Harry Smith
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bhamhistory.bsky.social
Harry Smith
@bhamhistory.bsky.social
Social and economic historian
Reposted by Harry Smith
Couple of wills talks coming up: I'm presenting to the Devonshire Association, Tavistock & West Devon branch on Friday.

Then next Friday @bhamhistory.bsky.social & I are giving a talk at a joint Devon History Society & Devon Archaeological society workshop at Devon Heritage Centre.

🗃️
November 17, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
We're excited to share the final version of our paper, where we demonstrate how confounding remains a thorny problem for claims about causal genetic influences on human behavioral and socioeconomic outcomes. (w/ @jedidiahcarlson.com @oliviarxiv.bsky.social Ruth Shaw @arbelharpak.bsky.social) 🧵👇
November 7, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Harry Smith
📜WILLS ON THE RADIO!📜

The brilliant Chris Hoban was on local radio talking about the wills project and playing some songs!

This one is perhaps my favourite: based on the will of London widow Alice Walter, proved September 1665. TNA PROB 11/317/428.

#EarlyModern 🗃️

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwB...
Chris Hoban - Rings On My Fingers (one )
YouTube video by Will Pollard
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
It's been a busy week for the project!

1. A huge milestone: we're delighted to share that our @zooniverse.bsky.social volunteers have now checked ALL images! 🎉

Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

We're going to pause Zooniverse for now while we evaluate if more training is required.

🧵1/4
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
📢 NEW Will of the Month Post 📢

October's will is an unusual & poignant example of a married woman who made a will

Margery Gadyng died in childbirth in 1540 - she declared her will to the midwife & women attending her, leaving them bequests of ribbons & rosaries

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
October 28, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Looking forward to speaking at this with @bhamhistory.bsky.social next week - on all things to do with Digitization & Citizen Science 📜💻

@emeccwarwick.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @zooniverse.bsky.social @transkribus.bsky.social

#history #citizenscience #skystorians #digitalhumanities
Project Research Fellows Harry Smith and Emily Vine are looking forward to speaking as part of the Warwick History 'Post-Doc' Club series, next Wed 22 October @ 17.00.

They'll be discussing 'Digitization & Citizen Science'📜💻

Follow this link for Zoom details:
warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his...
October 14, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS
There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...
www.pnas.org
October 6, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Autumn 2025 Newsletter for the @materialwills.bsky.social project coming soon - make sure you're signed up to our mailing list to receive a copy! 👇
In the next few days we'll be circulating our Autumn 2025 project newsletter! 🍂✉️

To receive a copy and find out what we've been up to over the last few months, make sure you're signed up to our mailing list: forms.office.com/e/JbUEq4Za1u

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social #history
September 16, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
@greenleejw.bsky.social has written a blog about the amazing maps he created for 'Deserted Wives'! With help from @bhamhistory.bsky.social, we recreated jurisdiction boundary lines & his final maps really underpin the book's thesis.
Deserted Wives has 30% off: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deserted-...
September 14, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
📢NEW POST!📢

This year I had the thrill of collaborating with Chris Hoban, a brilliant composer, arranger, songwriter & performer.

In this post I explain what we got up to👇

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

#EarlyModern 🗃️ #CreativeHistories
@uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social
September 10, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
We post regularly over on our blog - this includes our 'Will of the Month' series, as well as other discussions of research and project updates 📜✍️📚

We've now been writing blog posts for 18 months: you can search and filter all of them to find what you're looking for 👇
#skystorians #history
📢WILLS WEBSITE UPDATE📢

I've just added some new 'tags' to the index page of our blog, making it easier for you to find posts and full transcriptions about the wills we've featured

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
September 2, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
📢WILLS WEBSITE UPDATE📢

I've just added some new 'tags' to the index page of our blog, making it easier for you to find posts and full transcriptions about the wills we've featured

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
September 2, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
We include a full transcription as part of every 'Will of the Month' post! 📜✍️

We've now made 20 transcribed wills available, featuring the lives of a range of men and women who lived in early modern England (and further afield)👇

@leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
🧵2/2
A reminder that every @materialwills.bsky.social will of the month post includes a full transcription of the featured will. We now have a collection of 20 wills, from across the 16th-18th centuries 👇

