The History Data Service (HDS) is housed within the UK Data Archive (UK Data Archive) at the University of Essex and is a national data service that collects, preserves and disseminates digital data created by academic historians. In addition to its collection of historical digital resources the HDS provides online advice to data creators and works towards promoting and facilitating increased and more effective use of historical data in esearch, learning and teaching.
Its collection development policy focuses on collecting social and economic historical data primarily created as part of an Economic and Social Research Council award. The service provides access and support for a range of historical datasets, promoting and facilitating increased and more effective use of data in research, learning and teaching.
[General
]
30 March, 2011 19:05
[General
, African History
]
23 November, 2010 13:32
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a treasure-trove of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. It's a project located at the History Department, Fordham University, developed and edited by Paul Halsall. It is aimed at providing easy access to primary sources and other teaching materials.
Here's the link to the Internet African History Sourcebook.
Spotted on Marcus P Zillman.
[General
]
20 May, 2010 10:06
50 most popular geneaology sites for 2010
ProGenealogists Inc, have announced their top 50 most popular genealogy sites for 2010. The rankings are based on the number of most visited sites over the last three years.
<snip from the press release>
The study was designed in a manner similar to the popular “places rated” lists that appear regularly in the media. By ranking the websites on different criteria, and then averaging those rankings, a consensus list of the most popular sites emerges. In addition to popular and well-known Alexa.com, the other companies, whose rankings are all based on different web traffic criteria, used in this study were Compete.com, Quantcast.com and Ranking.com.
[General
]
13 May, 2010 07:40
National Archives Week 17 - 21 May 2010
The Western Cape Archives and Records Service invites you to join our celebration of National Archives Week at the Western Cape Archives and Records Service, located at 2 Roeland Street, Cape Town. National Archives Week offers a great opportunity for everyone to visit the archives and to learn about the importance of preserving our documented memory and its impact on our daily lives.
The special program for National Archives Week will run every day from Monday to Friday 08:00 – 15:00. The activities include guided tours of the building, video shows and exhibitions. The duration of the visit, which includes a tour of the building, will take approximately an hour.
In addition to the tours, a two-day workshop on paste paper making and basic bookbinding will be offered (17 – 18 May 2010); and the very popular workshop on researching your family history using the many documentary sources at the archives on 19 May 2010 from 8:30 – 12:00. Due to the intense one-on-one instruction required for both courses, participant numbers for the two workshops will be limited to 20 participants each. We recommend that bookings for both workshops be made well in advance, in order to avoid disappointment.
Our purpose is to make this event a learning experience for the public with our main goal to promote the use of archives by the general public and learners. To book for the workshops contact the National Archives Cape Town on: Tel: (021) 466 8100. Fax: (021) 465 2960
[General
, African History
]
23 March, 2010 16:11
Try out these two databases ...
We have trial access to the two products listed below until 14 April 2010. They are accessible at http://infoweb.newsbank.com . (Only available to the UCT community.)
World Newspaper Archive: Africa
1800-1922
This
database recently launched in January with 8 titles. Over the course of the
year the remainder of the content will be added. The current trial is more to test the functionality (as opposed to
the content), but should give us a good overview nonetheless. When the rest of
the content is loaded we will ask for another trial to evaluate this aspect of
the resource.
We also have trial access to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports (FBIS): Africa 1974-1996 database. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report has been the United States' principal record of political and historical open source intelligence for nearly 70 years. Similar to BBC Monitoring, the FBIS created daily reports on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that included the most important political, social, economic and military events from newspapers, radio & television broadcasts, speeches, government announcements etc. This archive of transcripts of African broadcasts and news provides daily insight into the key events that shaped Africa and particularly South Africa during the second half of the 20th century.
[General
]
29 January, 2010 09:14
Timelines from the British Library
The British Library has set up an interactive history timeline which allows one to explore items in their collection chronologically. Timelines is accompanied by teachers' notes.
