Thomas Smits
@thomassmits.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Digital History and AI @ University of Amsterdam | Visual news culture | Visual memory of protest | http://thomassmits.eu/
Great to present our work (w. @melvinwevers.bsky.social) on applying "basic" ML to study historical visual culture at the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar!
#dhist If you missed @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social speaking at the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History on Orientalist pixels, colonial colour palettes, and machine learning - plus the fab discussion that followed - the recording is now on our youtube channel youtu.be/kDTJToRCEHQ
Smits & Wevers: Orientalist pixels - revealing the colonial color palette of early photography
YouTube video by IHR Digital History Seminar
youtu.be
January 21, 2026 at 10:50 AM
Great to present our work (w. @melvinwevers.bsky.social) on applying "basic" ML to study historical visual culture at the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History Seminar!
Reposted by Thomas Smits
#dhist If you missed @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social speaking at the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History on Orientalist pixels, colonial colour palettes, and machine learning - plus the fab discussion that followed - the recording is now on our youtube channel youtu.be/kDTJToRCEHQ
Smits & Wevers: Orientalist pixels - revealing the colonial color palette of early photography
YouTube video by IHR Digital History Seminar
youtu.be
January 21, 2026 at 10:20 AM
#dhist If you missed @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social speaking at the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History on Orientalist pixels, colonial colour palettes, and machine learning - plus the fab discussion that followed - the recording is now on our youtube channel youtu.be/kDTJToRCEHQ
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Hi @hathitrust.bsky.social wizards and/or American #historians (espc @uofcalifornia.bsky.social), can anyone able to help me get PDFs of this record? Really appreciate any help 🤝🙏!!
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
January 12, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Hi @hathitrust.bsky.social wizards and/or American #historians (espc @uofcalifornia.bsky.social), can anyone able to help me get PDFs of this record? Really appreciate any help 🤝🙏!!
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
Hi @hathitrust.bsky.social wizards and/or American #historians (espc @uofcalifornia.bsky.social), can anyone able to help me get PDFs of this record? Really appreciate any help 🤝🙏!!
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
January 12, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Hi @hathitrust.bsky.social wizards and/or American #historians (espc @uofcalifornia.bsky.social), can anyone able to help me get PDFs of this record? Really appreciate any help 🤝🙏!!
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/01031...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
It's incredibly important to have a journal like Open Humanities Data. Had the pleasure working with @l-teixeiracosta.bsky.social to publish a dataset of 11k+ records from the first illustrated flora of the Netherlands (19th century)
👀 Look at that turnaround time: 1 month!
doi.org/10.5334/johd...
👀 Look at that turnaround time: 1 month!
doi.org/10.5334/johd...
January 12, 2026 at 8:20 AM
It's incredibly important to have a journal like Open Humanities Data. Had the pleasure working with @l-teixeiracosta.bsky.social to publish a dataset of 11k+ records from the first illustrated flora of the Netherlands (19th century)
👀 Look at that turnaround time: 1 month!
doi.org/10.5334/johd...
👀 Look at that turnaround time: 1 month!
doi.org/10.5334/johd...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
#dhist Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar 20 Jan midday GMT (on Zoom) for @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social on 'Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography'. Details ⬇️ ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Tuesday 20 January 2026 - Thomas Smits and Melvin Wevers (Amsterdam): Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography - Digital History Seminar
This seminar is 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm GMT live on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/98599080376 later posted to our YouTube channel. Session chair: Alexandra Ortolja-Baird Abstract: This talk explores how digita...
ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk
January 5, 2026 at 9:28 AM
#dhist Join the @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar 20 Jan midday GMT (on Zoom) for @thomassmits.bsky.social & @melvinwevers.bsky.social on 'Orientalist pixels: How machine learning reveals the colonial color palette of early photography'. Details ⬇️ ihrdighist.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/09/tues...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
📣 New #OpenAccess article
🏮 Margo Buelens-Terryn, Ilja Van Damme and @thomassmits.bsky.social, 'Projecting cities: illustrated lantern lectures as forgotten practice of place promotion in Belgium, c. 1900 – c. 1920'
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
🏮 Margo Buelens-Terryn, Ilja Van Damme and @thomassmits.bsky.social, 'Projecting cities: illustrated lantern lectures as forgotten practice of place promotion in Belgium, c. 1900 – c. 1920'
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
December 18, 2025 at 3:55 PM
📣 New #OpenAccess article
🏮 Margo Buelens-Terryn, Ilja Van Damme and @thomassmits.bsky.social, 'Projecting cities: illustrated lantern lectures as forgotten practice of place promotion in Belgium, c. 1900 – c. 1920'
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
🏮 Margo Buelens-Terryn, Ilja Van Damme and @thomassmits.bsky.social, 'Projecting cities: illustrated lantern lectures as forgotten practice of place promotion in Belgium, c. 1900 – c. 1920'
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory
Pleased to share that I've been awarded an NWO XS grant for "Terraforming from Above: Digital Methods for Colonial Aerial Photography"
Between 1920-1949, Dutch pilots systematically photographed Indonesia from above, creating an unprecedented aerial archive of the colonial landscape.
