@bavs-uk.bsky.social Calling all BAVS members! This year's AGM is tomorrow (23rd Sept) at 1.30pm BST. You'll have received a meeting link via the BAVS Newsletter email. If you can, please do come along. As well as the formal business, there is an Open Forum to discuss future activities.

It's a great thing to see that Chartism remains a vibrant area of research. Some really interesting sounding papers here.

Mark Crail@markcrail.bsky.social · 3w ago

Dorothy Thompson, John Savile and the making of Chartist studies; Fraternal dining, 1844-47; Class and Chartism - who owns the poetic voice? This and lots more at #ChartismDay. Register for a ticket today at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chartism-d...

Always good to have an excuse for reposting.

Research Society for Victorian Periodicals@rs4vp.org · 3w ago

It was brought to our attention that our CFP image included a small but VERY important typo. Proposals will be accepted 1 Sept-1 Nov ✨2026! That will teach us to do graphic design in the wee hours 🙄 Corrected image attached. Full CFP still on our website: rs4vp.org/rsvp-confere...

Ok, we've had time to reminisce. It's time to look forward. We are thrilled to announce our CFP for #RSVP2027 is now live! We'll consider the theme of 'Structures' at our next annual gathering. The applications portal opens next week on 1 Sept. More details on our website: rs4vp.org/rsvp-confere...

David Stack reviews 'Darwinism’s Generations: The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859–1909', by Martin Hewitt @vicmanch.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... @academic.oup.com

Darwinism’s Generations: The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859–1909, by Martin Hewitt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024; pp. 512. £137.50).

Martin Hewitt has produced a monograph that will prove of invaluable benefit to numberless scholars of Darwinism for many years, and perhaps even generatio

academic.oup.com

1 Mar 1912: My wife to Mr Bramwell’s in the afn, to tea. They wanted me to accompany her. But I am not an outside tea & muffin person. For a man to go out to tea seems an awfully foolish thing to me. I went to Mr B’s after tea. Hewitson Diaries vol. 2 www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

Thought my 2nd hand ex-library copy off Cross's The Common Writer might come with some interesting marginalia. Wasn't expecting an ex-House of Lord's copy. Sadly, peers too well-behaved for scribblings. But it does beg the question- when did parliamentarians lose interest in the lot of authors?

Looking forward to reading this!

Helena Goodwyn@helenagoodwyn.bsky.social · last mo.

The Americanisation of W. T. Stead is out now! So delighted to get my author copies, huge thanks to @edinburghup.bsky.social. We’ve a 30% launch discount, if you’re a librarian/ in collection development, pls consider recommending for your library. #VictorianStudies #PeriodicalStudies #BookHistory

The latest verdict on Darwinism's Generations from David Stack (Reading): 'a book to admire', 'certainly the most nuanced account we have of the first fifty years of the reception of Darwinism', albeit one which Stack suspects 'will not herald a new dawn for generational studies among historians'.

That's right — our four-volume series on nineteenth-century iterations of one of the most lucrative and polarizing sectors of the media industry is out at last! If you're curious about what could be included in a volume called PORNOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE, or about the project more broadly, 🧵:

Kathleen Lubey@kathylubey.bsky.social · last mo.

This summer, a project 5 years in the making has finally seen the light of day. Thanks to my co-editors @sarahebull.bsky.social, Colette Colligan, and Lisa Sigel (general editor extraordinaire). We’re really proud of making the porn archive more accessible. Ask your uni libraries to order it!

I'm reading the new book on Marie Corelli by @coppertapestry.bsky.social and it's BRILLIANT! So readable, entertaining & field-transforming. Whether you are a Corelli nut or not, I urge you to treat yourself to a copy: www.eerpublishing.com/turner-marie...

I mean how many village greens are still, well, .... green??

Zack Polanski@zackpolanski.bsky.social · last mo.

It’s time we sorted out the press. Constant misinformation to protect their donors and fossil fuels is destroying lives and our planet. The Government must step up and stop being cowardly.

Last few hours to complete the Curran Index Survey before it closes. If you haven't, please do!

Martin Hewitt@vicmanch.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Still plugging the short survey on the future of the Curran Index. Interestingly, have had almost as many retweets of my original post as there have been actual completions of the survey. Closes on the 10th, so if your work touches at all on nineteenth century periodicals please have your say!

BNA III. The new feature which allows users to broaden out keyword phrase searches to include degrees of separation between the words is a great addition. My early trials suggest a surprisingly small degree of increase in hits when moving across the 0 (no gap) to 8 (up to 8 intervening words) scale.