<snip from the press release>
Developed by the Library's Learning team with historians and writers, the timeline includes some of the Library's key collection items from medieval times to the present day such as records of political events, glimpses of everyday life and writings and speeches from some our best known historical and literary figures. Scanning through centuries of images, audio-visual and printed material, users will be able to explore various themed timelines: 'everyday life', 'music and literature' and 'politics, power and rebellion' on one screen.
[General
]
18 January, 2010 08:20
Antique maps of China now online
The Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology (HKUST) Library has made available a collection called Antique Maps .
It “includes more than 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases. It represents almost all samples of China maps produced by European cartographers from the 16th to 19th centuries. This cartographic archive vividly records the long history of cross-cultural exchanges between China and the West”
Spotted on FOREast
[General
, African History
, Nineteenth Century History
, Eighteenth Century History
]
11 January, 2010 13:27
Maps of Africa to 1900 available online
From the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, comes a digital collection, Maps of Africa to 1900.
"... this collection mines not only the Library’s map collections, but also its extensive collection of 19th century atlases and geographical journals, including the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (United Kingdom), the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris (France), and Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen (Germany)."
[General
]
10 January, 2010 17:08
Royal Navy records now online from UK National Archives
The records of seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1853 and 1923 can now be searched and downloaded from DocumentsOnline, The National Archives' digital records service.
The UK National Archives' site notes:
While many of the records from the Registers of Seamen's Services (ADM 188) and the Continuous Service engagement books (ADM 139) have previously been digitised, we have only recently completed the collection by releasing the final batch of files (ADM 221 - 1027) online. This means that over 680,000 records on Royal Naval seaman are now available to search and download.
Many of the records reveal year and town of birth, names of ships served on and the period of time served in the Royal Navy. Even greater detail can be found in records from 1892 onwards, invaluable for those tracing their naval ancestors. Entries on occupation and physical appearance, such as hair and eye colour, height and tattoos can be found, and even notes made about 'character' and 'ability'.
The records are free to search, but there is a charge of £3.50 to download. The service records of Royal Marines and Royal Naval Officers are also available from DocumentsOnline.
Royal Naval Logs of Exploration now available
The Royal Navy logs of ships on exploration is now available online from the UK National Archives.
There are 164 volumes of logbooks of the Royal Navy's voyages of scientific discovery, from series ADM 55, now available to search and download.
Mostly kept by naval captains, masters, lieutenants and masters' mates, the volumes offer a first-hand account of the day-to-day activities of the exploration party, giving a picture of life aboard ship. The information in the logs and journals was used by the Hydrographic Office to produce charts and other data.
[General
, Twentieth Century History
]
09 November, 2009 16:25
British Army World War One Service Records now available online
In partnership with the UK National Archives, Ancestry.co.uk has now made available online the entire collection of British Army World War One Service Records, 1914 - 1920 detailing the full military careers of more than two million soldiers who served during World War One.
Service records contain a variety of information concerning all aspects of the army careers of those who completed their duty were killed in action or executed. They include the soldier's name, date and place of birth, address, next-of-kin, former occupation, marital status, medical records, service history, regiment number, locations of service and discharge papers.
[General
, African History
]
14 October, 2009 07:42
Bridging Two Oceans : Slavery in Indian and Atlantic Worlds - a conference 19 - 22 November 2009
Bridging Two Oceans: Slavery in Indian and Atlantic Worlds
An International Conference organised by the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull, at the Iziko Slave Lodge, Cape Town, 19 - 22 November 2009.
Provisional programme
**Thursday 19 November**
Welcome and opening address
The Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Dan Plato, introduced by David Richardson, University of Hull
Historical memory and performance
Chair: Archie Dick, University of Pretoria
Wilma Cruise, Independent artist and writer and Gavin Younge, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
'Satan's Seat: The Cape Town Slave Memorial in Post-colonial Context'
David Wilkins, University of Hull
'Repairing historical wrongs in Africa: Whose history?'
