About

I am a historian of science interested in the use of paper tools, particularly diaries, as aids to memory and personal development. My PhD thesis, completed at University College London and the Royal Society, explored the life and diary of Charles Blagden (1748-1820), physician, natural philosopher, and secretary to the Royal Society between 1784 and 1797.

I have worked as an R&D Producer at StoryFutures, and previously as Research Manager at Imperial War Museums. My previous academic roles have included Research Assistant on the ERC funded ‘Diseases of Modern Life: Nineteenth Century Perspectives’ project at the University of Oxford.

New book – out now!

My new book, Women in the History of Science: A Sourcebook (UCL Press, March 2023), co-edited with colleagues in the STS department at University College London, Sadie Harrison, Erika Jones, Farrah Lawrence-Mackey, and Rebecca Martin, explores women’s involvement in knowledge production from around the world, and is designed to complement the teaching of undergraduate history of science courses. You can download and read the book FOR FREE via the UCL Press website.

Women in the History of Science brings together primary sources that highlight women’s involvement in scientific knowledge production around the world. Drawing on texts, images and objects, each primary source is accompanied by an explanatory text, questions to prompt discussion, and a bibliography to aid further research. Arranged by time period, covering 1200 BCE to the twenty-first century, and across 12 inclusive and far-reaching themes, this book is an invaluable companion to students and lecturers alike in exploring women’s history in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, medicine and culture.

Doctoral Research: Charles Blagden’s Diary

Although a potentially rich source of information about the workings of English science and the Royal Society under its longest serving president, Sir Joseph Banks, Charles Blagden’s difficult handwriting has meant that his diary has received relatively little attention from scholars. As part of my PhD, I transcribed sections from Blagden’s diary, opening it up for the use of other historians. In my thesis, I explored how Blagden carved out a career for himself as a gentleman of science in the late eighteenth century, using the patronage of eminent male scholars such as Joseph Banks and the chemist Henry Cavendish. I also examined the significant role of a network of elevated women in London, who supported Blagden’s scientific interests and served as his principal source of esteem and social standing in London.

I have published two articles on Blagden’s diary, which can be found here.

You can find out more about my PhD research on my academia.edu page.

Information management on paper: Lectures on Chemistry taken down by Sir Charles Blagden [1748-1820]. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images.
Information management on paper: Lectures on Chemistry taken down by Sir Charles Blagden [1748-1820]. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images.
Cover image:  Lectures on chemistry. Holograph notes taken by Sir Charles Blagden [1748-1820], when a student at Edinburgh University. L0068238 Lectures on chemistry, Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images.

Videos

I’ve spoken about my work deciphering Charles Blagden’s infamously difficult handwriting, as well as some of the exciting things about working with his diary, in this video, on the YouTube channel ‘Objectivity’.

Cover image: Thomas Rowlandson, Sir Joseph Banks about to Eat an Alligator (‘The Fish Supper’), 1788; © Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2014), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported) https://www.tate-images.com/results.asp?image=T08469

CV

Hannah Halford (née Wills)

Publications

Wills, H. et al (ed). Women in the History of Science. London: UCL Press (2023). https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800084155

‘Benjamin Wardhaugh, Gunpowder and Geometry: The Life of Charles Hutton, Pit Boy, Mathematician, and Scientific Rebel. London: William Collins, 2019. Pp. 312. ISBN 978-0-0082-9995-8. £20.00/$39.99 (hardback).’ The British Journal for the History of Science 53, no. 1 (2020): 129-31. (book review)

‘Joseph Banks and Charles Blagden: cultures of advancement in the scientific worlds of late eighteenth-century London and Paris’, Notes and Records: the Royal Society journal of the history of science. (2019), published online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2018.0060

‘Charles Blagden’s diary: Information management and British science in the eighteenth century’, Notes and Records: the Royal Society journal of the history of science. 73: 1 (2019), 61-81. DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2018.0016 (open access)

Conference and Seminar Papers

‘Exploring the relationship between Charles Blagden and Joseph Banks: scientific exchange between London and Paris’, Joseph Banks: Science, Culture and Exploration, 1743-1820, conference held at the Royal Society, London, 14-15 September 2017.

‘From Case Notes to Commonplace Books: Information Management and Charles Blagden’s Diary’, Annual BSHS Postgraduate Conference held at the European University Institute, Florence, 5-7 April 2017.

‘Marginalised Roles and Marginalised Sources: Charles Blagden as Secretary to the Royal Society, 1784-1797’, University of Leeds 18th Century Studies Seminar, 6 February 2017.

‘”Jan. 1 1795, Bd at Sir J. B’s”: Decoding the Diary of Charles Blagden’, Scientific Diaries Workshop held at the Royal Society, London, 27 January 2017.

Public Talks

‘Paper Technologies: 18th century notebooks and diaries’, public talk part of the UCL student engagers’ event ‘Materials and Objects: What do researchers at UCL study?’, UCL Art Museum, 18 May 2017 (link to event page) 

‘Legacy in Conversation: Scrapbooks, Albums and Diaries in the 18th Century’, public lunch hour talk, UCL Art Museum, 14 March 2017 (link to event page)

Panellist for ‘Why We Write’, public lecture event at the Royal Society, 27 January 2017 (link to video)

‘The Insider’s Diary’, an introduction to the diary of Charles Blagden at the Royal Society, YouTube video for the channel ‘Objectivity’, 29 March 2016 (link to video)

Education

Research Degree (PhD) in Science and Technology Studies, University College London (2015-2019). Thesis title: ‘The Diary of Charles Blagden: Information Management and the Gentleman of Science in Eighteenth-Century Britain’, Supervisors: Dr Simon Werrett, UCL. Mr Keith Moore, Royal Society.

MSc History and Philosophy of Science, Distinction, University College London (2014-2015). Dissertation title: ‘A Tactile History of Public Science During the Eighteenth Century’.

BA History of Art, 1st class, St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford (2011-2014). Dissertation title: ‘Illumination and Illusion: The Spectacle of the Phantasmagoria in 19th Century England’.

Cover image: Information management on paper: Lectures on Chemistry taken down by Sir Charles Blagden [1748-1820]. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images.