Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Coming back from self-imposed social media exile to show you what it looks like to make colour! Shots from a couple of short films we made about "artists' colourmen" and making paints, for the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. As ever, I think Cal did the subject matter (and us!) proud. 1/2 1161
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 12/08/2026As soon as the fairy explodes at the start, you know you're in for a good ride! 184
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 25/06/2026I think you really ought to pre-order this. It's a guaranteed gorgeous read. You'll also feel left out if you don't! 120
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 23/09/2025There's a lot of bad in the world right now. But @tealcartoons.bsky.social and I have a new kids' book coming out called DEAD ENDS that reminds us that failure isn't just inevitable but essential to success. There are a limited number of SIGNED copies from @mysteriousbookshop.com - shorturl.at/1A9CS 811141
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 23/09/2025In 2015, Roger Kneebone (left) and I (behind camera!) were privileged to film John McKenzie (right), who over a lifetime made thousands of tiny ophthalmic surgical instruments in his shed. You can see some of his collection in the foreground. John died shortly after we made this recording ... 1/3 130
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 20/05/2025One for academic historians at Oxford! Medical Humanities and HSMTE have invited me and Cal to give a talk about film production as a research methodology for historians. Should have mentioned this earlier, but it didn't occur to me to share on here!torch.ox.ac.ukFilmic Humanities and Film-Making-As-Research 061
Reposted by Paul CraddockAlex Churchill @alexchurchill.bsky.social · 02/05/2025Less than a week to go now. All preorders greatly appreciated! Numerous options via geni.us/RingOfFire Thanking James, @thehistoryguy.bsky.social @iaindale.bsky.social @charliehigson.bsky.social and James for their kind words 🙏🏼 @iainmacgregor1.bsky.social @headofzeus.bsky.social 2268
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 05/05/2025Patricia Hammond (mezzo-soprano, historical music specialist, and my wife!) found and performed this 1890s piece of American sheet music with a contemporary resonance ... @patriciahammond.bsky.socialyoutu.beAll On Account of the Tariff - 1890 songYouTube video by patriciahammondsongs 192
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 03/05/2025For #Caturday: a poignant photo by my friend Paul Koudounaris of a beloved pet's tombstone. "'He was only a cat,' but he was human enough to be a great comfort in hours of loneliness and pain." Check out Paul's book on pet cemeteries, FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH: bookshop.org/p/books/fait... 640161
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 01/05/2025I tried to write about a girl with no known name, no description. Bloody hard to do! Nothing to go on but the fact that in 1787 she sold one of her teeth to the industrialist Matthew Boulton. He paid a dentist to prise it from her mouth and transplant it into his own daughter, Anne ... 1/4 1448
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 29/04/2025We're making a film about a man who started collecting other people's pocket diaries after discovering something dark in his own childhood diary – something he'd repressed. More about that later. For now, I wanted to share a few of my favourite tender, funny or laconic close-ups! 2479
Reposted by Paul CraddockSarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 25/04/2025If you like stories about bad men doing bad but also sometimes v. funny things in the 1880s, I have new blogs! 👊🏻Denny Harrington, Irish, drunk, jumped on sailors 👊🏻Constantine Morris, Brummie, drunk, bad hitman 👊🏾Felix Scott, Barbadian, less drunk, bit a cop's ear off www.grapplingwithhistory.comgrapplingwithhistory.comGrappling With HistoryBy Sarah Elizabeth Cox | Rediscovering the wrestlers and boxers of late-Victorian London 1165
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 25/04/2025Very proud of @oispooky.bsky.social, who is set to become a lot cooler than me soon with her own amazing projects on the horizon. She runs one of the best history blogs on the internet - all about the gritty world of Victorian bare-knuckle fighters. So vivid you can smell the sweat. Follow her! 68010
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 24/04/2025Bloody gloves belonging to Abraham Lincoln. When the President was shot by John Wilkes Booth, some of the blood ran down his sleeve and pooled in the pocket which contained the gloves. Photo: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. 513919
Reposted by Paul CraddockMetropolitan Police Museum and Crime Museum @mpsheritage.bsky.social · 25/04/2025A donation recently on display in our new acquisitions case, this 1890s prescription log book of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was examined during his trial in 1910 for the murder of his wife Cora Crippen (aka Belle Elmore). #SomethingNew #Archive30 2232
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 23/04/2025In his novel Stoner, John Williams's eponymous character has a full-time, tenured position as an assistant professor at a the University of Missouri. And he's considered a failure. Today, that kind of stability would be an impossibility for many academics – a dream job. How things have changed! 0202
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 19/04/2025In Summer 1931, there was a new sideshow in Blackpool, Lancashire. ‘Brides and bridegrooms straight from the altar starve for 30 days’. The deal: newlywed couples were challenged to stay in glass 'coffins' without food for a month. If they made it, they'd win £250 (about £18,000 today) 1/2 2277
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 26/01/2025This is Tony Webb and his wonderful wife Cecily. Tony is 90 and the only remaining master carver of stone AND wood left in the United Kingdom (to his knowledge) 1/4 2635
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 10/12/2024Extra special post by an extra wonderful historian and friend. Read through to the end and listen to her on Best Medicine. You won't regret it! 140
