Her Half of History

29/02/2024

Cleopatra inherited a joint throne but pushed her brothers out of it. Rome was rising, but she maintained control of her country for years longer than expected. She lost in the end, but she still closed out 3000 years of Egyptian history on her own terms.

Cleopatra originally featured in series 2 on Women Who Seized Power. But she fits equally well in series 12 on The Last Queen. You can read the the transcript and see pictures on the original post.

23/02/2024

Humor as a coping mechanism.

23/02/2024

In the first century BCE, the tiny kingdom of Judea had a Queen Regnant known by many names: Salome, Alexandra, Shelamzion, and Schlomtzion. Her time was remembered for generations as the golden age before Rome.

Desert cliff with dark opening

16/02/2024

Things we take for granted ...

15/02/2024

Last month Margrethe II of Denmark abdicated, leaving us exactly zero queen regnants in Europe.

My thanks to Cheryl Ciucevich (Princess Palace) for today's guest episode on Margrethe's abdication, the history of queenship in Europe, and what the future holds.

If you follow the royal news, you may be aware that we had a queen abdicate last month. Or possibly, you missed it because it wasn’t in the British royal family. It was Margrethe II of Denmark. I a…

09/02/2024

I really wish I'd been on Twitter when this inspiring woman was posting.

09/02/2024

This week it's a guest episode from the fabulously named Dead Ladies Show, talking about LaVern Baker, the R&B singer.

Many thanks to Susan, Florian, and Katy for letting me run this!

https://bit.ly/3HUFOLy

It’s Black History Month, and we’re looking at LaVern Baker, the pioneering R&B singer LaVern Baker. Today’s episode is a guest episode from the fabulously named Dea…

02/02/2024

Still one of the most beautiful quotes I've read in history.

26/01/2024

I hope you're all singing this morning.

25/01/2024

Special episode this week! It's an interview of me by Kelly Chase of the History Detective podcast (History Detective Podcast). We chat about the importance of history and podcasting and libraries and more. All my favorite things!
Listen here: https://bit.ly/3UaGzan

19/01/2024

13/01/2024

The polls are closed and the topic of series 12 will be The Last Queen!

I'm using the word "last" pretty loosely. Here are some women (or a building named after a woman) who may get an episode. Give yourself a bonus point for any you can name!

13/01/2024

Wise words from a former subject of the show.

11/01/2024

A clever person might have timed the episode on teenagers to be the 13th in this series, but for me it just happened by accident.

Listen or read to learn how girls from ages 13 to 19 became neither children nor adults: https://bit.ly/48O54yl

You might not think that teenagers needed discovering. After all, people have been turning 13 for a very long time. But for most of human history, there was nothing special about that. Ancient writ…

04/01/2024

The History of Girlhood is nearing the end, but exactly when does girlhood end anyway? And does it go out with a celebration or a whimper?

https://bit.ly/3viFHpM

All good things come to an end and girlhood is no exception. But there is zero consensus on when that happens. Young people, as I’m sure you know, tend to think that it happens a good deal ea…

26/12/2023

The poll is officially open! It's live on Patreon, but you do not need to be a paid subscriber to vote. Just click on the link and get started. I'm excited to find out what my listeners want me to cover next!

Get more from Her Half of History on Patreon

26/12/2023

This week in (1886), Josephine Cochrane received a patent for her Dish Washing Machine. She had previously said that she hated dishwashing. "What woman does not?"

She hadn't started life washing dishes because she had servants for that. But they kept chipping her fine china. So she said she'd do it. And having tried it she said, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself."

This holiday season, how grateful are you to Cochran for her fabulous invention? (Romania put her on a postage stamp.)

How Josephine Cochrane defied social norms and invented the modern dishwasher.

24/12/2023

Still the best Christmas ad ever. Mrs. Claus rocks.

Meet Mrs Claus - the new Christmas icon is here. Marks and Spencer launches the Christmas 2016 TV Advert campaign with a modern twist on the much-loved chara...

22/12/2023

Somebody with better planning skills might not have ended up covering the exploitation of children right before a major festive holiday, but that's where we are: new episode on Girls at Work in the Industrial Age. The good news is things improved over time.

Take a quick glance down at whatever you’re wearing at the moment. I don’t know whether you are in pajamas or an evening gown, but whatever it is, it’s cheap. Dirt cheap by historical standards. In…

18/12/2023

This day in (1892), Antonietta Dell'Era was the very first Sugar Plum Fairy in the very first performance of The Nutcracker.

11/12/2023

This day in (1936), Edward VIII abdicated his throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who had been divorced twice (and one of them was not yet technically finalized).

In his BBC radio broadcast he said "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love."

08/12/2023

December 13th is coming up! Here's the history of St. Lucia and her celebration in Sweden.

For those of you not in the know, St Lucia’s Day is December 13th. It is celebrated in a number of countries, but this post is specifically about the Swedish celebration. You may have seen a pictur…

01/12/2023

New episode on girls at school. A bit of everything from listening in to your brother's lessons, to convent school, to boarding school, to governesses, to the one-room schoolhouse.

The underlying question behind educating girls is: Why? Why are you educating them? Throughout history, there have been varying answers to that question, and each answer has produced a wildly diffe…

29/11/2023

Thank you so much to the +169% of you who listened this year!

27/11/2023

This week in (1720), the pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny went on trial. They were found guilty but escaped ex*****on because the were both pregnant. Or at least claiming to be pregnant.

Most of the information about them comes from Captain Charles Johnson's "A General History of Pyrates," published in 1724. It is likely that some of the history may be embellished for dramatic effect.

23/11/2023

Martha Sawyers still has the most accurate depiction of Thanksgiving. . .

20/11/2023

This week in (1960), the Mirabal sisters were assassinated for opposing the dictator of the Dominican Republic. In their honor, the UN declared an International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

De Barnaby David -Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106977920

16/11/2023

In the 1860s, the reading girl saw her options explode: with classics like Alice in Wonderland and Little Women, but also picture books, dime novels, and periodicals. For the bookworm girl, the world just got so much better.

It was a bright sunny day on July 4, 1862, in Oxford, England. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford math professor, decided to take a friend and the three girls who lived next door on a picnic, wher…

13/11/2023

This day in (1940), Disney released Fantasia. Marge Champion was one of several models/choreographers for the Hyacinth Hippo. Women also worked on the film as story sequencers, sculptors, animators, choreographers, music editors, & publicists.