What to give a historian
They already know more history than the gift shop does.
Historians are hard to buy for because the obvious gift — something with history printed on it — is exactly what they will politely put in a drawer. What lands is closer to their work: a facsimile of a primary document, a serious historical atlas, archival sleeves for their own papers, or a membership that gets them into collections. And a keepsake with a real classical line on it, rather than a slogan about loving history.
The card we make
Clio is the Muse of history. On her card she stands beneath the stars with the scroll of history and one hand on the globe, the fathers of the discipline ranged behind her — Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, Plutarch, Polybius. Her blessing is an echo of Horace: relinque, o homo, memoriam aere perenniorem — leave behind a memory more lasting than bronze. Horace wrote that of his own poetry. This one is aluminium, and it fits in a wallet, which is its own small joke.
See Clio on Etsy — €29 More about this card · delivery & returns
Other things worth giving
None of these are ours. All of them are better gifts than a bad telescope.
- A facsimile of a primary source
- Museum and archive shops publish full-size facsimiles — charters, maps, manuscript pages. Holding a document at the size it was written is an experience no monograph reproduces.
- A serious historical atlas
- Not a coffee-table book of pictures: an atlas where the borders move by decade. Historians reach for these constantly and rarely buy themselves a new edition.
- Archival storage for their own papers
- Acid-free boxes, sleeves, cotton gloves. Deeply unromantic, immediately used, and it says you understand that they are custodians as well as readers.
- Membership of a museum, archive or historical society
- Reading-room access, members' lectures, exhibitions before the crowds. For the price of a mediocre object, a year of the thing they actually enjoy.
- What to avoid
- Anything with a battle quote in a distressed font. Also anything claiming to be an authentic ancient artefact at a gift-shop price — the recipient will know exactly what it is.
Questions
- What do you give a history teacher?
- Something that helps them teach or something that respects their subject: a facsimile document to bring into a classroom, a museum membership, or a keepsake with a genuine classical line rather than a slogan.
- What is a good gift for someone who loves ancient Rome?
- A well-translated primary source — Tacitus, Suetonius, Marcus Aurelius — a good map of the empire, or an object carrying real Latin. Replica coins and 'authentic' artefacts sold cheaply are usually neither.
- Are replica artefacts a good idea?
- Only when they are sold honestly as replicas and made well. A clearly labelled museum facsimile is a fine gift; a vague claim of authenticity is an insult to someone trained to check.