Between 1920-1949, Dutch pilots systematically photographed Indonesia from above, creating an unprecedented aerial archive of the colonial landscape.
December 15, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Pleased to share that I've been awarded an NWO XS grant for "Terraforming from Above: Digital Methods for Colonial Aerial Photography"
Between 1920-1949, Dutch pilots systematically photographed Indonesia from above, creating an unprecedented aerial archive of the colonial landscape.
Between 1920-1949, Dutch pilots systematically photographed Indonesia from above, creating an unprecedented aerial archive of the colonial landscape.
Excited for session 2B this afternoon at #CHR2025! @melvinwevers.bsky.social presents our work (w. @folgertk.bsky.social) using Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity to quantify archival silence and bias. We're measuring the diversity of the Dutch National Archive's photographic collection.
edu.nl/7cbef
edu.nl/7cbef
December 10, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Excited for session 2B this afternoon at #CHR2025! @melvinwevers.bsky.social presents our work (w. @folgertk.bsky.social) using Faith's Phylogenetic Diversity to quantify archival silence and bias. We're measuring the diversity of the Dutch National Archive's photographic collection.
edu.nl/7cbef
edu.nl/7cbef
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Building datasets to train smaller, task-focused models used to be incredibly time-consuming.
Very excited to see SAM3 massively lower that barrier. Describe the class you want to detect and get annotated datasets automatically!
Try it yourself: huggingface.co/datasets/uv-...!
Very excited to see SAM3 massively lower that barrier. Describe the class you want to detect and get annotated datasets automatically!
Try it yourself: huggingface.co/datasets/uv-...!
November 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Building datasets to train smaller, task-focused models used to be incredibly time-consuming.
Very excited to see SAM3 massively lower that barrier. Describe the class you want to detect and get annotated datasets automatically!
Try it yourself: huggingface.co/datasets/uv-...!
Very excited to see SAM3 massively lower that barrier. Describe the class you want to detect and get annotated datasets automatically!
Try it yourself: huggingface.co/datasets/uv-...!
Reposted by Thomas Smits
📢 The #CHR2025 proceedings are out!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
Edited by Taylor Arnold, Margherita Fantoli, and Ruben Ros
anthology.ach.org
November 19, 2025 at 12:53 PM
📢 The #CHR2025 proceedings are out!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
97 papers, ~1600 pages of computational humanities 🔥 Now published via the new Anthology of Computers and the Humanities, with DOIs for every paper.
🔗 anthology.ach.org/volumes/vol0...
And don’t forget: registration closes tomorrow (20 Nov)!
Reposted by Thomas Smits
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core
Whose news? Critical methods for assessing bias in large historical datasets - Volume 1
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
!Stop Press! Article on bias in digitised newspaper collections: ’Whose News’, in the new journal of @comphumresearch.bsky.social by Kaspar Beelen, @jonhistorian61.bsky.social, @kmcdono.bsky.social and me. See blog for summary & 🧵 1/7
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Article doi.org/10.1017/chr....
Blog is.gd/2IFc30
#dh #c19 🗃️
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Look at our lovely autumn/winter @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar schedule, including talks from @bamcshane.bsky.social @jeroenputtevils.bsky.social @rubenros.bsky.social @thomassmits.bsky.social @melvinwevers.bsky.social and more! #dhist
September 23, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Look at our lovely autumn/winter @ihr.bsky.social Digital History seminar schedule, including talks from @bamcshane.bsky.social @jeroenputtevils.bsky.social @rubenros.bsky.social @thomassmits.bsky.social @melvinwevers.bsky.social and more! #dhist
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Victorianists - a little bit of silly joy in all the gloom: take a moment today to vote for this gorgeous Lego set idea of the Great Exhibition so we can all get it for Christmas! beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
September 17, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Victorianists - a little bit of silly joy in all the gloom: take a moment today to vote for this gorgeous Lego set idea of the Great Exhibition so we can all get it for Christmas! beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Excited to hear "Mapping Empire: A Distant Viewing Approach to News Maps in Victorian Illustrated Periodicals, 1842-1890" from Bethany Warner & @thomassmits.bsky.social next!
