iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Very happy to be starting PhD research this week at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. My focus is on the history of solvent abuse in post-war Britain. Supervised by @alexmold.bsky.social and funded by the Wilkinson Foundation.

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Thanks to the People’s Museum, NW1, hosting my talk about the history of solvent sniffing last week.

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Found #mudkarking along the river Thames: a plastic wallet for holding lens filters (?) dated 1971 from East German photographic manufacturer, Pentacon. The Pentacon Six SLR system was one of the more successful Eastern Bloc consumer products exported to the West. #coldwar #history #materialculture

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Today I discovered the power of denture cleaning tablets in revealing the decoration on mud-stained 17th century pottery! #mudlarking #earlymodern #materialculture

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Q&A I did recently with ‘All About History’ magazine on Thames mudlarking.

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Back searching the Thames at low tide this morning for detritus from London’s past. Found: 16th c stove tile fragment with dragon’s head. #mudlarking #earlymodern

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Malcolm Russell @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Opium pipe bowl (late 19th-early 20th c.) I found #mudlarking along the Thames a few years ago. Recently used as the jumping off point for a paper on opium smoking given at the Finds Research Group conference. This was held at @londonmuseum.bsky.social to coincide with its mudlarking exhibition

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