Louvain Rees ⚰️
@hellohistoria.bsky.social
BBC award-winning Social Historian ✍️
Death, Wales & Psychiatry 💀
Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum 🧠
Workhouses | Poor Law | Lunacy 🧠
🥇BBC History Extra '30 under 30' 📚
📍Cardiff | views are my own • she/her
🔗 www.linktr.ee/louvainrees
Death, Wales & Psychiatry 💀
Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum 🧠
Workhouses | Poor Law | Lunacy 🧠
🥇BBC History Extra '30 under 30' 📚
📍Cardiff | views are my own • she/her
🔗 www.linktr.ee/louvainrees
Pinned
PSA 📢
A lot of my research is centred around death, psychiatry, and mental health history.
Please be aware that some of my posts may be upsetting or uncomfortable to read.
Please keep this in mind when reading my posts
✨️
A lot of my research is centred around death, psychiatry, and mental health history.
Please be aware that some of my posts may be upsetting or uncomfortable to read.
Please keep this in mind when reading my posts
✨️
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
I do not write much but there is not a day goes by that I do not think of you.
December 3, 2025 at 10:09 PM
I do not write much but there is not a day goes by that I do not think of you.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
This is such a sad story! An important collection that had been sent for digitisation (though why from Kent to Scotland, I'm not sure) 📜 www.bbc.com/news/article...
Museum staff 'devastated' after drawings worth £500,000 destroyed
About 1,700 military drawings from the Royal Engineers Museum were destroyed in the theft last month.
www.bbc.com
December 3, 2025 at 10:01 PM
This is such a sad story! An important collection that had been sent for digitisation (though why from Kent to Scotland, I'm not sure) 📜 www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
My talk on 18th century histories of disability and resistance at the Institute of Historical Research is now available as a podcast
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Histories of Resistance: Disability, Agency and Embodiment in the Long Eighteenth Century
British History in the Long 18th Century Semianr
www.history.ac.uk
July 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
My talk on 18th century histories of disability and resistance at the Institute of Historical Research is now available as a podcast
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Planning to start your Christmas shopping this weekend?
I've got you covered with over 100 links to charities, museums and small businesses selling interesting things which will bring joy not landfill.
#GoodGifts
I've got you covered with over 100 links to charities, museums and small businesses selling interesting things which will bring joy not landfill.
#GoodGifts
Good Gifts 2025
Use your Secret Santa or present giving to support charities, museums and small businesses.
madlinblog.wordpress.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Planning to start your Christmas shopping this weekend?
I've got you covered with over 100 links to charities, museums and small businesses selling interesting things which will bring joy not landfill.
#GoodGifts
I've got you covered with over 100 links to charities, museums and small businesses selling interesting things which will bring joy not landfill.
#GoodGifts
Christmas shopping 😭😭😭 send help 😭😭
December 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Christmas shopping 😭😭😭 send help 😭😭
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
17thc medical diagnosis by astrology. Watch out under Capricorn for diseases of the knees and hams. And beware of scabs and fractures
December 1, 2025 at 12:15 PM
17thc medical diagnosis by astrology. Watch out under Capricorn for diseases of the knees and hams. And beware of scabs and fractures
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
17th century birthing stool, with handgrips for the mother to grasp during contractions and a 'cloth round the ring to keep out the aire'. Similar stools can be found described in the Bible and in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
November 12, 2025 at 5:01 PM
17th century birthing stool, with handgrips for the mother to grasp during contractions and a 'cloth round the ring to keep out the aire'. Similar stools can be found described in the Bible and in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Suffering from the sniffles? Here's a recipe to make a "fine tablet for the cough and coold" from our 18th century herbal notebook.
November 25, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Suffering from the sniffles? Here's a recipe to make a "fine tablet for the cough and coold" from our 18th century herbal notebook.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Amputation knife (c.1800) of William Beatty, surgeon on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The curved blade was a popular style in the late 1700s/early 1800s. These were replaced by straighter blades in the mid-1800s to ensure more accurate incisions
November 27, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Amputation knife (c.1800) of William Beatty, surgeon on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The curved blade was a popular style in the late 1700s/early 1800s. These were replaced by straighter blades in the mid-1800s to ensure more accurate incisions
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
It's #FestiveLights for today's #ArchiveAdventCalendar.
Our Vapo-Cresoline Spirit Lamp (c.1900) has a very Christmassy feel to it! The lamp would light you to bed but its claim to cure respiratory diseases, by producing a cleansing gas, was definitely fake news.
Our Vapo-Cresoline Spirit Lamp (c.1900) has a very Christmassy feel to it! The lamp would light you to bed but its claim to cure respiratory diseases, by producing a cleansing gas, was definitely fake news.
