My name is Katherine Howells and I am a PhD student in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. My research interests include the history of visual communication in digital and non-digital contexts and the relationships between visual images, cultural memory and history. My doctoral research project focuses on the British Ministry of Information and the impact of visual materials published during the Second World War on British cultural memory in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. For more information about my current research, publications and public presentations, click here.
My research is part of a larger project, the ‘Publishing and Communications History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-45’, which is being undertaken by the Institute of English Studies in collaboration with the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. For more information about the project, please visit www.moidigital.ac.uk.
Before my doctoral research, I studied MA Early Modern History at King’s College London and BA History at the University of Warwick. During my studies, I have developed an interest in the popular reception of historical images and, in particular, I’ve focused on photographs taken during the First World War and illustrations of Hampton Court Palace.
I started this blog in 2007 when I was still at school and developing my enthusiasm for history. I have always had a particular interest in public and local history so many of my early posts focus on the history of London, where I grew up and live today. However, the ‘local’ category also includes information about the West Midlands, where I lived during my undergraduate studies.
I hope you find my posts useful, interesting and entertaining and I look forward to reading your comments.