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Charlotte Connelly

@curatorconnelly.bsky.social
3.2K followers 907 following 335 posts

Head Curator at the National Science and Media Museum. Historian of science and technology. Nerdy about media tech, the history of electricity, the polar regions and the history of exploration #histsci #histtech #museums 📜

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Reposted by Charlotte Connelly
Jack Kirby @jdk653.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
We are seeking to appoint two independent members to our Collections Committee, for up to 4 years: One with significant experience in the management of historic collections in museums or heritage sites One with significant experience in the digital humanities. Closes 24 August: lnkd.in/e38mtWDf
Rows of historic cars and buses in a bright and clean warehouse environment
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Dr Laura Humphreys @bogarty.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
An exciting job opportunity with my team - come join us as the Science Museum Collection Archivist! 📒📚📼📜💾📔🗂️ Part time (4 days/80%), permanent, based at the Science and Innovation Park near Swindon. Happy to answer Qs/ chat about the role before you apply. ce0111li.webitrent.com/ce0111li_web...
ce0111li.webitrent.com
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Illuminations @illuminations.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
A reminder of tonight's Front Row about early television, on BBC Radio 4 at 19.15. With me, curator Lisa Kerrigan; novelist Francis Spufford, and pioneer Joy Whitby. Many thanks to @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social and producer Tim Bano for such an enjoyable experience. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Birth of Television: A Forgotten History
Samira Ahmed and guests discuss the forgotten history of the early days of television.
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
I thought I would make a cyanotype on an egg. Coated it with photochemicals. Exposed an image of a fern leaf. Tried to develop it by rinsing with water …… Did not go as planned 🤦‍♀️
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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Exciting job opening @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social Library and Archives Manager. Details here careers.nms.ac.uk/job/827960 #museumjobs #libraryjobs 📜
careers.nms.ac.uk
Library and Archives Manager
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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
theconversation.com/greenlands-i...
theconversation.com
Greenland’s Inuit have spent decades fighting for self-determination
Greenland’s inhabitants call it Kalaallit Nunaat, or land of the Kalaallit. It is an Indigenous nation whose relatively few people now mostly govern themselves.
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Katie Flanagan @katiedflanagan.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
The Science Museum Group is looking for a Systems and E-Resources Librarian, FT permanent post based at one of our sites in #Bradford #London #Manchester #Wroughton (nr Swindon) or #York #LISjobs #LibraryJobs #MuseumJobs ce0111li.webitrent.com/ce0111li_web...
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Day 3 of #artAdventCalendar: another new portrait - geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear power. 🐡🧪👩🏻‍🔬 #histsci A 🧵
Printed in a gradient of dark blue-green at the bottom through dark blue to light blue at the top, this is my 9.25” x 12.5” portrait of Japanese geochemist in the lab adjusting a round bottomed flask with other posts and an array of chemical glassware in the foreground. In the background are carved ocean waves so the top looks like sky over wavy ocean
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National Science and Media Museum @mediamuseum.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
We're SO pleased to have achieved Archive Service Accreditation for the first time - and huge congratulations to all of our fellow newly accredited organisations! 💗
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
The @scottpolar.bsky.social are looking for a librarian. This is a rare opportunity! Work with (probably) the world's largest dedicated polar library alongside archive and museum colleagues. The dream 😍 📜
cam.ac.uk
Librarian
The Library of the Scott Polar Research Institute is one of the most comprehensive collections of published polar information in the world. This highly specialist reference collection, which attracts
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Martin Jürgens @martinjuergens.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
THE AGE OF PHOTOGRAPHS. 50 YEARS OF IMAGE PRESERVATION Call for papers tempsepreuves.sciencesconf.org?forward-acti... #photography #conservation #preservation #conference
tempsepreuves.sciencesconf.org
Le temps des épreuves. 50 ans de préservation des photographies - Sciencesconf.org
The age of photographs. 50 years of image preservation.
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Starting in 10mins... I'll be talking about the history of Antarctic photography with the excellent Naomi Boneham from @scottpolar.bsky.social
eventbrite.co.uk
Capturing Antarctica
Eventbrite - UK Antarctic Heritage Trust presents Capturing Antarctica - Monday, 10 November 2025 - Find event and ticket information.
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joshuatj @joshuatj.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2025
Woohoo! Great #DigiPres story @makethecatwise www.bbc.com/future/article/20251009…
bbc.com
A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks
From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.
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Tealin @twirlynoodle.com · 03/09/2025
For anyone having Terra Nova feelings today ...
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Having a nostalgic listen to this. The sound of Windows 95 launching was more evocative than I would have predicted
bbc.co.uk
Witness History - The launch of Windows 95 - BBC Sounds
In 1995 Microsoft released a new operating system after a $300 million marketing campaign
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I finally saw this exhibition today - two days before it closes. I wish I'd gone sooner! It's a lovely calming exhibition, yet gently provocative about the materials we use and consume. I think I'll go back again tomorrow, and I heartily recommend it to anybody else who's in the Bradford area.
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
I stopped in at the V&A Wedgwood Collection nrar Stoke today. I enjoyed their little display about the project to catalogue the collection, I imagine updating the 'number of objects available online'counter is a very satisfying job 📜
Intro panel about 'Unpacking the V&A Wedgwood Collection'. An update able display tells us that 21,073 objects are available onlineA recently catalogue object. A pink rotary telephone in pink jasperware with white reliefs, 1986Three recently catalogue objects including a 'springing tool, "waggler"'. Every museum should have one.A photo of a short film that explains that each object is documented by recoding information including age, artist, manufacturer, physical description, dimensions and condition.
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National Science and Media Museum @mediamuseum.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
'ALIEN: Level 5 of the National Science and Media Museum' is now Certified Fresh in Bradford at 100%
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Benjamin Pope @benjaminpope.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Stephanie Shirley was a major donor to Balliol College, becoming the second woman (after the college's founder from nearly eight centuries ago!) to have her portrait displayed in Hall. I think this might also be the first painting in a college with what looks like an iPad in it!
Stephanie Shirley at Balliol College
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Dame Stephanie Shirley has died aged 91. She adopted the name "Steve" in correspondence as letters signed Stephanie went unanswered. Despite such thoroughly ingrained sexism in computing, she built an astonishing tech career and did all huge amount to support other women in tech #histsci #histtech
bbc.co.uk
Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley, technology pioneer, dies aged 91
She founded the software company Freelance Programmers in 1962, which almost exclusively hired women, and in later life donated almost £70m of her fortune.
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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
This has been a long-standing issue, rooted in historical cultural norms and policies, for nearly every National Antarctic Program; This thread 🧵recommends scholarly work from humanities and social scientists who have studies this for years #histsci #envhist #Antarctica #polar
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Fantastic role for somebody! #histsci #museumjobs
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National Science and Media Museum @mediamuseum.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Created hand in hand with our community, the new Sound and Vision galleries have accessibility running through their DNA. Find out more in this article from The National Lottery Heritage Fund: www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/putting...
heritagefund.org.uk
