Lulu writes: I was very lucky to get work experience at UoB’s History department in June 2023, and as part of my time with Professor Karen Harvey I spent a day transcribing and analysing 18th and 19th century letters. She’d chosen a variety of letters written by children and young people for me, such as … Continue reading “Female friends writing: then and now. A school pupil reflects on their work experience on the ‘Social Bodies’ project”
Author: Karen Harvey
Old voices, new voices: public engagement using eighteenth-century letters
A thirteen-year-old boy sitting at the back thrusts immediately his hand in the air. It is the end of a two-hour Year 9 workshop on eighteenth-century letters. The final task has been a creative writing exercise. The young people have been invited to write a letter in the voice of Hampton Allen, using early-eighteenth-century language, … Continue reading “Old voices, new voices: public engagement using eighteenth-century letters”
One Year On: A database, 1324 letters and 4847 bodies
On 17 March 2021, the first letter was entered into our project database by Sarah Fox. The letter was written by Dorothy Wright, on 31 May 1746, to her daughter Catherine. Dorothy was visiting another daughter who had recently given birth, but she dared not leave because the new mother, ‘is so fearfull she neather … Continue reading “One Year On: A database, 1324 letters and 4847 bodies”
What Letters Did, What Letters Do
I am surrounded by letters on all sides. Our project, ‘Material Bodies, Social Identities: Embodiment in British Letters c.1680- 1820’ funded by the Leverhulme Trust began in February 2021. Our aim? To explore descriptions of everyday experiences of the body in the context of the communities of family and kin, friendship and faith. What role … Continue reading “What Letters Did, What Letters Do”