iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 28/04/2026

1/ We’re now home to the long running history podcast, Travels Through Time, hosted by our editor, Peter Moore. We’re still getting up and running as the new season gets underway, and we’re trying something new: a live recording of Travels Through Time!👇

Unseen Histories Presents
Travels Through Time & Dr Johnson’s House
Trafalgar: Battle & Aftermath

Live!
Paul O'Keeffe in conversation with Peter Moore

Dr Johnson’s House
7 Gough Square
London EC4A 3DE

7 May 2026. Doors open at 6pm. Talk begins at 6:30pm. Tickets from £25*

*Ticket includes a welcome drink, book signing and a chance to explore Dr Johnson's House. Listen to this and other episodes of Travels Through Time at unseenhistories.com

131

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 01/10/2025

On October 1st, 2021, the first iteration of the Unseen Histories website launched to little fanfare. Exactly four years later on our 200th post, we've build a small audience and a solid foundation for the next 4 years beginning with a complete site upgrade and migration to @ghost.org – more soon!

A screenshot from the new Unseen Histories website, featuring a new layout. Shown is a medieval manuscript, an author interview and a feature on the Roman emperor, Septimus.

071

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 04/06/2025

81 years ago, the final preparations were made for the biggest amphibious invasion in recorded history. Over the next three days, 19 historians tell the story of D-Day in 44 iconic images in this commemorative feature, reformatted for your inbox. Subscribe via the link👇 unseenhistories.substack.com

Map shows the English Channel showing the movements of the invasion fleet in June, 1944.

020

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 06/05/2025

The Unseen Histories Studio has two restored and colorized photographs for the VE Day commemorative supplement in today's edition of @thetimes.com – thanks to our creative director @jordanacosta.co, Joshua Barrett, @newsukarchives.bsky.social and @mjjjennings.bsky.social, Andrew Keys and Matt Fearn

Today's edition of The Times newspaper spread across a wooden table. Main headline reads, 'A triumphant march towards Allied Victory'. Main picture shows soldiers and civilians walking together at night.

042

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 24/01/2025

Eiffel's 'tower' was intended to be the centrepiece for the planned Paris Exhibition of 1889. In July 1888, Roger Viollet captured the workers' progress. The red stood out sharply in the haze of a overcast Parisian day. No one had ever seen anything like it.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/the-eiffel-t...

060

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 23/01/2025

Italy was a central theatre of conflict during the Second World War. Under Benito Mussolini it formed a central part of Hitler's Axis Alliance. Yvonnick Denoël takes us back to the Second World War and the Vatican's efforts to secure their wealth. 👇 www.unseenhistories.com/vatican-spie...

030

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 17/01/2025

As a crowd of 5,000 watched on, Johnny Reynolds performed a thrilling series of tricks in Washington D.C. on 5 September 1917. A photographer buzzed around as Reynolds worked. One of these shots frames Reynolds - a forgotten twentieth-century figure - in a pose that once thrilled a generation.👇

110

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 09/01/2025

From Dante to Haiti, Shakespeare to Socrates, here's a selection of anticipated history books that will be released over the month ahead from @danelawdawn.bsky.social, @juliandrichards.bsky.social, @agcallard.bsky.social, @waatcoconut.bsky.social and more👇 www.unseenhistories.com/history-book...

030

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 02/01/2025

January 2, 2025 marks a quarter of a century since the death of the beloved historical fiction author Patrick O’Brian. Unseen Histories commemorates his passing with a unique insight into O’Brian’s life in a rare interview with his stepson, Nikolai Tolstoy.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/tolstoy-patr...

250

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 24/12/2024

As the holidays draw upon us, we’re signing off 2024 with an interview with Laurence Blair, who has spent a decade travelling from the jungles of Paraguay to the favelas of Rio and remote islands off Peru, in search of a new perspective on this old story.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/patria-laure...

061

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 19/12/2024

Whatever happened to those aboard the Mary Celeste? On 13 December 1872 the Mary Celeste brigantine and a great mystery arrived at Gibraltar. In our series 'First Draft', we revisit significant events in modern history and look at how they were first reported. www.unseenhistories.com/mary-celeste...

010

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 02/12/2024

We search for the exact spot a classic image was taken by one of twentieth century's great documentary photographers, Jack Delano, on a winter's day in Pittsburgh.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/mill-distric...

Colorized photograph shows a woman walking up a street. Snow on the ground with houses, a steel mill in the background.

281

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 29/11/2024

From Paris to India, King Richard II to the Commonwealth of England, here are our favourite books of 2024 w/ @josephinequinn.bsky.social @claremulley.bsky.social @josephhone.bsky.social @daisydunn.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @alicehunt.bsky.social www.unseenhistories.com/our-favourit...

Graphic shows eight book covers arranged in a rainbow configuration

283

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 28/11/2024

As Americans come together for Thanksgiving, Alista Wikle reflects on her ancestor, Bert, and the tumultuous history of German-Americans as the First World War brought their adopted nation into direct confrontation with their ancestral country.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/a-blacksmith...

Black and white photograph depicts a blacksmith in his workshop at the turn of the 20th century, surrounded by horseshoes and a large anvil in a barn.

082

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 21/11/2024

High spirited Martha Dodd's life changed in the early 1930s when FDR appointed her father as the US Ambassador to Nazi Germany. And so began, as Brendan McNally describes in this feature, a 'traitor's odyssey'.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/martha-dodd-...