July 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Excited to hear "Mapping Empire: A Distant Viewing Approach to News Maps in Victorian Illustrated Periodicals, 1842-1890" from Bethany Warner & @thomassmits.bsky.social next!
Maybe I can take this oppurtunity to promote our open-access dataset of the Illustrated London News and multimodal search tool: bsky.app/profile/thom...
Search the images of the ILN (1842-1889) with words or images.
Easy install via Github but also happy to help with some image quests!
Search the images of the ILN (1842-1889) with words or images.
Easy install via Github but also happy to help with some image quests!
Any ILN experts who can help? @rs4vp.org
Hello fellow historians of spiritualism. I'm looking for the full reference to this woodcut "The Prosecution Of Dr Slade" from the Illustrated London News in 1876. I'd be grateful to anyone who can help. Also, if you have a 300dpi copy you're willing to share, even better!
June 26, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Maybe I can take this oppurtunity to promote our open-access dataset of the Illustrated London News and multimodal search tool: bsky.app/profile/thom...
Search the images of the ILN (1842-1889) with words or images.
Easy install via Github but also happy to help with some image quests!
Search the images of the ILN (1842-1889) with words or images.
Easy install via Github but also happy to help with some image quests!
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Over de Muur lanceert een nieuwe serie!
We roepen op om bijdragen in te sturen over ideeën, politieke strategieën of bewegingen uit het verleden die een linkse agenda kunnen inspireren en helpen in de strijd tegen extreemrechts.
Zie de call op onze website:
overdemuur.org/oproep-serie...
We roepen op om bijdragen in te sturen over ideeën, politieke strategieën of bewegingen uit het verleden die een linkse agenda kunnen inspireren en helpen in de strijd tegen extreemrechts.
Zie de call op onze website:
overdemuur.org/oproep-serie...
Oproep: Serie ‘Historische inspiratie voor progressief verzet’
Over de Muur roept op om bijdragen in te sturen voor een nieuwe serie over ideeën, politieke strategieën of bewegingen uit het verleden die een linkse agenda kunnen inspireren en helpen in de strij…
overdemuur.org
June 12, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Over de Muur lanceert een nieuwe serie!
We roepen op om bijdragen in te sturen over ideeën, politieke strategieën of bewegingen uit het verleden die een linkse agenda kunnen inspireren en helpen in de strijd tegen extreemrechts.
Zie de call op onze website:
overdemuur.org/oproep-serie...
We roepen op om bijdragen in te sturen over ideeën, politieke strategieën of bewegingen uit het verleden die een linkse agenda kunnen inspireren en helpen in de strijd tegen extreemrechts.
Zie de call op onze website:
overdemuur.org/oproep-serie...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Ik heb vandaag een stuk in Trouw staan over hoe fossiele brandstoffen ten onrechte worden gezien als wondermiddel voor allerlei problemen.
Op mijn Substack geef ik nog wat meer achtergrond bij mijn stellingen in het stuk
open.substack.com/pub/werkgehe...
Op mijn Substack geef ik nog wat meer achtergrond bij mijn stellingen in het stuk
open.substack.com/pub/werkgehe...
De keerzijde van fossiele vooruitgang
Van kinderarbeid in kolenmijnen tot moderne klimaatschade
open.substack.com
May 31, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Ik heb vandaag een stuk in Trouw staan over hoe fossiele brandstoffen ten onrechte worden gezien als wondermiddel voor allerlei problemen.
Op mijn Substack geef ik nog wat meer achtergrond bij mijn stellingen in het stuk
open.substack.com/pub/werkgehe...
Op mijn Substack geef ik nog wat meer achtergrond bij mijn stellingen in het stuk
open.substack.com/pub/werkgehe...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Finally documented the Beyond Words dataset from the @librarycongress.bsky.social labs / @bcgl.bsky.social for the BigLAM @hf.co org!
