The #DiversityProject of the #Bywgraffiadur may be over, but its articles live on!
Here's my personal top-ten list of articles we managed to publish over a frighteningly short period of time.
Authors and colleagues in tootland: we couldn't have done it without you!
https://bydbach.hcommons.org/enwogion-o-fri-the-history-of-wales-just-got-more-vibrant/
During our 2-year run on the #DiversityProject for the #Bywgraffiadur, we published over 60 fantastic articles about extraordinary people in the #history of #Wales. Today was my last day on the project and it is only fitting to go out on #TransDayOfVisiblity by sharing Mike Parker's beautiful contribution about the travel-writer and Gymraes by choice, Jan Morris.
If you have not had the delight to encounter her writing or stories about her, Jan's life as emojis might look something like this: 
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-MORR-JAN-1926
#histodons #lgbtqia
It's publication day!
Enwogion o fri: Diversity Project 2023-2025
Our free #DiversityProject anthology for the #Bywgraffiadur has just dropped on KC Works. Over 40 authors contributed more than 60 articles about the most fascinating people in #Welsh #history you could possibly imagine.
We've covered #BAMEHistory #LGBTQ_ and #DisabilityHistory, #WomensHistory, #ArtHistory, the #HistoryOfScience, #HistoryOfReligion and #Wales
Frankly, there's not a single article in this collection that's not bound to be of interest to someone.
Get your own copy here as PDF or epub. And because we're in Wales, we even offer you two versions.
English: https://works.hcommons.org/records/dtb9c-bzm89
Cymraeg: https://doi.org/10.17613/mmwvm-ryh93
@CarveHerName The establishment of the Kingdom of Hawai'i is perhaps one of our more unusual stories among a whole series of extraordinary lives captured by the #DiversityProject of the #Bywgraffiadur. We're currently preparing an article about the Welshman Issac 'Aikake' Davis who, together with John Young, acted as advisor to the future first king, Kamehameha I, and was instrumental in the unification and establishment of the kingdom in 1795. Only this morning, our author in Hawai'i shared a link to a video that shows Davis's personal Book of Common Prayer, the first of its kind in the archipelago, exhibited at the Cathedral of St. Andrew.
I'm in the middle of tagging up our next article for the #DiversityProject of the #Bywgraffiadur and the author's very diplomatic turn of phrase -- 'who became his model, and more' -- just gave me a good chuckle.
I'm in the middle of marking up the latest article for the #DiversityProject of the #Bywgraffiadur about the jeweller and trader Morris Wartski and there's the casual mention that the Marquess of Anglesey attended the lavish wedding of Wartski's daughter in 1903.
Doing the maths, it wasn't just any marquess, but *that* Marquess -- who was not only a good customer, but had also helped Wartski to set up his business.
Oh, to have been privy to the conversations of an observing man (who helped set up the first synagogue in Bangor!) and the man who makes David Bowie look like someone who wasn't trying hard enough.
#JewishHeritage #LGBTQI #QueerHistory #Histodons #Wales
Images:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartski#/media/File:Wartski_Bangor.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Paget,_5th_Marquess_of_Anglesey.jpg
Did you know the big hulking, 6-foot tall Grand Sword in the National Eisteddfod is actually German?
Here's the backstory why that is.
https://bydbach.hcommons.org/hubert-von-herkomer-1849-1914-painter-designer-and-film-pioneer/
#ArtHistory #Biography #histodons #Germany #DiversityProject #Wales
Image credit: Geoff Charles, National Library of Wales
As one of my last assignments for 2024, I just finished writing my fourth article for the #Bywgraffiadur. The short version is currently in the hands of our main editor -- the long version, complete with an avalanche of images is waiting on my blog.
So if you ever wondered why a German artist created the 6-foot sword in the National #Eisteddfod in #Wales, look no further.
I give you Hubert von Herkomer: the man who married his wife's nurse, and his wife's nurse's sister.
https://bydbach.hcommons.org/hubert-von-herkomer-1849-1914-painter-designer-and-film-pioneer/
#ArtHistory #Biography #histodons #Germany #DiversityProject
Image credit: Southampton City Art Gallery
Check out the Dictionary of Welsh Biography's new interactive timeline!
