Shona Parker
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shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Shona Parker
@shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
89 followers 41 following 140 posts
Author of English Victorian social history books How the Victorians Lived and - coming soon! - A Guide to Victorian Love. Here to share research trips, talks I give and my life as a history author! Blog posts available at: www.backinthedayof.co.uk
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shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Shona Parker @shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social · Aug 29
Hi! Pleased to meet you!

📚💙 #19thC 🗃️ #History #PublicHistory #histbookchat #Skytorians #19thcentury
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
There is a new post over on the blog of Pen and Sword Books: The Top Ten Infectious Diseases of the Victorian Era.

A little something I rustled up after writing A Guide to Victorian Love 😊

buff.ly/n1oynL2

#Victorian #victorianera #skystorians #britishhistory #Histodons #19thC #nineteenthcentury 🗃️
The Top 10 Infectious diseases of the Victorian era - Pen & Sword Blog
Author guest post from Shona Parker. The infectious diseases of the Victorian era have not disappeared; they are just contained and less likely to do us
buff.ly
October 5, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
rebeccarideal.bsky.social
I wrote about society’s disproportionate obsession with women who kill. I have A LOT more to say about the new Lizzie Borden drama (very little of it good). www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
From Lizzie Borden to Myra Hindley, why are we still so fascinated with female killers? | Rebecca Rideal
Another true-crime drama about a woman accused of murder is hitting our screens, feeding into our culture’s unhelpful obsession with ‘female rage’, says historian and author Rebecca Rideal
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2026 at 9:27 AM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Happy Sunday! Here's an extract from Chapter 2 of A Guide to Victorian Love for you ...

If you have any questions, please ask!

#booksky #19thC #c19th #19thcentury #nineteenthcentury #Skystorians #History #Histodons #PublicHistory #histbookchat 🗃️
September 20, 2026 at 7:08 AM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
A Guide to Victorian Love on pre-order now from Pen and Sword Books Ltd! I am so excited about this book! It is a one-of-a-kind in the history book section, discussing how the Victorians cared for each other in society, from sex and conception, through parenthood and marriage ....

#🗃️ #19thC
September 13, 2026 at 7:01 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
My new book - A Guide to Victorian Love - is on pre-order!!! It is to be published 30th November by Pen and Sword Books Ltd in hardback for £20. At the moment, it can be ordered for £16 😍 As an original body of work, it is a thorough exploration of how the Victorians loved each other ...
September 4, 2026 at 6:12 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
If you fancy some easy reading on the Victorian era, this is for you!

#19thC 🗃️ #PublicHistory #19thcentury #writingcommunity
August 30, 2026 at 7:47 AM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Hi! Pleased to meet you!

📚💙 #19thC 🗃️ #History #PublicHistory #histbookchat #Skytorians #19thcentury
August 29, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
marciaclayton.bsky.social
💙📚💙 #booksky The Angel Maker is set in a rural Devon village in Victorian times. Will Charlotte find her missing baby daughter and what is going on in the mysterious house in the woods?
mybook.to/TheAngelMaker
#Victorian #Historicalromance
July 31, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
katestrasdin.bsky.social
I can’t help thinking that this trio might just be the Charlie’s Angels of the mid c18th. They certainly look ready for anything and who knows what they have tucked away beneath those hoops. The photography #thekyotocostumeinstitute has always been dreamy #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
Three mannequins in a row each styled in a different mid 18th century gown and accessories including fans, fichus and hats
July 27, 2026 at 1:17 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
This is beautiful 😍
bows4crows.bsky.social Alan 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 @bows4crows.bsky.social · Jul 29
Evening dress, Madame Roger, Paris, 1865

Ice cream? This feels like ice cream 🍨, seaside promenades 🏖️, and Summer ☀️. Needs a parasol though.

The size of the stripes took me by surprise, but it creates a really lovely effect.

#fashionsky #fashionhistory #dresshistory
Museum photo a full length evening dress in silk and satin, coloured in cream and pink vertical stripes (each about 6-8 inches thick). It has a narrow bodice with lace and ribbon trimmings at the wide scoop neckline. The skirt is extremely large, with structure beneath to expand it a little to the sides and front, and extensively behind. It has a full trail beyond even this, and is paired with a white belt, and white layer that sits atop the back of the skirt (again trimmed with lace).
July 30, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Shona Parker
katestrasdin.bsky.social
When I was 19, I helped to mount a mourning dress belonging to Queen Victoria. Such was her silhouette that she seemed to emerge like a spectral figure. She forged longstanding relationships with dressmakers, many of whom appear in Dressing the Queen @londonmuseum.bsky.social #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
Two curators putting the finishing touches to the mounting of one of Queen Victoria’s late c19th mourning gowns My book Dressing the Queen spotted in a bookshop
July 29, 2026 at 11:08 AM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
This is exactly what I do when it’s hot - nesting, researching and general reading, just like the farmer 😊☀️
langtrygallery.bsky.social Langtry Gallery @langtrygallery.bsky.social · Jul 25
hot & humid today, so we're nesting & researching

