Rebekah Higgitt

@rhiggitt

Historian of science; Principal Curator of Science @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social & Hon Fellow, STIS, Uni of Edinburgh. VP @bshsnews.bsky.social #histSTM. Views own. Formerly known as @beckyfh

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Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 8h

At least I'm prepared enough to have these!

Photo of three pairs of eclipse viewers.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 14d

Smith has both a bollard on his head and a For Sale sign tucked under his arm

Crop of previous picture, focusing on the statue, decorated as described.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 14d

I'm at Edinburgh City Archives, which means facing tourists and pre-Fringe crowds as I go out for lunch. Quite a contrast to the records of Castlehill School that I'm reading, when this was an impoverished area, many pupils lacked boots, even in winter, and boys were in court for playing football.

View up the busy High Street, with St Giles Cathedral on the left, some random orange fencing on the road and just visible statue of Adam Smith with a bollard on his head.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 21d

I love this photo of my colleague Sophie Goggins inviting our guests to smell the collections in the @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social stores #histSTM #ESHS-HSS

Several people standing in a collections store, with one of them nose-first in the open doors of a shelving unit.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 28d

Organised chaos

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 28d

How many historians of science does it take to Strip the Willow? #eshs-hss #histSTM

Lines of people about to dance in a large museum hall.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· 29d

I suggest meeting at EICC for those at sessions there ending 5:45. Perhaps here, left of the exit?

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 29

The things you end up doing in a Museum job! For example, staging a birthday party for a taxidermied sheep (Dolly will have been born 30 years ago on 5 July). For video with music by Dolly's musical namesake, see www.instagram.com/reel/DaKxaHs....

People wearing party hats and throwing balloons posing around a taxidermied sheep in a museum case, which is also decorated.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 22

Important #ESHS-HSS #histSTM notice: who, coming to the ceilidh on 14 July, knows their Dashing White Sergeant from their Gay Gordons and Strip the Willow? Your skills are needed to help lead a merry dance! Dances will be called by the band, so everyone can join in, but a few set leaders will help.

Evening event in a large hall (NMS Grand Gallery) with lots of people dancing.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 20

It's 23:28 on the night before summer solstice in Edinburgh, and there's still some sunset in the sky

View down a street, looking over the Firth of Forth, still with some rosy tints over the hills. You can also see a (blurry) moon top left.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 19

My Instagram feed has turned purely into a Tartan Army in Boston celebration. I'm reminded of the good spirit in Munich, even when all hope was gone, during the 2024 Euros. #WorldCup

Bagpiper in a city square with locals and tourists watching and filming - town hall with saltires behind.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 17

Just looking up at the observatory on Calton Hill, and I realise that I recognise that chimney stack (though not the chimney pots). The buildings to the left of the arrow in Pic 1 didn't exist at the time that Pic 2 was made.

Snapshot of distant older and contemporary buildings on a hill (the City Observatory, former site of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh). A red arrow has been drawn to highlight the chimney on the older buildings.

Late 18thC coloured print showing the view from the observatory on Calton Hill, before the classical building was built.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Jun 17

I did not doubt her bravery when I saw what she was flying in at the Science Museum's Cosmonauts exhibition.

photograph of a small spherical capsule, with the hatch off, displayed in a museum case.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· May 31

In this James Hutton anniversary year, and in light of the recent fundraising to acquire and digitise Charles Lyell's notebooks, I ask: which Scottish man of science is the real 'Father of Modern Geology'? There's only one way to find out...

Portrait painting of James Hutton (looking very un-fighty).

Engraved portrait of Charles Lyell, with his signature beneath (he looks determined).

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· May 11

The pigeons love the little gilded "Romanesque" statue of George II in St Helier's Royal (formerly Market) Square – the Jersiais took longer to be persuaded jerripedia.org/wiki/Statue_...

A gilded statue of a man in "Roman" attire with many pigeons around his feet, trees behind.