Did you know that the Black coal merchant Cesar Picton, the Ladies of Llangollen and the Hawai'ian chiefess Elizabeth Peke Davis Kaumualii were all alive at the same time? What's their link, you ask? They're all people in Welsh history!
Browse the timeline for all the names connected to our #DiversityProject. Some of these names still don't have an article. If you want to write their life stories, get in touch: rita.singer@library.wales
My third contribution to the #DiversityProject of the #Bywgraffiadur: a short bio article about THOMAS RIGBY (c.1783-1841), publican and hairdresser. He is one of the earliest Black people settled in Carmarthenshire whose names we know.
This is the unedited version that just went to the editor.
https://bydbach.hcommons.org/thomas-rigby-c-1783-1841-publican-and-hairdresser/
NEW ARTICLE
SHOSHI MUKHI DASS (1868 - 1921), missionary, teacher and nurse
'In Glasgow, she was actively involved with the Welsh National Union while further south, in Wales, she delivered several public lectures to Methodist audiences. Wearing a sari to demonstrate the typical dress of women in north-east India, she spoke in English about the history and culture of her country, her education and missionary work, and sang hymns in Bangla. During her second year in Britain, she frequently lectured together with Kate E. Williams, Pwllheli, to crowded audiences. These appearances were part of the qualification process for outgoing missionaries to India for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. Shoshi had been accepted by the General Assembly at Bootle by May 1893.' -- Rita Singer
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-DASS-MUK-1868
Image: https://flic.kr/p/CUGosM
#Bywgraffiadur #DiversityProject #Wales #India #Bangladesh #HistoryOfReligion #Mission #histodons
NEW ARTICLE
Congo House / African Training Institute, students
'Kwesi Ewusi (c.1881-1924) and Joseph A. Abraham (dates unknown) from the Gold Coast, for example, were associated with early Ethiopianist and pan-Africanist organisations in Britain. While studying at university, the Nigerians Ayodeji Oyejola (b. 1876) and Akidiya Ladapo Oluwole (dates unknown) were among the students who took on public-speaking engagements, which raised money for charitable causes in Britain, before they left to commence prominent careers as surgeons in west Africa. The South African Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu (1885-1959) would become a pioneering educator and a founder of the All African Convention, which rallied against segregationist policies in his homeland. ' -- Robert Burroughs
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-CONG-COL-1890
Image: https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AYIKCRQIALQ2Q28V/pages/AWYZRD7JBUYOUV8S
#DiversityProject #Bywgraffidur #Wales #BlackHistoryIsWelshHistory #BlackHistory #Histodons
NEW ARTICLE
JAN MORRIS (1926 - 2020), writer
'Fate presented Morris with her first great break: at the age of 26, accompanying the 1953 Everest expedition led by Colonel John Hunt. The Times had bought exclusive rights to the trip, and when the mountain was finally scaled for the very first time, Morris, waiting at the camp at 22,000 feet, devised an elaborate system of codes and runners to telegraph the news back to London, without anyone else seeing it. The story broke on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation. It was, Morris wrote later, 'the last innocent adventure'.