Putting inclusion, access and participation at the heart of the National Science and Media Museum
The museum’s new Sound and Vision galleries tell the story of how photography, film, television and sound technologies shape our past, present and future.
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Yvonne Hardman @museums-yvonne.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
New volunteer-led exhibition, Reel-ise, opened at Leeds Industrial Museum this afternoon. It focuses on film history in the city from women taking the lead to lost cinemas of Leeds and of course a nod to Louis Le Prince. museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/pQ20BFv/reel...
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Petroc Trelawny @petroc.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
a brilliant reinvention of a once cherished mega-cinema. The auditorium of Bradford Live is pretty impressive. In Tune comes live from here today between 5-7pm on BBC Radio 3.
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Fairies and vampires and aliens, oh my! Great photos from the new Sound and Vision galleries at @mediamuseum.bsky.social. We've got a brilliant family day lined up for tomorrow *and* temperature controlled galleries 😎 www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/sou...
A family looking at a display about the Cottingley fairies. There's one of the cameras they used and you can pose with the fairies yourselfA family exploring a display about horror movies. There's a big pool of fake blood on the floor and a xenomorph from Alien in the backgroundTwo people stand inside a huge digital artwork, looking at giant screens
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
I've been a bit quiet recently due to being busy getting our new Sound and Vision galleries ready @mediamuseum.bsky.social They opened today! There was a gaggle of kids having a brilliant time in there when I wandered through this morning 😍 Lovely overview here from @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
I've been a bit quiet recently due to being busy getting our new Sound and Vision galleries ready @mediamuseum.bsky.social They opened today! There was a gaggle of kids having a brilliant time in there when I wandered through this morning 😍 Lovely overview here from @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social
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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
If you like Victorian photography, especially stereos, and #histSTM material culture generally (and who does not?!), I recommend the new Instagram account my colleague Julie Gibb has set up www.instagram.com/juliegibbnms...
Screenshot with thumbnails of Victorian photographs
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Yorkshire Bylines @yorkshirebylines.co.uk · 05/07/2025
Bradford launches its new city centre market at Darley Street this weekend The transition from old markets to new, inspired a year-long photographic project to document the life and spirit of these places before they disappear forever By Gerard Liston
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
Picturing the end of an era for Bradford’s markets
A free online photobook documents the final year for Kirkgate and Oastler markets before the transition to a new site this summer
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National Science and Media Museum @mediamuseum.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
It's just ONE WEEK until Sound and Vision opens, celebrating over 200 years of media history through over 500 incredible exhibits. 📅
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Smells like #histsci
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Happy #CleanAirDay from me and my daily cycle commute. I spotted the sign on the one small bit of road I have to navigate on my otherwise pleasantly green 5 mile journey Lots of people out on bikes this morning - the weather helps!
A road with greenery in thread background and a middle distance road sign reads 'clean air day, 19 June, can you leave your car at home?'Bradford's new city centre Norfolk gardens looking beaytiful
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Not long now... we're putting the finishing touches in place, and it's looking fab ❤️
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Kristin Hussey @kristinhussey.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Calling all scholars of night work! I am organising a workshop on the night shift since 1900 this September at Newcastle. Looking for scholars across disciplines who think about working at night in critical context to give short working papers. More info here: kristinhussey.co.uk/research/34u...
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Collections hazard management in the news Librarians at St Andrews have developed a new tool for detecting the presence of arsenic in book covers 📜
bbc.com
If books could kill: The poison legacy lurking in libraries
New technology at St Andrews University helps librarians detect when old books are bad for readers' health
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Peter R. Martin @peterrmartin.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
A few thoughts from me as my first ever period of research leave approaches! 👇
drpetermartin.wordpress.com
Objects of Arctic Encounter: Studying Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Contact at the Smithsonian Institution
And so another incredibly busy academic year comes to an end. A high teaching and admin load, combined with the ‘learn-by-doing’ approach that seems to be ubiquitous in academia, have certainly tak…
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
I am working on this. No joke. Pray for me to get the grant so I can actually get it written in a reasonable time frame.
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 29/05/2025
📹 Setting up a livestream isn’t easy. That’s why we turned to an expert: Sophia Tung. See how this creative software engineer brought her signature mix of tech + chill to our new microfiche scanning livestream—now preserving government records in real time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=r93Q...
youtube.com
This is where all of The Internet is stored
YouTube video by Sophia Tung
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
If you look after a public toilet (or just want to spread the word) you can order red cord cards from the Euan's Guide site that explain that the red cord must hang freely to the floor. www.euansguide.com/get-involved...
euansguide.com
Safer Toilets and Safer Accessible Toilets
Make accessible toilets safer with Euan's Guide Red Cord Cards
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Lovely piece about photo collections - their care and meanings (In German)
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Excellent blog post from Martha on our conservation team. In which we learn why she made a pair of sunglasses for an enormous animatronic hare 😎 You can see the hare in all it's glory at the @mediamuseum.bsky.social from 10 July when our new Sound and Vision galleries open 📜
blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk
Blog from the Basement: Conserving Jim Henson's March Hare - National Science and Media Museum blog
Conservator Martha Jones takes us behind the scenes of her work on a fascinating figure from Alice in Wonderland.
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Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
More of this please. Co-designing play spaces with children and young people near their homes led to “what researchers say is the highest increase in children’s physical activity ever recorded by an intervention of its kind”
theguardian.com
Bradford project produces ‘outstanding’ rise in children’s physical activity
JU:MP programme included co-design of play spaces, exercise in faith settings and interventions in schools
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
This looks completely delightful - I recommend watching the 5 min video on the website for an insight into Clare Hewitt's environment-focused practice. The exhibition's on now, so I better get over there for a look!
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Yorkshire Bylines @yorkshirebylines.co.uk · 22/05/2025
🎥 Pictureville presents: Northern Youth on film, seen through southern eyes Northern Youth film season brings raw, real stories of growing up in the North to Bradford’s Pictureville Cinema from 30 May to 13 June By Freya Webber
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
Pictureville presents: Northern Youth on film, seen through southern eyes
Northern Youth film season brings raw, real stories of growing up in the North to Bradford’s Pictureville Cinema from 30 May to 13 June
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Jacob Gifford Head @giffordhead.co.uk · 21/05/2025
This is absolutely dreadful news for anyone interested in musical instrument making in the UK. Newark is the place to study for many aspirant makers & I am not sure there would be a replacement if it went; harming these crafts in the UK.
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
I've stopped by the Bradford Progress at its stop in Robert's Park, about 9 hours into a 36 hour musical journey across Bradford District. Sunshine, South Asian sounds, ice cream, cricketers in the background... beautiful @bradford2025.co.uk
South Asian musicians play in a traditional Victorian bandstand. The sky is blue, it's bright and sunny, purple are sitting on the grass or standing and dancing. In the background there's a cricket pitch. 

