traditional tile illustration features a man in a tricorn hat with his arm outstretched towards a woman who holds a fan. Behind her, another woman looks on in maybe disbelief or disapproval.

a traditional tile illustration, but it's not clear what is happening. It seems that a woman in the background is holding a slipper, possibly offering to paddle the bum of a man who is bent over another woman in a confusing pose.

a repeating tile pattern of dark blue and yellow geometric-floral-ish pattern

a repeating tile pattern featuring a pink, gold, and blue flower in circles, and a geometric-flower-ish pattern

I'm a big fan of the tiles everywhere. In addition to the ones with repeating patterns, I love the story scenes. I'm dreaming of creating a little story book using only tiled scenes from the city. Top two here are my favorites so far that I think could lead to some entertaining storylines.

poster for "Work in Progress Seminars" for the GAPS group at U Minho. Bridget Marshall 17 April at 11 am.

photograph of the Cathedral of Braga -- Sé de Braga -- an enormous stone building with arches, metal gates, and bells

Photo of the courtyard in Biscainhos Museum, Braga. There is a fountain in the middle, bright yellow walls and red tiled ceiling.

photo of Braga's Garden of Santa Barbara, featuring pointed arches in the foreground and an imposing castle with pointy tops behind.

I'm having a wonderful and busy week in Portugal. I have five talks in five days here at the University of Minho in Braga (thanks, U Minho and Erasmus!). I had a free day today and filled it with a ton of museums, gardens, and churches. It is an incredibly beautiful and historic city.

Who Gets Guggenheims? - Public Books Unfortunately, 100 years of data show that those whom such fellowships might represent the greatest departure from their everyday experience—that is, those not at elite institutions—are least likely t...

Woohoo, here's my essay with my fav co-author on 30,000 fellowship wins across the Guggenheim, Stanford CASBS, NAEd, National Humanities Center, RSF visiting scholar, and Harvard Radcliffe.

Spoiler: it's the people working at prestigious universities

www.publicbooks.org/who-gets-gug...

black and white newspaper drawing featuring a woman bent over holding her head in front of a machine with belts that go up to the ceiling. Several other workers look on in horror and run towards her to help.

10 April 1880 the National Police Gazette reported on Sarah Hallock of Middletown, NY who received "a hair-pulling that nearly proves fatal" when her hair caught in the belts at the factory where she worked. "One more revolution would have broken her neck," but she survived.

clipping from "FUN" magazine titled "Suggestions for the ladies" featuring images of five women wearing (as per titles beneath) "The duck's feet gloves" "The cock-a-doodle-doo costume" "The fallow-deer chapeau" "The vampire mantle" and "the bovine Bonnet" Date is February 10, 1886

second set of images of women in costumes with titles beneath: "The Piggee-Wiggee Visiting Toilette" "the Turkey Gown" "The camel hump costume" "the angry cockatoo Coiffure" "the Fretful Porcupine Dinner Robe" "the rattle-snake Tea-gown" "The puppy dog and skye-terrier toilettes for children"

Loving these fashion ideas from 1886. Tag your choice. I'm "Vampire Mantle," but I think all of these are fantastic. From "Fun" magazine, a competitor to Punch.

newspaper illustration featuring a young woman in a hat with ribbons hitting a man over the head with her parasol.

newspaper clipping: "A Plucky Manchester Girl" "Recently, a very pretty factory girl and employee of one of the large corporations of Manchester, N.H., had hung on her nice clothes and was sailing down Elm street with her ribbons flying, her silks fluttering in the wind, and a smile of conscious beauty irradiating her pretty face, when a brute of a fellow called out "Sis." adding some insolent remarks. The young lady did not wait for further affront, but turned on the worthless loafer, spat in his face, knocked off his hat with her parasol, and saying "I'll teach you to insult young ladies, you puppy, move off, amid the applause and cheers of the bystanders"

#OTD 27 March 1869, the Sporting Times reported that a "pretty factory girl" in Manchester NH responded to a "worthless loafer" catcalling her by spitting on him, knocking off his hat w/ her parasol, and saying "I'll teach you to insult young ladies, you puppy, move off."