December 2, 2025 at 12:11 PM
It's #FestiveLights for today's #ArchiveAdventCalendar.
Our Vapo-Cresoline Spirit Lamp (c.1900) has a very Christmassy feel to it! The lamp would light you to bed but its claim to cure respiratory diseases, by producing a cleansing gas, was definitely fake news.
Our Vapo-Cresoline Spirit Lamp (c.1900) has a very Christmassy feel to it! The lamp would light you to bed but its claim to cure respiratory diseases, by producing a cleansing gas, was definitely fake news.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
This painting by Charles Bell is an amalgam of 3 soldiers he had treated with gunshot fractures of the skull which led to them developing opisthotonos. You can read more about the history of the painting in this blog from our Humans Remains Conservator: bit.ly/3vDWO5D
November 14, 2025 at 12:02 PM
This painting by Charles Bell is an amalgam of 3 soldiers he had treated with gunshot fractures of the skull which led to them developing opisthotonos. You can read more about the history of the painting in this blog from our Humans Remains Conservator: bit.ly/3vDWO5D
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
A History of sex work in Merthyr 🍻
"This area was already notorious as a sex work and brothel area since the 1820s, and it was where prostitutes and their bullies (pimps) congregated."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-...
#Wales #History
"This area was already notorious as a sex work and brothel area since the 1820s, and it was where prostitutes and their bullies (pimps) congregated."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-...
#Wales #History
The True Origin of the 'China' nickname for Merthyr's Prostitute District.
China in Merthyr Tydfil was the most notorious area of prostitution and criminality in Victorian Wales. The problem is no-one knows why i...
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
A History of sex work in Merthyr 🍻
"This area was already notorious as a sex work and brothel area since the 1820s, and it was where prostitutes and their bullies (pimps) congregated."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-...
#Wales #History
"This area was already notorious as a sex work and brothel area since the 1820s, and it was where prostitutes and their bullies (pimps) congregated."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-...
#Wales #History
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
The story of 'Mary the Cripple' ✍️🏻
"Despite being a disabled woman living in the early Victorian period, she managed to carve out for herself a forty-year career as the head of a small criminal empire."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/06/mary...
#Wales #History
"Despite being a disabled woman living in the early Victorian period, she managed to carve out for herself a forty-year career as the head of a small criminal empire."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/06/mary...
#Wales #History
Mary The Cripple: Victorian Badass
Mary The Cripple: Victorian Badass 'Lost the use of her legs walks on her hands, not read, labourer.' So reads the description of Ma...
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
The story of 'Mary the Cripple' ✍️🏻
"Despite being a disabled woman living in the early Victorian period, she managed to carve out for herself a forty-year career as the head of a small criminal empire."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/06/mary...
#Wales #History
"Despite being a disabled woman living in the early Victorian period, she managed to carve out for herself a forty-year career as the head of a small criminal empire."
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/06/mary...
#Wales #History
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
"You seem happier"
Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.
Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.
November 28, 2025 at 9:34 AM
"You seem happier"
Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.
Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Jake Kilrain, John L. Sullivan, Jem Smith, pictured on the cover of the The Illustrated Police News, this week in 1887.
All three top US and English boxers of the 1880s had one or both parents from Ireland, as did 1880s World Middleweight Champ, 'Nonpareil' Jack Dempsey, who was born there.
All three top US and English boxers of the 1880s had one or both parents from Ireland, as did 1880s World Middleweight Champ, 'Nonpareil' Jack Dempsey, who was born there.
November 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Jake Kilrain, John L. Sullivan, Jem Smith, pictured on the cover of the The Illustrated Police News, this week in 1887.
All three top US and English boxers of the 1880s had one or both parents from Ireland, as did 1880s World Middleweight Champ, 'Nonpareil' Jack Dempsey, who was born there.
All three top US and English boxers of the 1880s had one or both parents from Ireland, as did 1880s World Middleweight Champ, 'Nonpareil' Jack Dempsey, who was born there.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
"Chasing dead men is much more interesting and satisfying than pursuing live ones," I admitted out loud in this talk I gave a few years ago.
Meh. Point still stands.
Meh. Point still stands.
On the topic of the New Cross House, I would be remiss not to bring up the work of @oispooky.bsky.social, who rediscovered the life and career of "The Most Popular Man In New Cross", wrestler and boxer Jack Wannop, placing him squarely at that pub in 1885.
