Your History Moment: Twitting the Pepys-verse

Forgive the insipid tagline– I didn’t actually chose the new hip tech lingo for micro-blogging/social networking/microchat or whatever you might call the phenomenon created by the Twitter service.  I do, however, use Twitter (as TheLastBrunch), so when in Rome.

Samuel Pepys, diarist extraordinaire

One of the more impressive uses I’ve seen made of Twitter’s service is the ‘micro-community’ of 17th century voices that have clustered around one Twitter account:  samuelpepys Yes.  The diarist.  If you don’t understand who Samuel Pepys was, you might want to go look him up right now.  Google will get you started.  “Sam” himself was not someone destined for greatness, if you consider his professional achievements, which were essentially to be a mid-ranking naval bureaucrat and member of Parliment.  It is highly unlikely we would ever have even heard of his existence (aside from some odd mention in the Naval Gazette), were it not for one singular achievement.  He kept a diary.  Of everything.  And what a diary it was– Pepys was a compulsive chronicler.  EVERY DAY, for decades, he wrote something about what happened to him that day– from a few sentences to a couple of pages.   And this was no grand overview of historical events– the Pepys diary is a veritable snapshot into another century’s day to day living– from constipation to visits from the King.   It’s a very earthy, enjoyable read.. it drags here and there but the overall result is quite entertaining.

In any event, some kind (but anonymous) soul has taken on a magnificent project: they have taken the online archive of Samuel Pepys diaries, parsed them for a daily segment that best represents the activities of Mr. Pepys for that day in history, and converted it to be posted as a “Twitter Tweet”.    So if you are fond of the idea of viewing into the 17th century on a daily basis, I highly recommend adding Mr. Pepys to your friends list.  Of course, you have to have your own Twitter account, first.

Mr. Samuel Pepys: “Diarist Extraordinaire” http://twitter.com/samuelpepys

Oddly enough there has been a growing micro-community of 17th century “voices” on Twitter that play off of Pepys’ Diaries– characters mentioned often in the main diary series (such as Mr. Pepys’ wife) now have their own accounts as well, and they appear to interact with each other from time to time.  I have no idea if this is one human creating all of this activity from whole cloth or if more enthusiastic Twitters have jumped on Mr. Pepys’ 17th century bandwagon.

Mrs. Samuel Pepys, “Elisabeth, married to Sam, quondam scribbler”
http://twitter.com/mrssamuelpepys

Frances Stewart, “lady who has no wish to be mistress for any man to be master of her.” http://twitter.com/LaBelleStuart

Queen Catherine Braganza, “Portugese Princess married to Charles, King of England,with bloom all lost from my sickness”
http://twitter.com/QueenCatherineB

Lady Barbara Castlemaine, “Commander of the King’s Heart and Purse”
http://twitter.com/LadyBCastlemain

William Hewer, “Clerk to Mr Samuel Pepys, most kind and honourable Gentleman”
http://twitter.com/WilliamHewer

Wayneman Birch, “I am servant to the Pepys household courtesy of my sister Jane”
http://twitter.com/WaynemanBirch

Jane Birch, “maid to Mr Samuel Pepys, a master I serve as well as he serves me”
http://twitter.com/MaidJaneBirch

Several of these accounts map directly to members of the Pepys household, past or present, so perhaps the person or persons responsible for the diaries being Tweeted wishes to expand the narrative for multiple points of view, Rashomon style.  I generally regard Twitter.com to be somewhat superfluous, but useful on occasion.  I really like the ‘microPepys-verse’ that all this interrelated activity creates.  Part of it is stark reality, part of it blatant supposition, and the whole of it rather entertaining.  A very interesting use of social media technology, indeed.

In honor of Sam Pepys’ work, I have 86’d the feed for my Pandora stations and am now feeding in a daily hyperlink to the current Pepys Diary entry (right hand side of this page).  Enjoy.