Sophie Michell
banner
sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Sophie Michell
@sophiemhistory.bsky.social
Death and crime historian, family researcher, teller of tales.

Open Uni PhD candidate writing about inquests in the 19thC
Pinned
Hello new followers. I am an OOC funded PhD candidate at the Open University working on 19thC English inquests from a criminal justice/social history/microhistory perspective.

I'm in my final year so expect increasingly fraught blathering.
Peterborough infirmary appears to have a very low mortality rate for surgery in the 19th century but I have nothing to compare it to. Has anyone seen any published stats on their travels?
November 10, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Davey Cameron is a pie
November 9, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Doing all this bloody work on a city that won’t bloody be here
November 9, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
Hanging out with 66.67% of my siblings
November 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Helpston level crossing gates have failed twice in the last few weeks and if National Rail need me to go and give an illustrated talk on the history of level crossings on that particular stretch of line, I am available...
November 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM
NAME OF THE WEEK

is a typo. His name was Cook.
November 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
History on a Saturday morning
November 8, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
Rosalind Franklin
Leaving her notes in a pile
That she keeps by the door
Who is it for?
Awful James Watson
Stealing the credit
And snaffling all the awards
Misogynist bore
November 7, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Look, my kids' nicknames are Goose, Kitten and Beans. Priscilla could have it a lot worse.
November 7, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
BlueSky is automatically hiding posts with cuss words in them.
You may want to adjust your settings:
Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.

Here's how to turn it off.

First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner
November 7, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
playing Nick's reaction to finding out Alan was a traitor to myself for the rest of the night. #CelebrityTraitors
November 6, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
The historian has fucked it, I repeat. The historian has fucked it.
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Right, off to shatter everyone’s image of the railway as a lovely wholesome place to work, see you there if you’re coming!
November 6, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
Leonard BERNSTEIN
November 6, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
Florrie N, Bazalgette
Antibiotics not just yet
Poppies for malaria
In the Fenland area
November 6, 2025 at 6:21 PM
In the style of Billy Joel:
JOHN SNOW, CHOLERA
EDWIN CHADWICK, MIASMA
PINK PILLS FOR PALE PEOPLE
LAUDANUM FOR SALE
November 6, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Trying to cover the history of nineteenth-century medicine in ONE PARAGRAPH because I am SUCCINCT
November 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I wish BBIH would let you filter academic publications, not because I am a giant snob, but because it would be really helpful when doing a thematic search...
November 6, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reposted by Sophie Michell
Brianna keeps getting written about, even if not especially her own mother, like she tragically killed herself rather than was murdered in a transphobic hate crime
Most of us have pathologically useless parents who don't care to learn about protecting us properly, but this dogshit really takes the cake.
October 24, 2025 at 10:54 AM
We all stan Nick Mohammed right?
November 6, 2025 at 9:17 AM
COME TO MY RAILWAY TALK… this one isn’t in it but it’s … pretty standard for the time

One guy climbed out of the line-side window of a carriage and that ended badly
Wanna see the newspaper clipping about it?
November 5, 2025 at 9:57 PM
THIS IS TOMORROW! IF YOU LIKE THAT SORT OF THING!
Our member @sophiemhistory.bsky.social is speaking at Werrington NEXT WEEK on the development and impact of the railway on Victorian Peterborough.

Come along if you can!
November 5, 2025 at 2:14 PM
It's Bonfire Night and the mid-Victorians had a bizarrely blasé attitude to gunpowder

sophiemhistory.com/2021/11/04/b...
Barnsley Bangers
In honour of Diwali and Bonfire Night, my favourite time of year, here’s a story about what happens when fireworks go wrong. Barnsley, 1868. George Norris, aged thirty-five, was a man who pro…
sophiemhistory.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:54 PM
My endometriosis isnt killing me (this week)
a group of people are dancing in a forest and a man is holding a woman 's hand .
Alt: a group of people are dancing in a forest
media.tenor.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:29 PM