- 3.5K annotated historical newspaper pages
- Bounding boxes + category labels
- Photos, ads, headlines, cartoons & more
- 3.5K annotated historical newspaper pages
- Bounding boxes + category labels
- Photos, ads, headlines, cartoons & more
May 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Finally documented the Beyond Words dataset from the @librarycongress.bsky.social labs / @bcgl.bsky.social for the BigLAM @hf.co org!
- 3.5K annotated historical newspaper pages
- Bounding boxes + category labels
- Photos, ads, headlines, cartoons & more
- 3.5K annotated historical newspaper pages
- Bounding boxes + category labels
- Photos, ads, headlines, cartoons & more
Reposted by Thomas Smits
I'm hiring a PhD and a Postdoc! 📣
The PhD is on learning from feedback for bias analysis in cultural collections, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The postdoc is on gender representation in generative AI and artistic potentials, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The PhD is on learning from feedback for bias analysis in cultural collections, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The postdoc is on gender representation in generative AI and artistic potentials, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
April 30, 2025 at 7:28 AM
I'm hiring a PhD and a Postdoc! 📣
The PhD is on learning from feedback for bias analysis in cultural collections, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The postdoc is on gender representation in generative AI and artistic potentials, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The PhD is on learning from feedback for bias analysis in cultural collections, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
The postdoc is on gender representation in generative AI and artistic potentials, more info at: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
De week dat ik op @historicivertellen.bsky.social actief was kon ik hier helaas nog niet over schrijven, omdat het onderzoek nog niet gepubliceerd was, maar een foto uit onze collectie is waarschijnlijk de oudste portretfoto van Nederland, uit 1841. Heel tof!
www.geldersarchief.nl/over-ons/act...
www.geldersarchief.nl/over-ons/act...
April 4, 2025 at 3:38 PM
De week dat ik op @historicivertellen.bsky.social actief was kon ik hier helaas nog niet over schrijven, omdat het onderzoek nog niet gepubliceerd was, maar een foto uit onze collectie is waarschijnlijk de oudste portretfoto van Nederland, uit 1841. Heel tof!
www.geldersarchief.nl/over-ons/act...
www.geldersarchief.nl/over-ons/act...
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Lin Du discussing image circulation through computer vision to better understand WWII-era photographs of the CCP. Great work using computer vision to identify retouching, repurposing, and captions to discuss misinformation. Make sure to check out her awesome work!
April 2, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Lin Du discussing image circulation through computer vision to better understand WWII-era photographs of the CCP. Great work using computer vision to identify retouching, repurposing, and captions to discuss misinformation. Make sure to check out her awesome work!
Amazing visualization of parliamentary data! Can't wait for Ruben's thesis!
People often say debates shift left or right. With parliamentary data, we can now take this literally: the direction of debates over 50 years of parliamentary discussions in the Dutch House of Representatives (1945-1994).
March 22, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Amazing visualization of parliamentary data! Can't wait for Ruben's thesis!
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Woensdag is mijn vrije dag en dan ben ik meestal in de natuur te vinden. Ook in onze fotocollectie is die aanwezig. De omgang met de natuur is iets dat steeds aan verandering onderhevig is en dat maakt het historisch erg nuttig dat hier ook beelden van bewaard blijven.
March 19, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Woensdag is mijn vrije dag en dan ben ik meestal in de natuur te vinden. Ook in onze fotocollectie is die aanwezig. De omgang met de natuur is iets dat steeds aan verandering onderhevig is en dat maakt het historisch erg nuttig dat hier ook beelden van bewaard blijven.
Reposted by Thomas Smits
Voordat ik het stokje overgeef aan @ramonanegron.bsky.social nog een vraag:
Wat vinden jullie goede/mooie/interessante voorbeelden van digitale of computationele geschiedenis?
Welk onderzoek van Nederlandse/Nederlandstalige digitale historici zou iedereen moeten lezen?
Wat vinden jullie goede/mooie/interessante voorbeelden van digitale of computationele geschiedenis?
Welk onderzoek van Nederlandse/Nederlandstalige digitale historici zou iedereen moeten lezen?
March 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Voordat ik het stokje overgeef aan @ramonanegron.bsky.social nog een vraag:
Wat vinden jullie goede/mooie/interessante voorbeelden van digitale of computationele geschiedenis?
Welk onderzoek van Nederlandse/Nederlandstalige digitale historici zou iedereen moeten lezen?
Wat vinden jullie goede/mooie/interessante voorbeelden van digitale of computationele geschiedenis?
Welk onderzoek van Nederlandse/Nederlandstalige digitale historici zou iedereen moeten lezen?