From the event blurb:

The Bradford Progress draws into the bandstand in Roberts Park for an afternoon of South Asian sounds from Qaiser Khan, Shah-e-Marden Group, Song-Geet and a line-up of classical Indian music and dance brought together by Bradford multi-instrumentalist Vijay Venkat - Kamalbir Singh, Devaki O'Riordan, Srividya Venkat and Anna Purna Dance.

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Paraorchestra with Charles Hazlewood, Jeremy Deller & the people of Bradford.

Co-produced by Paraorchestra and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.
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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
The convergence of heritage digitisation plus a fully digital production pipeline in the creative industries mean we’ll see more of this, which requires careful governance & data protection to avoid unethical use, or the creation of misinformation. Are we in the heritage sector ready…?
theguardian.com
New ‘historically accurate’ digital replica will allow films to be set within Auschwitz
The Auschwitz Memorial has created the model ‘to provide the industry with credible resources’, but it raises ethical questions over what type of films could be set there
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Here we go... The countdown is on. Objects are being installed, interactives are being tested, labels are going in, and web content is being compiled. It's so exciting to see this coming to life after *years* of work. I can't wait to welcome visitors into the galleries!
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Charlotte Connelly @curatorconnelly.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
I enjoyed this. Timely too as I've been pondering the technological diplomacy baked into the song contest (as opposed to cultural diplomacy). E.g. how important was it to overtly & peacefully collaborate on pan European advances in comms/satellite tech, esp. in the cold war context?
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