Reposted by Paul CraddockEmilie K. M. Murphy @emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social · 28/11/2024Did you complete your History PhD in the UK or Ireland? Did you publish your first academic monograph this year in 2024? Please consider submitting it for consideration for the RHS First Book Prize! Nominations open on Mon 1 December and close Fri 31 January 2025. 🗃️ royalhistsoc.org/royal-histor...royalhistsoc.orgRoyal Historical Society First Book and Early Career Article Prizes for 2025: new terms and timeline | RHS 4106103
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 27/11/202420th August 1978, the 'Transplant Olympics'. First ever competitive sporting event for transplant recipients. There is now a 'World Transplant Games' every year, alternating Summer and Winter. Next year: Dresden, Germany – 7th-24th August! 1/3 2395
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 23/11/2023Looking for working-class people who quit their PhDs. If this is you, could we please have a chat? It's for Common Knowledge Substack. Thanks so much! (As for me, I'm conflicted. Glad I have mine now, but had to make huge sacrifices and not sure I could have done it at a different life stage.) 031
Reposted by Paul CraddockPeculiar Book Club @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social · 15/11/2023Coming Feb. 2024: A virtual chat w/ @pwcraddock.bsky.social & @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social! This is our 1st AUTHORS HOSTING AUTHORS event & we're SO excited! It's a VIP show so make sure you're signed up: VIP info: annual www.eventbrite.com/e/annual-mem... & monthly www.patreon.com/PeculiarBook... 097
Reposted by Paul CraddockPeculiar Book Club @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social · 15/11/2023We want to make the Peculiar Book Club as welcoming as possible so if you have any questions about joining, taking part in our Live Author Chats, or joining the paid VIP levels, reply/leave a comment & let us know! We'll put together an FAQ with answers because, honestly, we want YOU as a member! 💙📚 183
Reposted by Paul CraddockPaul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 10/11/2023The word 'scientist' was coined in 1834 ... as a joke! Read the story on my first ever substack column! open.substack.com/pub/paulcrad... 043
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 10/11/2023The word 'scientist' was coined in 1834 ... as a joke! Read the story on my first ever substack column! open.substack.com/pub/paulcrad... 043
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 10/11/2023Came out as working class a few years ago. Since been the 'lived experience' voice a few times (which I found means you're not allowed real expertise or analysis!) So, started a Substack, Common Knowledge, embracing working-class heritage while writing about history! paulcraddock.substack.com/about 010
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 20/10/2023Hello BlueSky friends! Here's the 'messenger hare' carving at Beverley Minster in Yorkshire (dated about 1330). It supposedly inspired Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland 171
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 18/10/2023THIS SATURDAY: @tealcartoons.bsky.social and I will be doing a virtual event for the first ever #CuriousLive with @IFLScience! We'll be talking about our kids' book, PLAGUE-BUSTERS, and history's deadliest diseases. Register here: webapp.spotme.com/login/events... 02312
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 19/10/20231970s museum model of a computer (complete with '70s technicians!). In the Science Museum's National Collections Centre in Swindon – had the privilege of filming there a few weeks ago and the lovely team showed off some treasures. Not open to public yet (but will be in a year or two!) 4237
Reposted by Paul CraddockDr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 18/10/2023A funeral procession of elderly women with cats in their arms, following the coffin of a dead cat. Coloured stipple engraving by J. Pettit after E.G. Byron, 1789. Image: Wellcome Collection 14815
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 18/10/2023When I first read Alexander Pope's poem Celia, I was doing my PhD and accepted what my supervisor told me – that it neatly expressed a vacuous 18th-century British culture obsessed with appearance. When I read it now, a bit older, I see something else: Alexander Pope had a teensy problem with women. 011
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 16/10/2023Not a deep and meaningful history of medicine post, this, but I thought BlueSky friends might appreciate this: I'm making a film for the Science Museum in London about the (now defunct) Type Archive. They were based in an old animal hospital and had the cutest logo. 350
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 11/10/2023Marie Anne Leroudier (1838-1908): extraordinary embroiderer whose needle techniques became essential to vascular surgery (used in bypasses, trauma surgery, transplants etc). She taught surgeon/misogynist/eugenicist Alexis Carrel. He got a Nobel prize, while she remained unacknowledged! 2268
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 10/10/2023Cato Street Conspiracy – closest Britain came to a French-style revolution. The conspirators were executed. But when the Times erroneously hinted surgeon Thomas Wakley was the masked executioner, it led to his attempted murder. He lost everything. Unable to regain his career, he founded The Lancet 010
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 08/10/2023Fascinating, isn't it, how technicians are depicted in science history. Here are some technicians operating Otto von Guericke's air pump. They aren't people at all, but cherubs! I read it's an artistic convention, but why? Is it to dehumanise poor, low-status assistants? h/t Steven Shapin 010
Paul Craddock @pwcraddock.bsky.social · 07/10/2023Hello friends! It's my first post! In 1819, journalist William Cobbett exhumed American Founding Father Thomas Paine, and escorted his bones from New York home to Botley (UK). The grand, Romantic gesture was meant to inspire a peaceful British Revolution. But instead cartoonists made fun of him. 3257