A new celebrity status brought a direct approach from publishers Faber & Faber, who published Morris's first book, Coast to Coast (1956), an account of travelling across the USA.' -- Mike Parker
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-MORR-JAN-1926
Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Morris_historian.png
NEW ARTICLE
JAMES (JIM) SAPOE JOHN MANNAY (Ahmed Hassan Ismail) (1927 - 2012), historian and poet
'Together with his cousin Emily, Benjamin Johnson's daughter, Jim spent years recording the history of the Kru people. They both kept many documents relating to individuals and Jim wrote extensively about the community in Tiger Bay, detailing many Kru and English names and nicknames. He was also a poet whose life story was reflected in his work. Thanks to the accuracy of his storytelling, Jim's work has resulted in the identification of over 600 individuals from West Africa throughout the UK, and became the basis of research to identify seamen from the Kru community who served in the two World Wars.' -- Rebecca J Eversley
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-MANN-JOH-1927
#DiversityProject #Bywgraffiadur #Wales #BlackHistoryIsWelshHistory #BlackHistory
Darlun/Image: https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/2173356
ERTHYGL NEWYDD NEW ARTICLE
VALENTINE MORRIS (1727 - 1789), colonial administrator and landowner
'On his father's death in 1743, Morris inherited the Piercefield estate, along with substantial plantations in Antigua including a great number of enslaved people. These included Looby's, Crabb's, and Martin's in St Paul Parish in southern Antigua and Jolly's in St Mary Parish in western Antigua. In 1776, Morris was rated as owning 1,004 acres on the island, which was worked by 284 enslaved people. As Ivor Waters strikingly puts it, 'The elegant Valentine Morris owned Piercefield in Monmouthshire, worth £50,000 and Piercefield, a slave in Antigua, worth £10.' He was largely an absentee plantation owner while in Britain, apart from a visit to Antigua in 1754 following a period of drought there.' -- Adam Coward
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-MORR-VAL-1771
#histodons #Wales #BritishEmpire #EighteenthCentury #Bywgraffiadur #DiversityProject
Darlun/Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valentine_Morris_(1727-1789),_Governor_of_Saint_Vincent,_by_Allan_Ramsay.jpg
Oodles of fun today in the primary school workshop "Black and Welsh" in #Machynlleth today. The kids are taking to creative exploration of #BlackHistory like fish to water.
#Wales #Bywgraffiadur #DiversityProject
NEW ARTICLE
WILLIAM ANDERSON HALL (born c. 1820), carpenter, fugitive from slavery, author
'Fleeing from enslavement, William was often helped by 'friends', a euphemism for the network of free African Americans and others who were sympathetic to those seeking to escape slavery and who made up the Underground Railroad. However, William's journey was far from straightforward. He was caught and imprisoned on at least two occasions, suffered beatings and betrayal and found that life in the free states of the North could be as precarious as in the South. It was only when William reached Canada that his 'old feelings of dread' left him.' -- Phil Okwedy
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-HALL-AND-1820
#Bywgraffiadur #DiversityProject #Wales #BlackHistoryIsWelshHistory #BlackHistory #AntiSlaveryMovement #histodons
I've just sent in my draft to the #Bywgraffiadur about the Indian medical missionary Shoshi Mukhi Dass (1868-1921). More likely than not, it will get whittled down, so this is a good way to preserve the "director's cut".
If foreign missionary history is your thing, have a look.
NEW ARTICLE
PATRICIA MAUD (Patti) FLYNN (1937 - 2020), musician, author, activist
'Patti Flynn was a strong advocate and campaigner for Black History. As the landscape of the old Tiger Bay was changing, with the regeneration of what became known as Cardiff Bay, in 1988, with help from the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, Butetown History & Arts Centre was created. Its purpose was to capture and celebrate the area's rich heritage and Patti made a considerable contribution to its educational work, in particular, using music, writing and storytelling.
As well as performing, Patti loved writing and was passionate about researching Black History and culture. In 2003 she collaborated with photographer Mathew Manning to produce Fractured Horizon [...]. Together, through pictures and words, they confront the past and present of #Cardiff docklands. -- Bet Davies
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-FLYN-PAT-1937
Image: https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/2118521
#DiversityProject #Bywgraffiadur #Wales
NEW ARTICLE
URIAH 'Big Just' BURTON (c.1926 - 1986), bare-knuckle fighter and activist
'Uriah is probably best known among Travellers as a bare-knuckle fighter. However, he was also known as an activist who not only fought for the rights of Romany Gypsies and Travellers but also made a stand for law and order and for peace in Ireland. [...] Uriah also used his skill and notoriety as a fighter to support his activist campaigns. In 1978, he walked from Dublin to Belfast to publicise his campaign for peace in Ireland. On 24 February 1979, as Uriah was preparing to make another walk, the Belfast Telegraph published a report stating that he had offered to step into the boxing ring and meet anyone who objected to his peace theories. Uriah apparently added that he would not attack but only defend himself.' -- Norman Burton
Read the full story here: https://biography.wales/article/s15-BURT-URI-1926
Image: https://vr4280.wixsite.com/histor.../traveller-and-gypsy-bkb
#GRTHistory #DiversityProject #Wales