A fine early 19th c gentleman farmer is keeping us company

#art #antique #antiqueart #19thcentury #langtrygallery #classicdecor #menreading #interiordesign #artforyourhome #meninart #antiquario #arte #antiquités #kunst
July 27, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Shona Parker
victurk.bsky.social
#onthisday, 26 July 1890, Alfred Waterhouse's Hotel Metropole opened in #Brighton, its amazing #TurkishBaths considered more luxurious than its not-insignificant rival in West Street, by now 22 years old. Destroyed when new owners AVP built a swimming pool in its place in the early 1960s. 🗃️ #C19th
Cut of the exterior of the hotel in 1890, with promenade, sand and pier in the foreground. Cut showing one end of the cooling-room with very high ceiling, circular arched openings, and decorated columns. Betowelled men stand around. (Illustrated London News) Architect's presentation drawing (?) of the other end of the cooling-room, with similar high ceiling, circular arched openings, and decorated columns. In the centre is a section of the plunge pool, looking toward the covered opening into the first hot room. We can see through the glass-paned openings into the hot rooms beyond. A photograph of part of the plunge pool shows, unusually, that neither the height of the room, nor its decorative features, have been exaggerated in the architect's drawing.
July 26, 2026 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by Shona Parker
victurk.bsky.social
#onthisday, 26 July 1865, The 2nd Middlesex County Asylum, Colney Hatch, opened #TurkishBaths for its patients & staff, 4 yrs after the 1st in England—Haywards Heath. Dr Edgar Sheppard had consulted David Urquhart & visited the Cork Asylum bath. www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/... 🗃️ #C19th
The main entrance to the Colney Hatch Asylum, later renamed Friern Hospital, shown in the 1990s after its closure. Plan of the Turkish bath at Colney Hatch when it opened. Entrance led into the dressing/cooling-room. Patients entered the hot room after passing through the washing area. To the left, on the way in, was a wash basin and a douche. Passing through again on the way out, patients were able to receive a shampoo in a room, again to the left. ('Opening of the Roman bath at Colney Hatch (Middlesex Asylum)' Journal of mental science (vol.11; 1865-6).
July 26, 2026 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Shona Parker
drmartinkolby.bsky.social
youtu.be/24VXiSsrja8?...

#steampunk #fantasy #fiction #1800s #19thcentury #vintage #victorian #cosplay #costume
The asylum takes over Lincoln! Steampunk mayhem descends on the city! | Holmes at Heart
YouTube video by Holmes at Heart
youtu.be
July 26, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
kattekopjes.bsky.social
Mary E. Butler, Oleander Blossom (ca.1867-1912). Collection: Victoria & Albert Museum, London

#art #watercolour #19thcentury #20thcentury #flowers
Branches of oleander on a table or shelf. The pink flowers are seen slightly left off centre with the leaves of the branches at the back coming from the right-hand side of the picture.
July 26, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
nlireland.bsky.social
Banned Comics at the NLI 📖

Were comics really banned in Ireland?

Join comic scholar James Bacon as he explores the history of comic censorship in Ireland using material from the National Library's collections.

📅 Thursday 6 Aug at 6pm (for ages 16+):
https://ow.ly/fipx50Znh9q
Banned Comics at the NLI
A history of Censorship of Comics in Ireland
ow.ly
July 14, 2026 at 12:10 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Here I am at The Sherlock Holmes Showcase at Hammersmith Studios, London on 23rd May! It was an amazing event pulled off by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. It was lovely to meet people who had already bought my book, others who were interested in how I had researched it and new readers too🙂
June 28, 2026 at 4:21 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
June's newsletter has been sent and it holds some exciting news!
If you would like to sign up to receive monthly updates on my shenanigans as an author, please pop over to my website and leave your email address.

📚️ 🗃️ #19thC #History #nineteenthcentury #c19th
June 28, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social
IT'S PUBLICATION DAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
Download 'The King's Dinner: family, nation, and identity on the British table, 1760-1820' here FOR FREE and read all about George III's eating habits over breakfast!
uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...
#skystorians #openaccess #18thC #foodhistory 🗃️
The King’s Dinner
The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on the vast kitchen ledgers of two royal households made newly available to research through digiti...
uclpress.co.uk
June 11, 2026 at 5:25 AM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
‘The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.’
Plato (1)

As the era progressed, the self-confidence and ambition of British Victorians steadily grew. This was the era of the inventor, with British Victorians inventing many gadgets, household items and practices ...

🗃️ 📚️ #19thC
May 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
I wish!
May 15, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Shona Parker
joecozens.bsky.social
200 years ago the handloom weavers of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire engaged in a 10-day rising, destroying over 1,100 power looms. To learn more check out our interactive StoryMap: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9a84...

#19thCentury #skystorians @sslh.bsky.social @esriuk.bsky.social
Witnessing the Weavers’ Rising of 1826
A digital mapping project created by The National Archives and The Open University
storymaps.arcgis.com
May 14, 2026 at 2:08 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
Ready for The Sherlock Holmes Showcase on May 23rd at Riverside Studios in London ... bookmarks and bookbags!! Hand made from an assortment of Liberty Tana Lawn cottons, William Morris fabric produced by the V&A Museum and assorted felts, you get one free with every purchase of ...
May 10, 2026 at 4:01 PM
shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social
I couldn't agree more @victorianmasc.bsky.social and we all know the best covers have googly eyes! 📚 #19thC
May 9, 2026 at 7:08 PM