Abby Beckett
@abbybeckett.bsky.social
PhD candidate at McGill University History of Medicine Working on corpse medicine 1550-1700
Our 2026 Supplement (#18) "Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Transatlantic World, 1600–1850" Edited by @hsmurphy.bsky.social (@kingshistory.bsky.social @cemskcl.bsky.social) Has now been published by @academic.oup.com academic.oup.com/past/issue/2...
Anthropeum.com · Jun 22 2026 🟩🟦🟨🟨🟩🟦🟦🟦🟩🟩 78,956 · top 5% of players today!
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
anthropeum.com
The latest new 'shocking' cosmetic trend is injecting cadaver fat. @abbybeckett.bsky.social shares the fascinating history of the medicinal uses of human ingredients, how they were derived, and how this new trend may not be very new at all. Read it here: buff.ly/aammVeV #HistMed
Axungia Hominis: How Cadaver Fat is Making a Comeback
By: Abby Beckett
buff.ly
Nature at Work making Birds, Animals, and People on Her Anvil, circa 1405, Ms. Ludwig XV 7 (83.MR.177), fol. 121v (Getty)
Aries in medieval manuscripts ♈🐏 Medieval artists showed Aries as a ram, the first sign of the zodiac, marking the start of the astrological year in spring. Shelfmarks: MS. Rawl. D. 1220 fol. 003v MS. Bodl. 266 fol. 108r MS. Add. A. 46 fol. 002r MS. Rawl. D. 939 fol. 2br
My wonderful if struggling department of History and Classical Studies is crowd funding today with all proceeds donated (march 11) being matched in collaboration with #McGill24 If you are a McGill alumni and/or wish to donate to help the next gen of historians/classicists excel today is the day!
crowdfunding.mcgill.ca
Very excited for this years McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference keynote presentation by Laila Parsons! If you’re in the Montreal area, please join!
Early modern medical remedy of “tobacco, six shillings of beere, and a walk” ok so they cracked it. 1625 and they cracked it.
“Rather than relying on an implant or a patient's own body fat to add volume to hips or augment breasts, alloClae — which can cost as much as $100,000 per procedure — uses donor fat from a cadaver as a first-of-its-kind body filler.”
Corporate types are clamoring for a new kind of plastic surgery — using dead people's fat
Corporate types are waiting weeks for — and spending big on — alloClae, which cuts out the recovery time typically associated with body enhancements.
businessinsider.com
In today’s post, Avery Monette (@averymonette.bsky.social) discusses the Nazi occupation of Winnipeg.
The Day Manitoba Fell to Nazi Germany
Avery Monette In the early morning hours of Thursday, February 19, 1942, residents of Winnipeg and the surrounding towns were shaken from their sleep by the sound of air raid sirens. German Luftwaf…
activehistory.ca
Canadian professors: Do you have grad students who need a conference under their belt? Grad students: want to share your work in a friendly and collegial environment? Submit an abstract and join us in February!
Abby Beckett@abbybeckett.bsky.social · 10mo agoAre you a graduate student? Check out the 2026 McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference Call for Papers! Abstracts are due November 28!
We have a new, excellent post up by @donnie-m.bsky.social on Estonia as a space of economic experimentation in the late Soviet period www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/a-labor...
A Laboratory of Economic Reform: Estonian Experiments with Agro-Industrial Associations in the Era of Late Socialism
Donald MorardIn 1965, the French Communist journal Démocratie Nouvelle, in its special issue on the “young, advanced republic” of Estonia, described the occupied Baltic country as a “laboratory” for t...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
Are you a graduate student? Check out the 2026 McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference Call for Papers! Abstracts are due November 28!
Pedro de Camprobín, Death and the Gentleman, c. 1670 (Hospital de la Caridad, Seville). In this unique painting, Death seems to be in the guise of a prostitute, who were often veiled in 17th-century Seville 🎃💀 #earlymodern
Nobody with a conscience would greenlight this monumental waste of energy. Delusional, sociopathic behaviour.
Ryan Marino, MD@ryanmarino.bsky.social · 11mo agoOpenAI’s planned data centers will use more power than New York City & San Diego use at their peak consumption, combined. More power than the entire nations of Switzerland & Portugal combined. And San Altman’s buddies in this administration have been cutting all of our energy infrastructure upgrades
In today’s post, Abigail Beckett (@abbybeckett.bsky.social) explores the Indigenous and colonial history behind Jean de Brebeuf’s Feast Day, celebrated on September 26th.
Jean de Brebeuf: Colonial Tensions and Spiritual Healing c. 1649-1660
This case study of Jean de Brébeuf emphasizes the intricacies of colonial tensions and complicates colonial narratives and ideas of civilization hierarchies. Indigenous cannibalism was used as a me…
activehistory.ca
2/3 comps exams done…thank god my puppy is taking on the exhaustion for me
!! activehistory.ca/blog/2025/06...
On Generative AI in the Classroom: Give Up, Give In, or Stand Up
Edward Dunsworth Two approaches dominate discussion about how professors should handle generative “artificial intelligence” in the classroom: give up or give in. Give up. Faced with a powerful new …
activehistory.ca
The Instruments of Human Sustenance/ Humani Victus Instrumenta: Cooking after 1569 In the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Met Museum) A riot of kitchen paraphenalia here...
Very early modern corpse medicine coded
Mindy Weisberger@laminda.bsky.social · last yr.This is more of a "local lore relic," but there's a Yukon bar called the Sourdough Saloon that serves a shot containing the preserved toe of a locally infamous 1920s-era bootlegger (allegedly). There's one rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe"
This is more of a "local lore relic," but there's a Yukon bar called the Sourdough Saloon that serves a shot containing the preserved toe of a locally infamous 1920s-era bootlegger (allegedly). There's one rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe"
Would You Drink This Mummified-Toe Cocktail?
The notorious "Sourtoe Cocktail" — a shot of alcohol containing a dehydrated human toe — is a bizarre tradition at the Downtown Hotel's Sourdough Saloon, in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
livescience.com
“Hicks found no record of the person whose remains the skull-cup was made from…carbon dating showed the skull is about 225 years old. Its size and circumstantial evidence suggest it came from the Caribbean and possibly belonged to an enslaved woman, he added.” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Oxford academics drank from cup made from human skull, book reveals
Decades-long use of chalice at Worcester College highlights violent colonial history of looted human remains, says Prof Dan Hicks
theguardian.com
If anyone feels inclined to share: I’m looking for instances of saintly relic consumption (eaten or drank)!
Pioneering entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian was born #OTD in 1647. In 1699 Merian set off on the first-ever purely scientific expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname, where she documented intricate plant-insect interactions with beautiful artwork and clarity. (📸BHL)
