chalk in parking lot (red car, grassy slope, low gray building in backgroud): TO KNOW WAS NOT ENOUGH [=COLLEGE MOTTO SHIFTED TO PAST TENSE] WE ARE HAMP THANK YOU STAFF, FACULTY & Students You Made This Place Home

Sometimes the chalk messages on Hampshire College pavements are actually nice

stuff on a table next to a laser-printer/photocopier in front of the copier, several reams of paper in blue and white packaging in front of that: a Christmas mug with a polar bear wearing a read hat next to a basket with writing implements--and a plastic frog head (college symbol) clipped to the edge

Random detritus of a dying institution: still life at Hampshire College 😢

Hampshire College holds 'transfer fair' for students looking to complete degrees On Monday, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, held what officials called a transfer fair for students. The unique liberal arts college announced last week it would close permanently in mid-May for most students.

Hampshire College holds 'transfer fair' for students looking to complete degrees
www.nepm.org/regiona...

Some students said it was pretty chaotic. Mt. Holyoke will take only 30. Amherst seems to have set the bar for credits at a height that rules out almost all 1st-year students

By a nice coincidence, this just appeared today:

Abigail Adams and Smallpox Inoculation during the Revolution - Journal of the American Revolution

allthingsliberty.com/2026/04/abig...

Haven't been back to Prague since before the pandemic (and crises of my employer). I feel like Antaeus, need to touch ground in the place that gives me strength. Long overdue.

PHOTO OF THE DAY. The head of Statue of Liberty, displayed in Paris (1878). 📷 Albert Fernique.

Goulag, une histoire soviétique | Documentaire (intégrale) | ARTE Documentaire disponible en rediffusion jusqu'au 21/11/2027 Le Goulag est le système concentrationnaire de l'Union soviétique et constitua le coeur caché de l'empire, de 1917 à la fin des années 1950. A travers des témoignages et des archives exceptionnels, retour sur l'histoire d'un continent encor

Comment le système concentrationnaire soviétique a forgé le cœur caché de l'empire.

« Goulag, une histoire soviétique », plongée dans l’un des systèmes répressifs les plus implacables du XXe siècle ⤵️

I see, good to know. I had been looking at completely different parts of the world, and there may be other reasons.

Was going to say I love the Prague book (you know that), but that Lonely Planet (due to new management? pandemic?) has not updated a lot of its books in some years

that sounds correct

Oh, speaking of guidebooks, are you going to do Prague again?

The architecture and the décor are right. It was on a Čedok tour of the country.

Somewhere on an old Kodak slide, I have a photo of my father reading Rudé Právo at breakfast in some midcentury modern hotel, though I for some reason to do not think it was there. Maybe Brno

nicely done! (and now you have me trying to remember where I stayed in Bratislava in the old days; no idea anymore)

Revisiting Bratislava’s Hotel Devín | Mark Baker | Travel Writer in Prague

Shortly before the Velvet Revolution, I checked into Bratislava’s Hotel Devín with no idea the secret police planned to use it in an operation to compromise me. This week, while updating a guidebook, I returned for the first time since 1989 - and closed a circle.
markbakerprague.com/revisiting-b...

Reconsidering the Legacy of Minoru Yamasaki | National Trust for Historic Preservation Minoru Yamasaki became progressively self-critical over the spectacular failure of Pruitt-Igoe, the St. Louis housing project he designed. The time is right to reevaluate his work and its place in the history of 20th-century architecture.

Northwest National Life Building is from Yamasaki's heroic phase, before he compromised on design (including World Trade Center of which I've never been a big fan)

Reconsidering the Legacy of Minoru Yamasaki | National Trust for Historic Preservation

Iconic downtown Minneapolis building to become a hotel Another historic downtown Minneapolis office building is about to undergo a major shift.

Iconic downtown Minneapolis building to become a hotel.
It's by Minoru Yamasaki.
www.youtube.com/watc...
I remember well how my father took me to see it when I was a little kid

Adaptive reuse is often a good historic #preservation technique; it seems quite possible here

screenshot of tweet listing suspect Hampshire courses

screenshot of tweet with Hampshire course descriptions presented as irrevocably woke

Everyone's a critic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

fragment of Passover Haggadah from Warsaw Ghetto, with the quoted passage

19 April 1943 #Passover in #Warsaw Ghetto

"Blessed be the Holy One who appointed the time when the days of slavery should end…
in every generation there have risen up against us those who sought to destroy us, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivered us from their hands"

The Last Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto Survivors and fighters from the Warsaw Ghetto, Zivia Lubetkin, Erna Rosental, Roma Frey, Ruchama Rachel Roth, Roma Frey, Adam Melcer and Natan Tyrkiel, describe the preparations for the final Passover and Seder Night in the Warsaw Ghetto on the eve of the uprising. From Yad Vashem's online exhibit

19 April 1943, the beginning of #Passover, the Germans move to destroy the #WarsawGhetto, which rose up in arms, 1st revolt of a city under #Nazi occupation

At the Eichmann trial, fighter Zivia Lubetkin describes
The Last Passover in the Warsaw Ghetto

Touching on this topic, in fact, when we wrap up my historiography/methods course.

