Image of a 16th century manuscript

Image of the front of the London Archives, a red brick building with red banners outside

Image of the Founders Quad at Royal Holloway. The building is red brick with white stone. The quad is grassed and has a central path leading to a statue of Queen Victoria.

News! I've started as the early modern Post Doc on the AHRC-funded 'Inclusive Histories' project @royalholloway.bsky.social. I'm working at @thelondonarchives.bsky.social to research the stories of marginalised groups, which will be used to foster a more inclusive approach to teaching GCSE History

An image showing a close-up view of the Bodleian Library's reader's declaration form with the grand interior of the library in the background.

The traditional Bodleian Oath which every reader is required to read aloud on seeking admission to the Bodleian Libraries. 🫡

Illustration of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, featuring an intricate architectural drawing of the historic building with detailed facade, numerous windows, and figures dressed in academic robes seated in the foreground.

Engraving of the interior of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, featuring detailed architecture with arched ceilings, rows of books, and figures walking between the bookshelves.

Aerial view of the Radcliffe Camera surrounded by Oxford University's historic buildings, with a cloudy sky above.

Aerial view of the historic University of Oxford, showcasing intricate architecture and a person walking across the courtyard.

Happy 423 years of us! 🎉 📚

The Bodleian Libraries opened for the first time on 8 November 1602...

This means, we're older than the refracting telescope (1608), the publication of Shakespeare's Hamlet (1623) and Sir Isaac Newton's apple (1666)! 😅

Fashion Police exhibit at the Houghton Library. Wonderful work Christine Jacobson and John Overholt!

@harvardlibrary.bsky.social

It’s PUBLICATION DAY!! 🌟⭐️💫 I’m very happy to see Voices of Thunder going out into the world 📚

William Powell’s The Anarchist Cookbook (1971).

John Stubb’s The Discovery of a Gaping Gulf whereunto England is like to be swallowed by another French Marriage, if the Lord forbid not the banns, by letting her Majesty see the sin and punishment thereof) (1579).

Index Liborum Prohibitarum (Index of Forbidden Books) (Rome publication, 1564).

England’s King Charles I’s The judgment and decree of the University of Oxford past in their convocation July 21, 1683, against certain pernicious books and damnable doctrines destructive to the sacred persons of princes, their state and government, and of all humane society (1683).

Galileo Galilei’s Dialogo Sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo Tolemaico, a Copernicano (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems of Ptolemy, to Copernican) (1632).

Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) (1543).

Banned Books Week!

Perceived “crimes” against religion, institutional leaders, and public safety have also caused books to be banned. Harvard’s Houghton Library was thorough in considering just who were the “deviants,” and who were the real dangers to society.

@harvardlibrary.bsky.social

Upton Sinclair’s Oil! A Novel! (1927).

Marquis de Sade’s Justine, Ou, Les Malheurs de la Vertue (Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue) (1791).

John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1750).

Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928).

Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855).

D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928).

Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (1956).

Madonna’s Sex (1992).

Alfred C. Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).

Banned Books Week!

Sex is often controversial in books: sex in science & art, homosexual expression, true-to-life depictions of passionate sex. The curators at Harvard’s Houghton Library recently found creative ways to put so many of those lovely naughties on display.

@harvardlibrary.bsky.social

A woman's place was not in the home: Challenging the assumptions about women's work in early modern history New research has revealed that women played a fundamental role in the development of England's national economy before 1700.

“More than half of the work done by women in the period between the 16th and 18th centuries took place outside of the home, and around half of all housework and three-quarters of care work was conducted professionally for other households” [England]

phys.org/news/2025-10...

New exhibition explores history of decorative borders: from medieval manuscripts to William Morris The new show at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery covers the late medieval age to the Arts and Crafts Movement.

New exhibition explores history of decorative borders: from medieval manuscripts to William Morris
theconversation.com/new-exhibiti...

book with details from an early modern map on the cover

Look how pretty she is! I received my author copies of /Practices & Narratives of Early Modern Piracy/ today (officially published by @amsterdamupress.bsky.social on Monday). Will post more about individual chapters (including my own) next week - in the meantime, do ask your library to order a copy!

Fresh feta cheese twist, perfect drip coffee, and graduate research homework in a cafe that makes me feel like I’m in Los Angeles, California while actually being in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ❤️

The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the Ingeneous Mrs. Aphra Behn with Life and Memoirs. Complete in Six Volumes. (1871) Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the Ingeneous Mrs. Aphra Behn with Life and Memoirs. Complete in Six Volumes. (1871) Volume 4. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the Ingeneous Mrs. Aphra Behn with Life and Memoirs. Complete in Six Volumes. (1871) Plays: Volume 2. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the Ingeneous Mrs. Aphra Behn with Life and Memoirs. Complete in Six Volumes. (1871) Plays: Volume 4. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

The Plays, Histories, and Novels of the Ingeneous Mrs. Aphra Behn with Life and Memoirs. Complete in Six Volumes. (1871)

Boston Athenaeum Library.

John Milton’s Treatice of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: Shrewing That It Is Not Lawful for Any Power on Earth to Compel in Matters of Religion (1790). Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

John Milton’s Treatice of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: Shrewing That It Is Not Lawful for Any Power on Earth to Compel in Matters of Religion (1790). Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

John Milton’s Treatice of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes: Shrewing That It Is Not Lawful for Any Power on Earth to Compel in Matters of Religion (1790).

George Washington’s (rebound) personal copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) at the Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

Portrait of George Washington at the Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

George Washington’s personal copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) that most certainly influenced his views on what democracy could be.

A 19th-century list of the books borrowed from the Boston Athenaeum Library by Louisa May Alcott. 8 September 2025.

A 19th-century list of the books borrowed from the Boston Athenaeum Library by Louisa May Alcott.

The 2nd edition of The Hammer of Witches: From Both Old and New Authors (1582), a witch hunter’s guide. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

Details about the the 2nd edition of The Hammer of Witches: From Both Old and New Authors (1582), a witch hunter’s guide. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

Artist’s piece to honor those murdered for witchcraft. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

Details about an artist’s piece to honor those murdered for witchcraft. Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025

The 2nd edition of The Hammer of Witches: From Both Old and New Authors (1582), a witch hunter’s guide (written by sadistic, power-hungry, pathetic men who preyed on the vulnerable). And a 21st-century artist’s piece to honor those murdered for witchcraft.

Boston Athenaeum Library.

Historical book at Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

Description of a historical book at Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

Historical book at Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

Description of a historical book at Boston Athenaeum Library. 8 September 2025.

Artworks.

Boston Athenaeum Library.