Fantastic PhD studentship opportunity - Spitting Image: political satire in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Working across @exeter.ac.uk and @theul.bsky.social in partnership with the @camglamresearch.bsky.social and drawing on the Roger Law archive.
#PhDsky
Engraving of a puffin, standing in side profile on the edge of a cliff by water.
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the puffins, for today is their special day!
To celebrate World Puffin Day, here is an engraving of a puffin from 'Animated Nature Vol. 2' (1821) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
📷 Reserve 590 BUF
#WorldPuffinDay #PuffinDay #RareBooks
Every month I use a different theme to highlight the breadth and depth of the Barnard Zine Library and how its item-level cataloging provides an easy way to discover zine content relevant for research and leisure reading. I've now combined them on a guide. guides.library.barnard.edu/weve-got-a-z...
Poster for the event, saying that it is on Saturday and Sunday 12 April and is called the Festival of Magical History
Our online FESTIVAL OF MAGICAL HISTORY starts tomorrow, but you can still get tickets.
The last two talks on Sunday will feature Diane Purkiss on Exceptional Witches and Jeremy Harte on C19 village witches.
Come and join us. All ticket holders get recordings.
bit.ly/flaevents to book
PSA: *reporting* Israel is bombing “Hezbollah” in Lebanon is like saying Israel is only bombing “Hamas” in Gaza — when we can all see them hitting civilians, apartment buildings, ambulances etc… all you do when you use their preferred words is sacrifice your own credibility.
📢 Great news for South West writers...
Applications are now open for our 2026 Ronald Duncan Stipends! 🎉
If exploring archives sparks ideas for your writing, this might be the opportunity for you 📖
✍️ For more info and to apply, please visit our LibGuide ⬇️
#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Archives
Hope all's well with you there
My article 'The Richmonds, Palestine and the Catholic Press, 1967-80' looked at the campaign of two Catholic converts against pro-Zionist bias in the media - very topical in some ways, but it possibly slipped between Catholic history & Palestine /MENA studies
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Photo of a pile of several sheets of printed text, including old photographic illustrations
Working through a mountain of #photohist proofreading tonight, with a couple of bottles of red and Mazzy Star to keep me company
📢 Calling University of Exeter MA/PGR/PHD students 📢
Interested in Serious Games & Heritage? Join a funded project led by Dr Amy Cutler building a prototype RPG for disaster training in heritage.
Express interest at : ex.ac.uk/dZJ
@doctoralexeter.bsky.social @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social
A janitor in a brown lab coat used to wheel this into the 'A/V room' (which had curtains to remove screen glare, tho the dark made me sleepy) and we all sat cross-legged on the floor to watch Schools & Colleges programmes such as Near & Far with its weirdly soundtracked zoom-out intro
Nice little mask off moment for the GOP here
Photo of a terraced house with a nlue plaque above the doorway
Just walked past Gertrude Bell's old residence - I'm in the middle of writing an article on her photography
Cropped image from a book showing a colour illustration of a beaver in side profile, standing on grass next to a body of water. It has a stocky body, a brown glossy coat, short legs with webbed toes, and a flat hairless tail.
Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the beavers, for today is their special day!
To celebrate International Beaver Day, here's an illustration from 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
📷 Reserve 590 BUF
#InternationalBeaverDay #BeaverDay #RareBooks
Screenshot showing historic Ordnance Survey mapping for Lanark comparing first and second edition maps in Side by Side viewer
The amazing, detailed Ordnance Survey 25-inch 1st edition mapping for Lanarkshire is now available as a georeferenced layer. maps.nls.uk/additions/#197 This allows you compare the 1850s maps with later editions in our Side by Side viewer. maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/... Now on to the next county...
I tried two or three times to express something more nuanced within the remaining word count available, and couldn't fit it in, but this was the gist of what I was trying to say, and it is very true. Thanks again
Photo of front cover of a book entitled 'Capture Spiral'
Deeply engrossed again tonight in 'Capture Spiral. An Escape from Memory' - altho' a couple of years younger than @jezconolly.bsky.social there is so much in this that resonates profoundly, both in culture & psychology. All hail to @temporalboundary.bsky.social for making life in the UK worth living
Workers harvesting carrots
Easter is an important day for many and sharing a meal is a traditional part of this celebration. People like "Bonita" who harvests carrots in CA’s Central Coast, make these sacred meals possible. #WeFeedYou
This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.
Photograph of an 18th century Palladian bridge over an ornamental lake with trees in the background
Photograph of an 18th century Palladian bridge over an ornamental lake beneath a dark cloudy sky with a grassy slope in the background and Georgian buildings (Prior Park College) on the skyline
Took a stroll around Prior Park this morning & saw three deer running beneath the college buildings - not much changed since Francis Lockey photographed them in the 1850s, producing the calotype images I discussed in my PhD thesis
Quite bizarre on Easter Sunday morning to hear MAGA Pastor Lorenzo Sewell on Radio 4 ranting about the Christian God being 'a god of war', not peace, describing Iranians as animals (no surprise he defended Trump’s 'Obama ape' video) and brandishing Biblical quotes to urge more violence on Iran
Photo of a crystal glass containing a cocktail and ice, with two straws and candied ginger on a stick
Followed up by 'Honey, I'm Home' (tho' I'm not) with some lovely candied ginger on the side
I think it might be! I'll check the actual magazine again and confirm (if there's any caption inside)
Photo of a cocktail (gin, martini, apple, lime and mint) on a tabletop
Having an aptly named Springtime Garden
As today is #HolySaturday when traditionally The Harrowing of Hell took place, here's a fold-out plate from my copy of William Hone's 'Ancient Mysteries Explained' (1823) - a copy of Michael Burghers' 17th century engraving, based on a medieval manuscript
Harrowing of Hell and Silent Saturday... the day before Easter Sunday and Resurrection was a quiet one and only the church bells rang for Easter Vigil.
But in the Far North, someone went underground to dance, in our 35th #darkspringtide tale - read it below!
🎨 Jan Pienkowski
A plaque from the Cowgate, Edinburgh recording the publication of the Complaint of the Black knight in 1508
On this day ( 4 April) in 1508, the oldest surviving book printed in Scotland that has a date on it was printed.
Printed by Chapman &Mylar in the Cowgate, Edinburgh
Absolutely, and if one would like some inspiration one could buy a book written by a human called Eleanor Baker.
Fascinating explorations in an area of #bookhistory quite new to me
Photograph of the front cover of RAT magazine from the early 1970s, showing a large portrait of a woman with black hair under the title, within a blue frame. In the bottom right hand corner of the picture are the words: "don't let those silly fascists pluck at your nerves... smile and know that they are sad and completely void of the love that people like you possess."
An issue of RAT magazine from the early 1970s:
"don't let those silly fascists pluck at your nerves... smile and know that they are sad and completely void of the love that people like you possess."