#EarlyModern 🗃️

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
Full transcriptions Archives - The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790
sites.exeter.ac.uk
August 28, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
The August 'Will of the Month' post is now live over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog 📜

It explores the will of a Huguenot silk weaver who left money to the French church & bequeathed the tools 'belonging to a Weavers' Trade'

@uoearchhist.bsky.social #history #earlymodern #skystorians

1/2 🧵
📢 In Case You Missed It 📢

Our August 'Will of the Month' post is now live on our blog! 📜

It explores the will of a Huguenot 'Master Weaver', who lived in Stepney and made a bequest of 'all the Loomes and Harnesses belonging to a Weavers’ Trade' 🧶 #skystorians 👇

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...
August 28, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
In 1908, means-tested, non-contributory Old Age Pensions were introduced in Britain, payable from the age of 70. Here, incredibly, are photographs of two of the first citizens to claim them (plus a dog).
August 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Harry Smith
We've done it: 60 blogs over our 60th Anniversary Year!
Check out all 60 #Campop blogs here www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/, and keep your eyes peeled for occasional blogs to follow in the same space!
@camunicampop.bsky.social
@camunigeography.bsky.social
@camhistory.bsky.social
July 31, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
📢 New Will of the Month post 📢

How do we write about those who left little behind, both in terms of possessions, & evidence in the historical record? 📜

This month's post explores the life of a servant woman, Mary Carlton, who had few objects to bequeath other than her 'box' 🧵1/2

#skystorians
July 29, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
The @transkribus.bsky.social "Egerton: English Secretary Hand" model is now public! app.transkribus.org/models/publi.... We have a website with sample transcriptions for different hands, information about our training conventions, and more: sites.northwestern.edu/egerton/
July 30, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Harry Smith
If you'd like to see what we got up to, one of our postgraduates [ @kmbarton.bsky.social ] did an absolutely amazing job of live posting on this thread 👇

#EarlyModern 🗃️ #transcribaton #crowdsourcing #DigitalHums @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social sky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social
Setting up for our #earlymodernwills #transcribathon today. 📜 Tea, coffee, and biscuits in place, zoom meeting loading - bring on the wills!

It all kicks off at 1pm, see you there!

You can follow us on our @zooniverse.bsky.social talkboards, or on this thread for updates all afternoon 🧵⬇️
July 25, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Campop blog #59: Some say rises in lone motherhood since c.1950 indicate breakdown of the nuclear family & call for returns to Victorian values. But 19C levels of lone parenthood & reconstituted families were similar to today's ...
@camunicampop.bsky.social
www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge
www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk
July 24, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
This is happening this afternoon - we'll be posting throughout the session, including details of talks being given by members of the research team 📜✍️

You can follow along with the hashtag #transcribathon
📢OUR TRANSCRIBATHON IS TODAY!📢

Online registration has now closed, but if you missed out then DM me and I can provide a workaround ... we wouldn't want anyone to miss the chance to read some lovely wills!

#EarlyModern 🗃️ @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social
July 24, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
If you're planning to drop in on our hybrid historic wills transcribathon tomorrow, here's the running order of talks from the research team 📜✍️

Find this and further info on the Eventbrite page at: willstranscribathon.eventbrite.com

#skystorians #history #tudors #earlymodern #citizenscience
July 23, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Campop blog #58: Malthusian ideas about the effects of population pressure on resources and the environment are still widespread. But what did Malthus actually say? And was he right? Romola Davenport explains.
@camunicampop.bsky.social
www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge
www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk
July 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Harry Smith
Will Johnson and Barbara Tearle have also generously shared their research notes too, so you can browse a spreadsheet summarising Edward's bequests, a biography, tally of objects and glossary too.

sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult...

#EarlyModern 🗃️
Will of the Month: A country squire and Castle Keeper to a Duke and a King
Will Johnson, Barbara Tearle, Emily Vine This edition of our ‘Will of the Month’ series is a very special one. It’s the fruit of a collaboration: the research and transcription were completed by Zooni...
sites.exeter.ac.uk
July 2, 2025 at 7:45 AM