The Most Popular Man in New Cross (Introducing Jack Wannop to Carthorse Orchestra)
I was recently invited to Carthorse Orchestra, a charming online evening gathering of intimidatingly creative and literary types hosted by the author David Collard. Each week David organises an ecl…
grapplingwithhistory.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
"Chasing dead men is much more interesting and satisfying than pursuing live ones," I admitted out loud in this talk I gave a few years ago.
Meh. Point still stands.
Meh. Point still stands.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Book manuscript submission deadline has been extended by two months to stop me walking into the sea. For this reason and other reasons, we're now going to be on shelves, hopefully, February-ish 2027.
I hope people are nicer about it than the Cork Examiner were about two of its subjects in 1889:
I hope people are nicer about it than the Cork Examiner were about two of its subjects in 1889:
December 1, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Book manuscript submission deadline has been extended by two months to stop me walking into the sea. For this reason and other reasons, we're now going to be on shelves, hopefully, February-ish 2027.
I hope people are nicer about it than the Cork Examiner were about two of its subjects in 1889:
I hope people are nicer about it than the Cork Examiner were about two of its subjects in 1889:
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Anyway, it's basically soft porn, and this is what you must remember when you think of the buttoned-up Victorians.
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Anyway, it's basically soft porn, and this is what you must remember when you think of the buttoned-up Victorians.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
It's the A Thousand Blows season II press junket today. Naturally, I wasn't invited. I'll do a real life Hezekiah Moscow and Sugar Goodson Vs The Show piece on the blog like last time when it airs, Jan 9th. 161,000 people came to read the true stories this year - it seems like you really do care!
Been researching this man, Hezekiah Moscow, since February 2019. He went by a nickname that was spelled a billion different ways so getting to the truth is TOUGH. Findings today for the book have blown open doors. New things after six years! AND all because of collaboration. Buy my book. Thanks 😂
December 2, 2025 at 8:07 PM
It's the A Thousand Blows season II press junket today. Naturally, I wasn't invited. I'll do a real life Hezekiah Moscow and Sugar Goodson Vs The Show piece on the blog like last time when it airs, Jan 9th. 161,000 people came to read the true stories this year - it seems like you really do care!
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
CHAPBOOK TUESDAY
As we move into December, here's a chapbook featuring a robin that caught my attention.
THE COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND PIC NIC DINNER OF COCK ROBIN AND JENNY WREN
This is a story that has it all ... love, romance, commitment and a nice pie. What's not to like?
19th century edition.
As we move into December, here's a chapbook featuring a robin that caught my attention.
THE COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND PIC NIC DINNER OF COCK ROBIN AND JENNY WREN
This is a story that has it all ... love, romance, commitment and a nice pie. What's not to like?
19th century edition.
December 2, 2025 at 3:01 PM
CHAPBOOK TUESDAY
As we move into December, here's a chapbook featuring a robin that caught my attention.
THE COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND PIC NIC DINNER OF COCK ROBIN AND JENNY WREN
This is a story that has it all ... love, romance, commitment and a nice pie. What's not to like?
19th century edition.
As we move into December, here's a chapbook featuring a robin that caught my attention.
THE COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE AND PIC NIC DINNER OF COCK ROBIN AND JENNY WREN
This is a story that has it all ... love, romance, commitment and a nice pie. What's not to like?
19th century edition.
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
December 2, 2025 at 4:44 PM
December 2, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
If you're interested in the history of sex work in Cardiff, I highly recommend the excellent work by Anthony Rhys ✍️🏻
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/01/noto...
#Wales #History
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/01/noto...
#Wales #History
Notorious: Charlotte Street and 'The Lane'.
Whitmore Lane on the left. The Golden Cross circa 1890. National Museums of Wales. Sex, violence, theft and death in Cardiff. A...
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:26 PM
If you're interested in the history of sex work in Cardiff, I highly recommend the excellent work by Anthony Rhys ✍️🏻
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/01/noto...
#Wales #History
upsetvictorians.blogspot.com/2017/01/noto...
#Wales #History
Researching Abergavenny Asylum, and have gone off on a tangent reading about the history of sex workers in Cardiff 📚
December 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Researching Abergavenny Asylum, and have gone off on a tangent reading about the history of sex workers in Cardiff 📚
Reposted by Louvain Rees ⚰️
Dancing ladies on a Roman altar. Now reused as the church font at Lund (Lancashire), this carved stone block was originally a Roman altar dating from c. AD 400. The front displays three Matres (mother goddesses), while the sides depict dancing figures.
November 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Dancing ladies on a Roman altar. Now reused as the church font at Lund (Lancashire), this carved stone block was originally a Roman altar dating from c. AD 400. The front displays three Matres (mother goddesses), while the sides depict dancing figures.