Reimagining the Restoration: Samuel Pepys's Diary and Popular History for the Twenty-first Century

Since it was first published in 1825, Samuel Pepys's diary of the 1660s has been a vital source on the Restoration period for historians and literary scholars. The diary's mix of intimate, salacious experiences and major national events -- such as the plague, the Great Fire and the Dutch War -- has an enduring appeal. It is a source which has come to dominate public understanding of the later seventeenth century. With increasingly complete editions appearing, Pepys's diary has inspired exhibitions, novels and tv dramas, and has been used to sell everything from pens to whisky.

Despite considerable commercial and curatorial inventiveness, the ways that Pepys's diary is used today fall into predictable patterns in terms of both the episodes discussed and the approaches adopted. A number of these approaches -- unrecognised by the diary's readers -- were conditioned, even designed, by Pepys through steps he took to control access to his papers. Pepys bequeathed his diary as part of his library to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where it has been since 1724, with strict conditions on its access.

This project therefore investigates the reception of Pepys's diary over the last 200 years as a means to impact the ways it, and the Restoration, will be understood in the twenty-first century. The work has three strands which are united by the themes of inclusivity and storytelling. First, an academic trade book, The Secret History of Samuel Pepys's Diary, will explore the diary's reception. Timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the diary's publication, the book will trace the ways Pepys's diary has shaped ideas of the Restoration in popular culture, from early censored editions (which sparked protests among Victorian reviewers about 'suppressed' passages) to its role in the National Curriculum, and in inspiring controversial novels. The diary has always prompted historiographical debates over what kind of history, and whose histories, merit telling. To further this, I will offer archival discoveries about the other lives that feature in Pepys's diary -- such as those of non-elite women, Black Londoners, and a deaf boy and his signing friends -- whose stories are sometimes no less compelling than Pepys's own.

The second strand of this project concerns those 'other lives' and develops the long-standing involvement of historical novelists with the diary. Early in the project, I will run online workshops for creative writers based on my research, which will in turn inform the book's discussion of historical fictions. Using my archival work, these workshops will engage with the process of writing historical fictions, including ethical questions involved in creating stories about real (and silenced) individuals.

The final strand is an ambitious programme of engagement work developed with my collaborating organisation, the Museum of London, which targets primary school children, parents, and teachers. Each year the diary is the first introduction to seventeenth-century history for 5 to 7-year-olds across England and Wales, who learn about the Great Fire during National Curriculum Key Stage 1. The Museum has identified demand for greater diversity in teaching the Fire, demand that my research on Pepys's diary can help answer. Together we will produce KS1 educational resources for a new area of the successful fireoflondon.org.uk website. In addition, engagement work with D/deaf schools will focus on the history of sign language, as evinced in the diary. With work underway on the Museum's new West Smithfield site, this collaboration also allows project research to inform elements of the Great Fire gallery design.

As we approach the 200th anniversary of the diary's publication and the 300th anniversary of the Pepys Library, it is time to recognise the factors that shaped the diary's role in representing the Restoration to the public and to develop resources that can expand that role and, in doing so, expand that public.