Oliver Betts
Biographic Data
| ID | 5712239 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Oliver Betts |
| GIVEN NAMES | Oliver |
| FAMILY NAME | Betts |
| SIGNATURE | BETTS O |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Railway Museum, UK |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9851-5357 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Immediate Accidents and Lingering Trauma: Railwaymen Poets, Danger, and Emotive Verse
This paper examines the work of a group of Railwaymen Poets, whose verse has been collected as part of the Piston, Pen and Press project. It explores their writings both as part of an emerging theme of accident and loss poetry surrounding the railways in Victorian culture but also more specifically as interrelated texts produced by workers sharing common experiences. Whilst many wrote about all manner of subjects, not just the railway accident, p…
Supernatural Cities: Enchantment, Anxiety and Spectrality
Far from being a static or eroding cultural inheritance from the past, the supernatural has continually been appropriated and updated to accommodate and express social, cultural, economic and environmental anxieties. Since the Enlightenment, supernatural beliefs and practices have largely been derided as ignorant and un-modern - even anti-modern - and cities, being the ultimate symbol of progress and rationality, have not been thought to harbour …
Yellow-Backs, Station Book Stalls and Sensational Reading
Blending together different academic disciplines and approaches, even in more accepted interdisciplinary fields, can be a challenging task for any author. Balancing the weight of scholarship, and the critical currents of competing methodologies is hard enough even before plunging into the complexities of nineteenth-century source material. Thus, it is gratifying to see texts such as this, by Paul Raphael Rooney, that aim to bridge the literary-hi…
Developing China's “international” railway: The Canton–Hankow line, 1898–1937
Using contemporary journalism and archival material, this article is concerned with the construction of the Canton–Hankow (Hankou) Railway, a strategically important route and a product of international competition and influence. It argues that the line's construction between 1898 and 1937 witnessed a transition from speculative to bilateral investment, the latter comprising Britain's share of the Boxer Indemnity fund. It details China's keenness…
Beyond “a contradiction in terms”. Transport museums, research agendas, and public history
Both Transport History and Transport Museums stand at a critical point, this piece argues, with both their academic relevance and public interest and support in the balance. Drawing on recent debate in this journal about the future of Transport History given the recent turn towards mobility, this piece argues that museums and scholars would benefit greatly from the joined up thinking that would allow for new critical perspectives to develop. The …
Carlos López Galviz, Cities, Railways, Modernities: London, Paris, and the Nineteenth Century
Victorian Railway Things: Working as a Research Fellow in a Technological Museum
Drawing on the author’s experiences as Research Fellow at the National Railway Museum in York, this piece reflects on the challenges and opportunities of curating the Victorians in a technology museum. In doing so it argues that Victorianists of all disciplinary backgrounds must make more use of museum collections. Collaborative research shared between academics and curators, the latter often the gateway into the under-utilized world of museum co…
The Moral Mapping of Victorian and Edwardian London: Charles Booth, Christian Charity, and the Poor-but-Respectable by Thomas R.C. Gibson-Brydon
Female Workers, the Confectionery Industry, and the London Labour Market c.1880
This paper explores the labour conditions of a small confectionery firm, Epps and Co., in late Victorian London before the rise of New Unionism. Utilizing details of employees and disciplinary proceedings contained within a wage book uncovered in the Rowntree’s company archives, it explores how discipline was enacted in the complex world of the London labour market. The relationship between, employer, employee, and discipline placed significant e…
Sharing a Cab with Mr Pooter: A Reply to Peter K. Andersson’s ‘How Civilized Were the Victorians?’
Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never heard of, and I fail to see – because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’ – why my diary should not be inter
Beyond “a contradiction in terms”. Transport museums, research agendas, and public history
Both Transport History and Transport Museums stand at a critical point, this piece argues, with both their academic relevance and public interest and support in the balance. Drawing on recent debate in this journal about the future of Transport History given the recent turn towards mobility, this piece argues that museums and scholars would benefit greatly from the joined up thinking that would allow for new critical perspectives to develop. The …
Female Workers, the Confectionery Industry, and the London Labour Market c.1880
This paper explores the labour conditions of a small confectionery firm, Epps and Co., in late Victorian London before the rise of New Unionism. Utilizing details of employees and disciplinary proceedings contained within a wage book uncovered in the Rowntree’s company archives, it explores how discipline was enacted in the complex world of the London labour market. The relationship between, employer, employee, and discipline placed significant e…
Female Workers, the Confectionery Industry, and the London Labour Market c.1880
This paper explores the labour conditions of a small confectionery firm, Epps and Co., in late Victorian London before the rise of New Unionism. Utilizing details of employees and disciplinary proceedings contained within a wage book uncovered in the Rowntree’s company archives, it explores how discipline was enacted in the complex world of the London labour market. The relationship between, employer, employee, and discipline placed significant e…
Sharing a Cab with Mr Pooter: A Reply to Peter K. Andersson’s ‘How Civilized Were the Victorians?’
Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never heard of, and I fail to see – because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’ – why my diary should not be inter
Victorian Railway Things: Working as a Research Fellow in a Technological Museum
Drawing on the author’s experiences as Research Fellow at the National Railway Museum in York, this piece reflects on the challenges and opportunities of curating the Victorians in a technology museum. In doing so it argues that Victorianists of all disciplinary backgrounds must make more use of museum collections. Collaborative research shared between academics and curators, the latter often the gateway into the under-utilized world of museum co…
The Moral Mapping of Victorian and Edwardian London: Charles Booth, Christian Charity, and the Poor-but-Respectable by Thomas R.C. Gibson-Brydon
Supernatural Cities: Enchantment, Anxiety and Spectrality
Far from being a static or eroding cultural inheritance from the past, the supernatural has continually been appropriated and updated to accommodate and express social, cultural, economic and environmental anxieties. Since the Enlightenment, supernatural beliefs and practices have largely been derided as ignorant and un-modern - even anti-modern - and cities, being the ultimate symbol of progress and rationality, have not been thought to harbour …
Yellow-Backs, Station Book Stalls and Sensational Reading
Blending together different academic disciplines and approaches, even in more accepted interdisciplinary fields, can be a challenging task for any author. Balancing the weight of scholarship, and the critical currents of competing methodologies is hard enough even before plunging into the complexities of nineteenth-century source material. Thus, it is gratifying to see texts such as this, by Paul Raphael Rooney, that aim to bridge the literary-hi…
Developing China's “international” railway: The Canton–Hankow line, 1898–1937
Using contemporary journalism and archival material, this article is concerned with the construction of the Canton–Hankow (Hankou) Railway, a strategically important route and a product of international competition and influence. It argues that the line's construction between 1898 and 1937 witnessed a transition from speculative to bilateral investment, the latter comprising Britain's share of the Boxer Indemnity fund. It details China's keenness…
Beyond “a contradiction in terms”. Transport museums, research agendas, and public history
Both Transport History and Transport Museums stand at a critical point, this piece argues, with both their academic relevance and public interest and support in the balance. Drawing on recent debate in this journal about the future of Transport History given the recent turn towards mobility, this piece argues that museums and scholars would benefit greatly from the joined up thinking that would allow for new critical perspectives to develop. The …
Carlos López Galviz, Cities, Railways, Modernities: London, Paris, and the Nineteenth Century
Immediate Accidents and Lingering Trauma: Railwaymen Poets, Danger, and Emotive Verse
This paper examines the work of a group of Railwaymen Poets, whose verse has been collected as part of the Piston, Pen and Press project. It explores their writings both as part of an emerging theme of accident and loss poetry surrounding the railways in Victorian culture but also more specifically as interrelated texts produced by workers sharing common experiences. Whilst many wrote about all manner of subjects, not just the railway accident, p…
Sociology (6 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Engineering (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Literature: history, themes, analysis (3 works)