Not able to teach the book but recommending it as a follow-up to the briefer articles we have assigned

Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade - The Wolfson History Prize Shortlisted for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize, Survivors is an immersive and revelatory history of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil, whose lives diverged an...

#DidYouKnow that some of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade built a community known as Africatown in Alabama?

Discover their compelling history in 2025 #WolfsonHistoryPrize winning book 'Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade'. ⬇️

bit.ly/46Yml9C

You'll never think of Vermeer's pictures the same way again after reading this book.

Listen to this week's Modern Art Notes Podcast for a wee introduction from author Andrew Graham-Dixon!

Associate Editor- The John Dickinson Writings Project University Overview The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school co...

JOB: Associate Editor, The John Dickinson Writings Project

Looking for someone with a PhD in early American history, ideally with previous experience working on a similar project

Presented with the usual caveat about staff salaries here....

Keep Lino Home! TIME SENSITIVE: Send letters now to support Lino’s fight for a stay of removal! Lino is a beloved father of two US citizen daughters, a severe burn survivor, a longtime Massachusetts resident and sma...

Fellow Massachusetts residents, please send a letter of support and then contact your federal reps about this case.

screeenshot of Christopher Rufo tweet (all text)

So, apparently not everyone is sad Hampshire College is closing.

Media Studies Professor Named First Sound History Fellow at Library of Congress Josh Shepperd, assistant professor of media and communication studies, was recently appointed the 2017 Sound History Fellow for the Library of Congress's National Recording Preservation Board.

Entering year ten of my appointment as the first and only Sound Fellow of the Library of Congress. I have no idea how I got here. The advocacy and infrastructure work associated with the role has been good, nearly impossible, and worthwhile.

Never, ever do this. Your books have a natural order. Over the course of your life they will find their own equilibrium. Attempts to predict or distort that equilibrium are doomed to fail. Don’t suffer as James has decided to suffer. Save yourself.

Anna O. Law, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship — Clio Digital Media Scholars often work for years, or even decades, on their books. They sort through documents, organize reams of notes, and begin drafting chapters with copious footnotes. By the time a book has been pe...

New at Sally Franklin’s Bookshelf, @unlawfulentries.bsky.social stops by to preview her new book, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship. #VastEarlyAmerica #history #newbooks #immigration www.cliodigital.media/sally/anna-o...

The Sound of Silence The past week has brought the shocking reality of anti-Jewish hatred home to a lot of people in this country - but there is one part of society that still doesn’t seem to have noticed.

"And the response to this from Britain’s anti-racist movement, that regularly claims to mobilise tens of thousands to march against racism? Zilch. Nothing. No campaigns, no solidarity vigils, maybe a tweet or two, but beyond that? Silence." — @daverich1.bsky.social

such a calming place. I could look at that all day

Looking from the side into the courtyard. A sarcophagus is in front, partially blocking a Roman mosaic. There are detached columns at the corners of the mosaic and plants lining the sides. This view is looking towards three reliefs from Antiquity, two dolphins and a woman who may be a goddess. Purple delphinium (tall plants blooming with lots of flowers on stalks) and blue short hydrangeas (bunches of bright blue flowers) bloom at the foot of the reliefs.

Close view of part of an acanthus flower stalk, with Individual white flowers. Behind it is part of the faux Venetian palazzo courtyard abc some palm leaves

Close view of delphinium and hydrangea. The delphinium are tall bloom stalks, one royal purple, the other a rich blue. The hydrangea is a short ball of purplish-blue flowers. Behind them are greenery and an old statue of a lion holding an open book, the symbol of St. Mark and also the symbol of the Republic of Venice.

View of the courtyard from one floor up, showing flowers of various shapes and sizes in purples, blues, and white as well as palm trees and other greenery. In the center is a fine Roman mosaic that is mostly decorations with a Medusa head in its center. There are also other items from Antiquity, including a sarcophagus in front of the mosaic.

I went back to the Gardner Museum for another concert yesterday. Nasturtium days ended Tuesday; now they have delphinium, short hydrangeas, white foxgloves, & acanthus, the latter’s leaves common in carvings in Antiquity. #TinyJoys #BloomScrolling