Congrats, Laura! I'm looking forward to reading it.

Gothic Dementia Cambridge Core - English Literature 1700-1830 - Gothic Dementia

Digital publication day! 🎉
I'm very proud of this little book on a difficult subject, one I take very much to heart (as I try to do with all my work, but especially this one). Gothic Dementia is free to download until April 12th!
www.cambridge.org/core/element...

On the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, John Sloan's searing March 1911 illustration for the New York Call, a Socialist newspaper, responding to the tragic event

newspaper clipping from the Gleaner "Lowell, March 22, 1843 Lowell Wants to Know" column includes: "When is C. H. going to pay I.B. that five dollars he lent him to go to Old Dick's Ball on the 22d of last month?" "If Bill B. knew he was seen on the road between Lowell and Andover, one evening last week; with a young lady of notorious character" "If that was Ike P's wife that G. D. took in to see the reformed drunkards play on Tuesday evening last" "Where M. gets all of his information concerning certain young men of this city?" This article is from https://www.americanantiquarian.org/american-underworld-flash-press

Reading 1840s "flash press" for hilarious #Lowell content that ranges from "when is C.H. going to pay I.B. that five dollars he lent him" to "Bill B." was seen "with a young lady of notorious character" to a threat to "M" to stop reporting on "certain young men" or he "will get a flogging."

final paragraphs of the story summarized in the post. It ends "the novel strike that was brought about through Lucy's bloomers."

The other factory girls turn to the weaver's union and insist on striking. The union secretary "explained what unions were for, and convinced them it was no business of theirs what Lucy wore." Fred marries Lucy and "blesses the day she wore bloomers." Solid union educating here, + bikes & bloomers!

newspaper column featuring the title story "The Factory Girl's Bloomers"

Masthead of "The Cotton Factory Times" Manchester, Friday, April 8 1898.

"The Factory Girl's Bloomers" appeared in Cotton Factory Times on 8 April 1898, telling the story of Lucy and her 2 suitors. Fred gets her a bicycle & encourages her to wear bloomers, scandalizing the other suitor and all the weavers at the factory who threaten to strike if Lucy isn't fired.

Black and white photograph of Edmonia Lewis, a woman of Black and Indigenous (Mississauga) descent, from about 1870. She is seated at a table, looking at the camera.

Photograph of a sculpture in white marble by Edmonia Lewis of two hands clasped.

Many thanks to the organizers of the #SSAG @ssag.bsky.social conference! I saw tons of great panels & loved meeting other Gothic folks. If you're still in #Salem I highly recommend you stop by the Peabody Essex Museum #PEM to see the Edmonia Lewis exhibit. It's wonderful. www.pem.org/exhibitions/...

Anyone have recommendations of tools or tricks to organize research photos taken during #archive trips? My (many) photos of multi-page material from various archives are sitting around in google photos and I think there has to be a better way.

https://libguides.uml.edu/textile_mill_images 1890s photograph of the courtyard of the Boott Mills filled with people.

Find out more about immigration history in Lowell: libguides.uml.edu/c.php?g=1315...
Read Harriet Hanson Robinson's memoir of her time as a mill girl here: libguides.uml.edu/c.php?g=5426...
Read letters from Lowell mill girls to their family and friends: libguides.uml.edu/lowell_mill_...

‘We must not allow our history to be erased’: Tara Hong calls attention to film removed from Lowell National Historical Park LOWELL — The city of Lowell often celebrates the women and immigrants that helped shape the city as it developed into an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, and for nearly 50 years the Lowel…

It is impossible to tell the story of #Lowell without focusing on women and immigrants, who are absolutely foundational to the city's founding, growth, and success. Today's Sun has more info on the erasing of history at Lowell National Historical Park. Enraging.
www.lowellsun.com/2026/03/10/w...

Might be a bit of a drive but we went to Stone Zoo (Stoneham) yesterday and there are tons of huge puddles in the pathways that seemed to bring a lot of delight to the littles we saw there. They have some red pandas right now, among other fun critters.