040

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 20/11/2024

The final touches to our brand new newsletter, The Dispatch #1, are being ironed out this afternoon to hit your inbox first thing tomorrow morning! If you want a free roundup of everything we’re publishing straight to your emails, link to subscribe is in the comments.

160

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 14/11/2024

165 years ago, in 1859, hundreds of people were lost in the disastrous shipwreck of the Royal Charter. In this continuing series, 'First Draft', we revisit significant events in modern history and look at how they were reported in their immediate aftermath.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/the-wreck-ro...

0411

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 13/11/2024

Travelling around Japan in olden times was complicated by the prohibition of wheeled transport. This meant that ordinary people were obliged to walk or make use of palaquins. Lesley Downer explains how an advanced society sought to move without wheels.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/travel-in-an...

0211

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 13/11/2024

From South America to Castile, Handel to Wallis Simpson, here's our November 2024 Preview; with books by @chinarhyming.bsky.social, Joan Smith, Laurence Blair and many more.👇 www.unseenhistories.com/history-prev...

Screenshot shows slivers of various book covers arranged in a rainbow pattern.

071

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 28/11/2023

In November 1939 Stalin's Soviet Union launched a poorly judged attack against Finland. So began 'The Winter War', a conflict with many similarities to the Russo Ukrainian War of today. Kimmo Rentola tells us more in this interview. #Finland #WW2 #WinterWar www.unseenhistories.com/how-finland-...

050

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 07/11/2023

Charles Freeman's sweeping new book, The Children of Athena, shows how the influence of the Greeks stretched long into the Age of Rome, through figures like Galen, Ptolemy and Plutarch. #AncientGreece www.unseenhistories.com/greek-intell...

020

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 30/10/2023

'Rigid airships were a bad idea. They started as a bad idea and finished as a bad idea. People are familiar with the Hindenburg going up in a fireball. What people don’t know is that there were probably 75 such fireballs.' - S.C. Gwynne on the Airship Era www.unseenhistories.com/his-majestys...

041

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 26/10/2023

One of the strangest artefacts in the National Museum of Scotland’s collection is described as 'A piece of lead taken from the stomach of a keeper after the fire of 1755.' Here Jose Luis González Macías tells us about a disaster at Eddystone Lighthouse. www.unseenhistories.com/the-lighthou...

041

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 25/10/2023

Bennelong and Arthur Phillip are two figures at the heart of Australia's founding story. In her new joint biography Kate Fullagar reexamines the nature of their relationship. She urges us to see the 'Enlightenment Hero' and his ‘tragic’ interlocutor anew. www.unseenhistories.com/bennelong-an...

062

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 10/10/2023

On this Day in 1902: Gliding over the Kill Devil Hills, #NorthCarolina, USA. 121 years ago, the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville, were having great success with their experiments in flight. #Flight #WrightBrothers www.unseenhistories.com/gliding-over...

021

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 05/10/2023

Georgian elections were uproarious affairs: colourful, chaotic and hugely corrupt. One such election lies at the heart of a new novel, Scarlet Town (Viper) by the acclaimed novelist Leonora Nattrass, interviewed by Peter Moore. #18thCentury #HistoricalFiction www.unseenhistories.com/scarlet-town...

021

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 28/09/2023

Egyptologists, professors, murderers and vicars. Sarah Ogilvie tells us about the rich and diverse network of contributors who helped created the Oxford English Dictionary. #English #Language #History www.unseenhistories.com/the-dictiona...

001

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 25/09/2023

The Nazi Siege of Leningrad lasted for more than two years and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Prit Buttar tells us more about one of the most horrifying episodes of WW2. #WW2 #Leningrad www.unseenhistories.com/the-siege-of...

Image shows a map of the Leningrad region during WW2 with the Unseen Histories superimposed on top of it.

020

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 22/09/2023

Charles Dickens's London is a bustling place of cobbled streets, gaslit alleyways and twinkling shopfronts. But how much of this comes from Dickens’s novels? Lee Jackson traces the origins of a vivid and curious history. #CharlesDickens #London #History www.unseenhistories.com/dickens-lond...

030

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 21/09/2023

The Nazi Siege of Leningrad lasted for more than two years and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly of starvation. Prit Buttar tells us more about one of the most horrifying episodes of the Second World War. #WW2 #Leningrad www.unseenhistories.com/prit-buttar-...

031

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 20/09/2023

Author @shaunalawless.bsky.social investigates the life of the elusive and beguiling queen Gormflaith, the Ireland of the year 1000, and of the rich mythology that has come down to us today. #Ireland #History #Vikings #GaelSongSaga www.unseenhistories.com/gormflaith-a...

161

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 15/09/2023

The Vikings, King Brian Boru, Gormflaith and Fódla. Shauna Lawless tells us about the history of Ireland in the year 1000 to celebrate the publication of The Words of Kings and Prophets, Book 2 of the Gael Song Saga (Head of Zeus). www.unseenhistories.com/shauna-lawle...

051

Unseen Histories @unseenhistories.com · 14/09/2023

Throughout his writing life, London remained an obsession for Charles Dickens. In the process of endlessly describing and animating the city he loved, the great novelist unwittingly created a wholly new place. Lee Jackson tells us all about ‘Dickensland’. www.unseenhistories.com/dickensland-...

092