View of the same statue from the other side - no pigeons this time, but a building with a Jersey flag is behind.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· May 6

The shortlist for the @bshsnews.bsky.social Pickstone Prize 2026 has been announced: bshs.org.uk/pickstone-pr... It was a tough choice, as the committee were presented with such a range of excellent work, but it's a great shortlist! #histSTM 🗃️

Image showing what looks like a book cover with "BSHS Pickstone Prize 2026" as the title, and a banner that reads "Shortlist out now!"

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· May 4

May the Forth be with you

Aerial view of the Firth of Forth from the east.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 28

Metropolitan Science: London Sites & Cultures of Knowledge & Practice, c.1600-1800, by me, @jasminekt.bsky.social and Noah Moxham, is available as a paperback from Thursday! A relative snip at £26 www.bloomsbury.com/uk/metropoli... #earlymodern #histSTM

Two paperback copies of Metropolitan Science with a detail of a 17thC map of London on the cover.

Shows the top copy of Metropolitan Science being opened, revealing a plan of the Tower of London from 1597.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 17

I took the (budding earth scientist) 18yo to the Hugh Millar Birthplace Museum #histSTM

18thC buildings, some with thatch, along a small road, hills in the back.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 13

Further still

View of cliffs from the water - you can just see the stack that is the Old Man of Hoy, Orkney.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 12

Find myself further north than usual

Photograph of grey skies and grey river with a cathedral and hills in the background.

Photograph of a river with a bridge - buildings across the other side and daffodils in the foreground.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 11

Some images of the geology/natural history/scientific instrument inspired installation - in place for the rest of the Edinburgh Science Festival, along with a range of activities linked to scientific instruments and #histsci

View of the grand gallery with voiles hanging down the sides. They have collaged images that evoke specimens and measures.

Sculpture evoking root forms. Upsidedown inscriptions on the base read Theodolite and Malaria.

Another sculpture with elements inspired by measures - the base reads Thermometer.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 9

Sunshine on Leith, and on some *really* big yellow bits of maritime tech (wind turbines?)

The big, yellow tech looks less huge in this photo of sea, sky and port infrastructure.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 6

On the future of the Quiet Route (see buttondown.com/edi.bike/arc...), this cyclist is very much hoping an eventual decision will lead to some much-needed resurfacing.

Photo of a stretch of much-patched and pot-holed tarmac.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Apr 3

That was rather more "later" than planned, but here is the post teleskopos.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/r...

Two 19th-century astronomical instruments in an old-fashioned glass case, through which can be seen the Victorian ironwork of the National Museum of Scotland.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Mar 27

Morag the Sheep, whose cloning helped pave the way for Dolly (who was born 30 years ago this July) is now on display at the National Museum of Rural Life (part of NMS) in East Kilbride. She's part of a new display about science, tech & animal care in agriculture. www.theguardian.com/news/gallery...

Photo of a woman using a small brush on the nose of a (taxidermied) sheep.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Mar 24

Outdoor exhibition celebrating the tercentenary of the Edinburgh Medical School outside the Royal Scottish Academy #histmed #histSTM 📜 #ESHS-HSS

View of an open plaza area with classical and gothic buildings to the right and on the skyline behind. There are three visible arrangements of illustrated information panels.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Mar 20

Happy vernal equinox! On an armillary sphere and similar instruments, the equinoxes are the two points when the ecliptic (Sun's annual path) crosses the celestial equator.

Detail showing a small silver instrument formed of a series of rings. It is centred on the point where two cross over.

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Mar 18

Huh

Snipped Bluesky post:
‪Clawmark‬ ‪@clawmark01.bsky.social‬ · 44m
Replied to you
The split role is telling — when the same institutional title can mean 'advocate for science' or 'justify funding decisions,' it shows how the relationship between science and the state is always a negotiation, never a neutral partnership. #sciencepolicy #historyofscience

Rebekah Higgitt@rhiggitt· Mar 18

Interesting to see in this discussion of science funding and policy one of the nation's Astronomers Royal acting as such, on one side, and the other, acting for the funders, on the other.