Gabeba Baderoon, Pennsylvania State University
'The Two African Oceans: Memories of Slavery in Yvette Christianse's Castaway, Unconfessed and Imprendahora'
Tunde Awosanmi, University of Ibadan
'Slaveprints on Sand and Sea: Rewriting the slave-self in African drama'
Capital and labour
Chair: Sophie White, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Kwabena Adu-Boahen, University of Cape Coast
'West African slavery under European mercantile presence: the case of 16th-18th century Gold Coast'
Anil Persaud, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
'John Rippon and the Circuits of Cane: Capital, Knowledge and Labour at the turn of the 18th Century in the Indian Ocean'
Bonnie Martin, Southern Methodist University
'Mortgaging Slaves in North America and South Africa: Parallels in Funding Slavery and Slave Societies'
In the shadow of slavery
Chair: Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town
Bronwen Everill, King's College London
' "The first requisite to the prosperity of the colony is the suppression of the slave trade": Reassessing the Impact of Sierra Leone and Liberia's Antislavery Activity'
Sandy Shell, University of Cape Town
'Prosopographies and profiles: the Oromo slave children in South Africa, 1888-2008'
Alaine Hutson, Huston-Tillotson University
' "Common Failings of Our Common Humanity": A Preliminary Exploration of Issues Common to Slavery in the Middle East and the Atlantic World'
**Friday 20 November**
Anti-slavery encounters
Chair: Patrick Harries, University of Basel
Mary Wills, University of Hull
'Anti-slavery and the Royal Navy: encounters, experiences and beliefs'
Lindsay Doulton, University of Hull
' "The Flag that sets us free?" Anti-Slavery, Africans and the Royal Navy in the Western Indian Ocean, c. 1860-1890'
Isabelle Denis, Université Paris Sorbonne
'The Amélie and The Pocha: Two slave vessels and the French Navy (Martinique 1822 - Mayotte 1840)'
Patterns of trading
Chair: Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, University of Hull
Stacey Sommerdyk, University of Hull
'Examining the Merchant Communities of the Loango Coast: The Eighteenth Century West Central African Voyages of the Middelburg Commercial Company'
Carlos Liberato, York University, Toronto
'The Slave Trade between the Indian Ocean and the Amazonia, 1778-1846: Volume, Routes and Organisation'
Steven Serels, McGill University
'Salt for Slaves; The Slave Trade at Rowayeh, the Sudan, 1880-1913'
Slavery and education
Chair: Wayne Alexander, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Yvette Fox and Sue Holmes, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
'The Pedagogy of Learning and Teaching Slavery Studies in Schools'
Albert Jauze, Université de la Réunion
'Education about slavery and the slave trade in Réunion Island'
**Saturday 21 November**
Keynote: Nigel Worden, University of Cape Town
'Changing Networks of Slave Resistance at the Cape: Bridging the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Worlds'
Chair: Nicholas J. Evans, University of Hull
Conceptual frameworks
Chair: David Richardson, University of Hull
Gwyn Campbell, McGill University
'Towards an Understanding of Twin Ocean Slavery'
Nigel Penn, University of Cape Town
'Slavery in the Cape Province'
Judith Spicksley, University of Hull
'Debt as a Framework for the Study of Slavery'
Political economies and social structures
Chair: Judith Spicksley, University of Hull
David Richardson, University of Hull
'The Demography of Slavery in Africa'
Andrea Major, University of Leeds
'Slavery and the Raj'
Edward Alpers, University of California, Los Angeles
'Patterns of Slave Trafficking, 1665-1831'
Movements across oceans
Chair: Jaco Boshoff, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, University of Hull
'Free and forced migration in the Portuguese Atlantic, 1580s-1670s: Western Africa as a case-study'
Richard Allen, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mauritius
'From Saint Helena to Sumatra: The British East India Company and Slave Trading in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, 1621-1804'
David Eltis and Jane Hooper, Emory University
'The Indian Ocean in Transatlantic Slavery'
**Sunday 22 November**
Keynote: Robert Shell, University of the Western Cape
'From Diaspora to Diorama: UNESCO and the preservation of the legacies of twin ocean slavery'
Chair: Joel Quirk, University of Hull
The diasporic legacies of slavery
Chair: Kate Hodgson, University of Hull
Shihan de Silva, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London
'Asia's Africans: Forgotten Communities'
James Sweet, University of Wisconsin-Madison
'The African Diaspora in the Atlantic World'
Ehud Toledano, Tel-Aviv University
'The emergence of African communities in the Ottoman Empire'
Abolitionism and its aftermath
Chair: Lalou Meltzer, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Kate Hodgson, University of Hull
'Twin ocean travellers and late eighteenth century European abolitionism'
John Oldfield, University of Southampton
'Transatlanticism and Abolition'
Nicholas J. Evans, University of Hull
'The legacies of abolitionist discourse in the campaigns to abolish the White Slave Trade'
Contemporary slavery and historical problems
Chair: Fiona Clayton, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Mark Johnson, University of Hull
'Beyond the Veil: Situating Migrant Labour in the Middle East'
Deborah Posel, University of Witwatersrand
'Apartheid in South Africa'
Joel Quirk, University of Hull
'Modern Slavery in Africa: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Problems'
Closing address: The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town
'Repairing Historical Wrongs'
Chair: David Richardson, University of Hull
An International Conference organised by the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull, at the Iziko Slave Lodge, Cape Town, 19 - 22 November 2009.
