Anon. Goddem! il est antique, 1817: – Another amateur historian desperately trying to prove he knows his arse from his elbow.
I don’t normally indulge in blogging about blogging but recent events have prompted me to pause and reflect upon two and a half years spent blogging about the world of Georgian caricature prints and the purpose and value of the material that has appeared on this site in that time.
Casual blogging will never provide an adequate substitute for the sort of rigorously researched academic study that still forms the bedrock of all good historical inquiry but nor is it an entirely ephemeral and valueless medium. Blogging can bring a fresh approach to the prevailing academic consensus and provide a platform from which discussions can be initiated, ideas tested and resources shared. I strongly believe that meaningful historical discourse should not be the sole preserve of those who are either lucky enough to work in academia, or to have a publishing deal under their belts. Nor to I believe that we should refrain from discussing and theorising about history in public in case our errors or unproven ideas are mistakenly interpreted by others as statements of fact. One of the ways in which I feel that I can help encourage others to engage with a subject that I am passionate about is by sharing more of my sources and research materials. As someone who lacks the backing of an academic institution and who is also geographically remote from many of the ‘national’ repositories of historical material which remain tucked away in a corner of southeast England, I have come to view free, open-access, sites like the British Museum’s online catalogue, Google Books, Archive.org and many others as being essential tools of the blogging trade. So, from today you will notice that the sidebar of the blog has a new link to a Resources section. I will be using this as a public repository for my source material and anything else I can share with you without running the risk of gross copyright infringement. Do with it what you will. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
The Printshop Window 
I love the caption…
And bravo on sharing the resources you’ve spent time creating. I’ll have a dig around and share some similar data sets.
I’ve always meant to ask you this, but when you discuss items you’ve recently bought (such as pottery) are the photographs of the objects your own? If so, you might consider (and obviously this is your choice) uploading them to Wikimedia Commons or similar.
The files are still a little sparse at the moment but hopefully should grow to contain a worthwhile set of data over time.
Some of the photographs are of items I own and some come from online auction catalogues. I also receive quite a few emails from people asking me to comment on or value items they have found in their loft / garage / down the back of the sofa and in such cases I always ask if I can re-use any interesting images.
I don’t have any objections to sharing images. I’ve already noticed that a number of my photographs have begun popping up on Pintrest, Tumblr and other picture-sharing websites. The only problem that is likely to present itself is one of time but this might be something that I should look at once the weather gives out and the winter nights start drawing in!