Congrats! Not sure if it's what you're seeking, but I've really enjoyed American Antiquarian Society's week-long summer programs in the past. This year they have one in visual culture www.americanantiquarian.org/programs-eve... and one in print culture: www.americanantiquarian.org/programs-eve...

Illustration features a jar on the left filled with river water and on the right filled with air. In the center and behind the two jars is an image of a river and trees but looming over them is a dystopian-looking series of black and grey industrial buildings with weird shapes and demonic red spots. Our Rivers and Atmosphere — The Multiplication of Various Pathogens, Microbes, and Bacteria Artist Albert Robida Date 1890 From La vie électrique Source: https://pdimagearchive.org/images/c7ff1d59-4527-4432-b56d-274e99ba3405/

Inspired by several threads sharing sources for public domain images, I looked for "factory" at the Public Domain Image Archive and was delighted to find this French illustration by Albert Robida: "Our Rivers and Atmosphere — The Multiplication of Various Pathogens, Microbes, and Bacteria" (1890).

Tomorrow! 7pm Irish time! Join us for a fab deep dive into the world of Irish spooky podcasting! All welcome: you just need to register via the link below:

Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

Congrats! I am so excited to read this!! Hooray!

Disability and the Gothic Cambridge Core - English Literature: General Interest - Disability and the Gothic

Disability and the Gothic has now been published and is available online FOR FREE for the next 2 weeks. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Photograph: view of Linen Hall Library -- nice wooden tables with green-glass lamps, shelves of old books, and a window that looks out onto City Hall

view of the rotunda inside Belfast City Hall.

A well-worn book cover for a book called "Industries (of) Ireland: Descriptive & Biographical Facts, Figures, and Illustrations". There are various scenes of Belfast on it.

Black and white photograph from inside Belfast City hall museum. It portrays a love of children, barefoot on a cobblestone street, and generally looking not so fancy. A quote is superimposed in white in front of them: "Many Belfast Mills are slaughterhouses for women and penitentiaries for the children." attributed to James Connolly an Winifred Carney, "To the Linen Slaves of Belfast" (1913)

Can't believe it's already my last day in Belfast! Spent it in one of my favorite research spots -- Linen Hall Museum -- and then also (finally) went to Belfast City Hall to see their excellent exhibit on the history of the building and the city, and took a tour of the building. Recommend both!

Apply today for the Historic Children’s Voices K-12 Teacher Institute

Monday, August 10 - Friday, August 14, 2026

americanantiquarian.org/k-12-teacher-institute-2026

printed ad that reads John G. McGee & Co., Merchant Clothiers and Practicall Hatters Army & Navy Tailors & Outfitters to all parts of the Globe, 46, 48, & 50 High Street, Belfast

I like to think that this establishment billing itself as "practical hatters" is distinguishing itself from all the "mad hatters." (from Adair's 1860-1 Belfast Directory)

google books search on "gothic" gives response "It looks like there aren't any 'Books' matches on this topic."

I found it was really glitchy last week (searching inside books sometimes wasn't working) and kept encouraging me to "try the new google books" which didn't really appear to be that different. Links I have to books (saved from Zotero) seem to work, but a search of google books now yields *nothing*.

Image source here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3g05734/ This is a grey-and-sepia-toned watercolor depicting a building made up of many odd towers and elements, along with several tall smokestacks belching a lot of dark grey smoke into the grey sky. The building is reflected in the water surrounding it.

Gave a little talk today for a colleague's class on historic images of mills & factories and was surprised again by the fact that this image is from 1881. It's a watercolor by Joseph Pennell depicting Bethlehem Steel Works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a place I called home for a few years.

black and white image of a pretty young woman who is holding a shawl around her that covers the top of her head. She is carrying a basket.

"The Factory Girl" as she appeared in The Sunday School Hive & Juvenile Companion 1 June 1878: "factory girls, although labouring under many disadvantages, compare favourably with any other of the working classes of young women for thrift, for intelligence, and for religion."

On request, the deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to 13 February, so you have two more weeks to get yours in!

hullgothic.wordpress.com/cfp/