 Sept for a free evening which includes performances that re-voice & unravel the Magna Charter’s most famous clauses, has creative workshops using oak gall ink, features longsword demonstrations, personalised crown workshop, dressing up, sweets & more! www.sal.org.uk/event/age-of...
The seal of Richard de Clare, featuring a knight on horseback.
September 4, 2025 at 2:10 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Railway reads. Found near the train track not far from Lincoln station 💙📚
A bright blue shelving unit holding a few paperbacks. One half of the unit is covered with a tatty piece of corrugated plastic. A hand-made sign pinned to to top of the unit says ‘Railway reads’.
September 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
misssarahwise.bsky.social
My autumn adult ed Sept-Dec courses are now booking.
Here’s what I’m up to:

1/ Borderlines of ‘Madness’ in 19th-Century Fiction, the Mary Ward Centre, East London, starts Tues 23 Sept, 6.30pm, 6 weeks.
Includes Charlotte Bronte, Poe, Wilkie Collins and Gogol www.marywardcentre.ac.uk/course-detai...
Borderlines of Madness - Mary Ward Centre
We will explore various themes related to insanity and altered states of consciousness by examining a number of 19th-century works of fiction.
www.marywardcentre.ac.uk
August 13, 2025 at 8:33 PM
historitage.bsky.social
The American Women’s Club was a philanthropic organisation set up in London in 1898. Members incl. the wives of Herbert Hoover & Gordon Selfridge. In 1916, a clubroom opened in Mayfair complete with Italian-style gardens, a ballroom with a huge pipe organ (v fashionable at this time) & a library 💙📚
A black and white postcard showing a small, wood-panelled library with books along one wall. There are three or four armchairs arranged around the room and a rectangle table displaying journals and magazines. The postcard dates from around 1920.
August 31, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
garstangmuseum.bsky.social
Our #Objectoftheday is this ancient Egyptian little blue faience seal in the form of a crouching oryx gazelle. Interestingly the stamp on the underside also depicts an oryx . It would have been used to mark ownership.

E.5426

#ancientegypt #gazelle #sealstamp #museum
Blue faience seal in the form of a crouching oryx gazelle The the underside of the stamp also depicting an oryx
August 2, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
sslh.bsky.social
Come and join us for Chartism Day 2025. All welcome; booking required.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chartism-d...
August 14, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
tricksterprince.bsky.social
Come for the new history of 1920s and 1930s London, stay for the discount...

Waterstones are offering 25% off pre-orders Songs of Seven Dials this week: just enter SUMMER25 at checkout.

Book is out on 21 Oct – in time for autumnal nights & Christmas gifts.

www.waterstones.com/book/songs-o...
Waterstones' promotional flyer for Matt Houlbrook's book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London. The flyer includes an image of the book and the discount code you can use to preorder it on the Waterstones website: SUMMER25
July 28, 2025 at 7:08 AM
historitage.bsky.social
In 1969, ‘shapely’ library assistant Deborah Kerr failed to bring the Miss Book World title home to Upminster Library in Essex. Never mind. Losing the contest gave Deborah more time to focus on her studies. #PubLibs💙📚
📷 Havering Express, 19 March 1969, from Havering Libraries - Local Studies
A cutting of a newspaper article alongside a photo of a smiling young woman. The title of the article is ‘Deborah shelves title bid’.
July 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
historitage.bsky.social
The female gaze
Herbert Putnam, c.1900
Librarian of Congress (1899-1939)
💙📚
A well-dressed man stands before a glazed bookshelf. He holds a large volume, open, in his right hand. His left hand turns a page. He looks directly to the camera.
July 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Michelle Johansen
georginaemw.bsky.social
Applications for 2 artists' residencies now open at Thin Ice Press! Deadline 25th July www.thinicepress.org/research/pri...
print matters artist’s residencies — Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print, offering memberships, workshops, equipment hire, events & exhibition space.
Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print welcomes applications for two artist’s residencies, to take place across five days between August and September 2025 as part of our research project: Print ...
www.thinicepress.org
July 14, 2025 at 8:57 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Meet John Mullins, the mildly terrifying chief librarian of Birmingham Free Library from 1858 to 1898. Mullins was famous for his Daily Routine Book. The book listed 100 checks the library staff were expected to complete each morning before opening the reference room doors to the public #PubLibs 💙📚
A nineteenth-century drawing of a bearded, bespectacled man seated at a desk, flicking through the pages of a slim volume. This is John Mullins in his library office. The image is taken from from Thomas Kelly ‘Books for the People’ (1977).
July 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM
historitage.bsky.social
It’s 1900. A lavishly-illustrated history of Fulham is published. John Henry Quinn (librarian in neighbouring Chelsea) only orders one copy for readers since ‘interest [among Chelsea people in Fulham is] so little’. Anyway, here’s the famous cork tree planted by Bishop Compton, on p.137
#PubLibs 💙📚
A 19C black & white drawing of a leafy cork tree standing in front of a brick or stone wall. The tree leans noticeably to the right. From Charles William Feret ‘Fulham Old and New’ (1900).
June 21, 2025 at 10:24 AM