Provisional programme
**Thursday 19 November**
Welcome and opening address
The Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Dan Plato, introduced by David Richardson, University of Hull
Historical memory and performance
Chair: Archie Dick, University of Pretoria
Wilma Cruise, Independent artist and writer and Gavin Younge, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
'Satan's Seat: The Cape Town Slave Memorial in Post-colonial Context'
David Wilkins, University of Hull
'Repairing historical wrongs in Africa: Whose history?'
Gabeba Baderoon, Pennsylvania State University
'The Two African Oceans: Memories of Slavery in Yvette Christianse's Castaway, Unconfessed and Imprendahora'
Tunde Awosanmi, University of Ibadan
'Slaveprints on Sand and Sea: Rewriting the slave-self in African drama'
Capital and labour
Chair: Sophie White, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Kwabena Adu-Boahen, University of Cape Coast
'West African slavery under European mercantile presence: the case of 16th-18th century Gold Coast'
Anil Persaud, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam
'John Rippon and the Circuits of Cane: Capital, Knowledge and Labour at the turn of the 18th Century in the Indian Ocean'
Bonnie Martin, Southern Methodist University
'Mortgaging Slaves in North America and South Africa: Parallels in Funding Slavery and Slave Societies'
In the shadow of slavery
Chair: Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town
Bronwen Everill, King's College London
' "The first requisite to the prosperity of the colony is the suppression of the slave trade": Reassessing the Impact of Sierra Leone and Liberia's Antislavery Activity'
Sandy Shell, University of Cape Town
'Prosopographies and profiles: the Oromo slave children in South Africa, 1888-2008'
Alaine Hutson, Huston-Tillotson University
' "Common Failings of Our Common Humanity": A Preliminary Exploration of Issues Common to Slavery in the Middle East and the Atlantic World'
**Friday 20 November**
Anti-slavery encounters
Chair: Patrick Harries, University of Basel
Mary Wills, University of Hull
'Anti-slavery and the Royal Navy: encounters, experiences and beliefs'
Lindsay Doulton, University of Hull
' "The Flag that sets us free?" Anti-Slavery, Africans and the Royal Navy in the Western Indian Ocean, c. 1860-1890'
Isabelle Denis, Université Paris Sorbonne
'The Amélie and The Pocha: Two slave vessels and the French Navy (Martinique 1822 - Mayotte 1840)'
Patterns of trading
Chair: Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, University of Hull
Stacey Sommerdyk, University of Hull
'Examining the Merchant Communities of the Loango Coast: The Eighteenth Century West Central African Voyages of the Middelburg Commercial Company'
Carlos Liberato, York University, Toronto
'The Slave Trade between the Indian Ocean and the Amazonia, 1778-1846: Volume, Routes and Organisation'
Steven Serels, McGill University
'Salt for Slaves; The Slave Trade at Rowayeh, the Sudan, 1880-1913'
Slavery and education
Chair: Wayne Alexander, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Yvette Fox and Sue Holmes, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
'The Pedagogy of Learning and Teaching Slavery Studies in Schools'
Albert Jauze, Université de la Réunion
'Education about slavery and the slave trade in Réunion Island'
**Saturday 21 November**
Keynote: Nigel Worden, University of Cape Town
'Changing Networks of Slave Resistance at the Cape: Bridging the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Worlds'
Chair: Nicholas J. Evans, University of Hull
Conceptual frameworks
Chair: David Richardson, University of Hull
Gwyn Campbell, McGill University
'Towards an Understanding of Twin Ocean Slavery'
Nigel Penn, University of Cape Town
'Slavery in the Cape Province'
Judith Spicksley, University of Hull
'Debt as a Framework for the Study of Slavery'
Political economies and social structures
Chair: Judith Spicksley, University of Hull
