Category: Features
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The Illusive Window: Insights into an Irish Tale
Written by Deana Davis. The extent to which written sources can be relied upon has constantly plagued historians in their attempt to recreate and “see” the past. In Ireland’s case, its unique plethora of cycles, or tales, contain pseudo-historical stories that have been fertile ground for such recreation. One such collection of tales, the Ulster…
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My Year Abroad: Studying History in France
Written by Martin Greenacre. In Britain, we have an absurd fixation with university league tables. In the absence of a similar system in France, I knew little of what to expect when I arrived in Dijon for my year abroad studying history at the Université de Bourgogne. The titles of the courses were not even…
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The Great War Column: Edinburgh’s Fallen Alumni
Written by Ashleigh Jackson. James Crozier was a former medical student at the University of Edinburgh and was tragically killed within the first few weeks of World War I. The University’s Roll of Honour from 1915 lists the first of those to be killed during the opening months of the conflict. The document, which can…
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The Great War Column: The University of Edinburgh, Rudyard Kipling, and the Great War
Written by Ashleigh Jackson. The University of Edinburgh, like many other institutions across the country, did not escape the Great War unscathed. A Roll of Honour was published in 1921, after the cessation of hostilities, to commemorate the fallen alumni of the university. This record provides a wealth of information for those hoping to research…
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Creating Legacies In Gothic House Design, 1750–1850
An individual’s home is often central to the manifestation of personal identity. Among the English elite of eighteenth-century England, this was especially true. During this period country houses were not private spaces, and house visiting meant that the home became an important medium for display of the family, open to the judgement of observers. However,…
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War Stories: Inspired by my Grandma
We got to stay up later in the summer. Long days chasing each other round the fields and evenings in a quiet corner of the pub playing rummy; shared half pints of shandy; treasures of speckled eggs from the chickens. Falling in long grass and ricocheting off the rope swing over the river. The summer…
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Silence and Screams: The Interpretation of Punishment Devices In Museums
Wandering through the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I headed towards one of my favourite sections: crime and punishment in early modern Scotland. As I walked through the tranquil halls of the museum, observing the artefacts and reading the accompanying descriptions, it occurred to me how easy it is to…
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Saudi Arabia and the Destruction of Islamic Cultural Heritage
Whilst the West despairs over the destruction of the Arch of Palmyra, the walls of Nineveh, and the lamassus of Nimrud by Islamic State, a second wave of cultural heritage destruction is sweeping across the Middle East almost unnoticed. The international media has devoted extensive coverage to the obliteration of museums and archaeological sites in…
Retrospect Journal 