Using Hashtags
On Twitter, hashtags (#) are commonly used to classify and link together tweets on related subjects.
The following pages track recent threads for a selection of hashtags that are popular with historians:
- Historians:
- #twitterstorians: this hashtag (established by @katrinagulliver), is an essential starting point for finding historians talking to each other; it’s used for a variety of news, links, questions and discussions
- #historyteacher: used by teachers for material relating to history education at various age levels
More Specialised Conversations
- Sciences, Medicine, Environment:
- #histsci, #histmed, #techhist, #envhist
- Places and Spaces
- #ChineseHistory, #LocalHistory, #EuropeanHistory, #UrbanHistory
- Related disciplines
- #digitalhumanities, #archaeology, #genealogy, #archives
You might have noticed #history is missing. This one is definitely worth a look, but it’s used in a very varied way that can make it hard to find particular interests. Other hashtags you might explore include #publichistory and #archives. You’ll often find several hashtags combined in one tweet – use these to start exploring!
Broadside Conversations
The Conversations page – primarily for more specific threads than the running themes noted above. These may be based on hashtags, or they may use Twitter services like Storify to follow a discussion.
Broadside Tags
Items from the Broadsides and Bulletins which have been manually tagged for certain themes or categories. (They will probably be updated about once a month.)
Other Resources
- Katrina Gulliver’s #twitterstorians – this is the original #twitterstorians’ list, regularly updated!
- History of science blogs and twitter accounts – from the Medical Museion blog
- Wefollow: historian
- Five ways for historians to use Twitter – useful short guide from the American Historical Association’s blog
- Twitter 101 – a basic guide to get started
- The Broadside’s Resources tag – blog posts and articles with useful ideas, discussions or reflections on historians’ experience of using Twitter as a tool for research and/or teaching
- Twitter offers automated “who to follow” suggestions based on search terms (including hashtags). You could start by trying:
Twitter Lists
Lists are a Twitter feature for organising followed people by topics or themes, and they can be a very useful resource for finding people with shared interests. This is just a sample!
- European historians (@adevenney)
- historians (@DaintyBallerina)
- Shakespeareans (@DaintyBallerina)
- post-renaissance history (@hckGGREN)
- Renaissance Studies (@hckGGREN)
- historians (@HistoryToday)
- societies (@HistoryToday)
- museums (@HistoryToday)
- history of medicine and science (@history_geek)
- history of science (@beckyfh)
- British and Irish history (@Jason_M_Kelly)
- Digital history (@Jason_M_Kelly)
Some Lists for history educators
- teachers (@HistoryToday)
- educational organisations (@etwinninguk)
- social studies teachers (@Dontworryteach)
- education (@go2sali)
- we are history (@swanhistory)
Search Listorious for history-related Twitter Lists