David Richardson, University of Hull
'The Demography of Slavery in Africa'
Andrea Major, University of Leeds
'Slavery and the Raj'
Edward Alpers, University of California, Los Angeles
'Patterns of Slave Trafficking, 1665-1831'
Movements across oceans
Chair: Jaco Boshoff, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, University of Hull
'Free and forced migration in the Portuguese Atlantic, 1580s-1670s: Western Africa as a case-study'
Richard Allen, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mauritius
'From Saint Helena to Sumatra: The British East India Company and Slave Trading in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, 1621-1804'
David Eltis and Jane Hooper, Emory University
'The Indian Ocean in Transatlantic Slavery'
**Sunday 22 November**
Keynote: Robert Shell, University of the Western Cape
'From Diaspora to Diorama: UNESCO and the preservation of the legacies of twin ocean slavery'
Chair: Joel Quirk, University of Hull
The diasporic legacies of slavery
Chair: Kate Hodgson, University of Hull
Shihan de Silva, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London
'Asia's Africans: Forgotten Communities'
James Sweet, University of Wisconsin-Madison
'The African Diaspora in the Atlantic World'
Ehud Toledano, Tel-Aviv University
'The emergence of African communities in the Ottoman Empire'
Abolitionism and its aftermath
Chair: Lalou Meltzer, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Kate Hodgson, University of Hull
'Twin ocean travellers and late eighteenth century European abolitionism'
John Oldfield, University of Southampton
'Transatlanticism and Abolition'
Nicholas J. Evans, University of Hull
'The legacies of abolitionist discourse in the campaigns to abolish the White Slave Trade'
Contemporary slavery and historical problems
Chair: Fiona Clayton, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Mark Johnson, University of Hull
'Beyond the Veil: Situating Migrant Labour in the Middle East'
Deborah Posel, University of Witwatersrand
'Apartheid in South Africa'
Joel Quirk, University of Hull
'Modern Slavery in Africa: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Problems'
Closing address: The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town
'Repairing Historical Wrongs'
Chair: David Richardson, University of Hull
[General
, Twentieth Century History
]
09 October, 2009 08:45
A digital collection of World War One posters has been made available by the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division (USA). The majority of the posters are from the US, but posters from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia are included as well.
[General
, Twentieth Century History
]
06 October, 2009 09:33
History & Policy: Connecting historians, policymakers and the media
History & Policy is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, the Institute of Historical Research and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine aims to demonstrating the relevance of history to contemporary policymaking, put historians in touch with those discussing and deciding public policy today; increasing the influence of historical research over current policy and advises historians wanting to engage more effectively with policymakers and media.
One can search the papers published by theme, author or keyword. The site also includes specially commissioned opinion pieces, where historians give their views on current issues.
[General
, Twentieth Century History
]
31 August, 2009 20:59
20th Century British History Essay Competition
An annual essay competition from Oxford Journals open to anyone currently registered for a higher research degree in the UK and abroad, or who completed one no earlier than October 2008.
The winner will get his/her essay published in Twentieth Century British History , a cash prize of £300, £200 worth of OUP books and one year's free subscription to Twentieth Century British History.
Closing date is 15th October 2009.