BNA II. The great news is that searching on specific phrases does produce much more refined results than before. But note that in contrast to names, if typing directly into the search box single quotation marks will not work: here you do need to designate your phrase with double quotation marks.

First piece of learning about the new British Newspaper Archive interface: do not use double quotation marks around names when searching. It generates a huge mishmash of irrelevant results with apparently random ordering. Single quotes or just the name without marks seem to produce specific results.

All fiction titles from the English Catalogue, Volume 4 have now been added! That means 1862–1889 are complete. Next up: the 1890s... • 27,471 title entries • 6,770 author entries (most with bios) Big thank you to my students from last semester who assisted me to this milestone.

Are you interested in developing genuinely interdisciplinary piece of research? Applications for the International Interdisciplinary Research Projects, focused on the theme of ‘Mobilities’ are now open. Apply now: https://bit.ly/4y9wiwJ

Applications are now open for Round 3 of our Microgrants! We’re funding innovative research in #19thC periodicals by providing seed grants for archival travel, digital access to subscriptions or repositories, or digital tools to support your research. Apply by 1 September here: buff.ly/7r9cM50

Still plugging the short survey on the future of the Curran Index. Interestingly, have had almost as many retweets of my original post as there have been actual completions of the survey. Closes on the 10th, so if your work touches at all on nineteenth century periodicals please have your say!

Martin Hewitt@vicmanch.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We're running a short online survey to inform development of the Curran Index. If you're interested in Victorian periodicals, whether or not you've used the Curran recently, please complete the survey! Survey closes 10th August. Please retweet. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I'm thinking that it probably is time that someone did write a satisfactory account of the history of Victorian Studies. I'm sorely tempted to try, but know I have far too many axes to grind...

Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I have yet to read the essays McDonagh responds to but her article in Volume 141 - Issue 2 - March 2026 of PMLA is extremely interesting to those who like me, are less familiar with the evolutionary history of "Victorian Studies" and want to interrogate it more

I have yet to read the essays McDonagh responds to but her article in Volume 141 - Issue 2 - March 2026 of PMLA is extremely interesting to those who like me, are less familiar with the evolutionary history of "Victorian Studies" and want to interrogate it more

Indeed. And tho this isn't the place for the close reading these pieces deserve, in preliminary, while the collapsing of VS into literary studies is an enduring frustration, here it is compounded by efforts to historize the field vitiated by recourse to a wafer-thin pastiche of its actual history.

Been fully occupied by #BAVS2026 so not yet tried out the new BNA interface. So much anticipation that at least some of the frustrations of the previous UI will be sorted, but also the fear that some things may be worse. Will get to it later today. Wish me luck!

Heather Tweed@heathertweed.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Any other researchers/historians having issues with new British Newspaper Archive interface? My bookmarks have been migrated but 13 years of research bookmarked is now totally unsearchable without starting from scratch and my attached notes have disappeared!

Splurging #BAVS2026 messages this morning, lamentably after the event. But it was a hectic 3 days. @amymatthewson.bsky.social's final plenary on Aladdin and so much more was just the sort of eye-opening tour de force all conferences should end on. Conference fatigue dispelled. Here's to #BAVS2027!

We were treated to a fantastic fly-through of the book from @sorourke25.bsky.social , including a generous name check for @nathankhensley.bsky.social, whose own book was one of the runners up for the prize. I like the RSVP Colby Lecture model, but this was a great send off for #BAVS2026.

Marie Léger-St-Jean@marielsj.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The 2026 @bavs-uk.bsky.social-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a second monograph goes to @sorourke25.bsky.social! 👏 The monograph started as a book about time so—don't worry—you can change topics midway through a project! Also, if the book you wanna cite doesn't exist, maybe 🫵 should ✍️ it! #BAVS2026

DVPP is already the most amazing resource for anyone interested in Victorian authorship, but the Beta version in development will clearly take things to a whole new level. Can't wait to see it live! Thanks to Alison Chapman for a fantastic opening keynote to #BAVS2026.

Marie Léger-St-Jean@marielsj.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Most Victorians read poetry in periodicals instead of in book form. Alison Chapman is leading the following database 👇 3 projects over 29 periodicals: - index - encoded editions - personography #BAVS2026

It's a great topic, and I'll be fascinated to see how it evolves to escape from the 'tyranny' of the archival survivals!

Marie Léger-St-Jean@marielsj.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Lois Burke —formerly at Tilburg University, now at the University of Stirling— is making her pitch for the usefulness of manuscript magazines. There is for instance "The Sunbeam Magazine" (1866), edited by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)... collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/1067... #BAVS2026

John Plunkett and Joe Kember brilliantly modelling scholarly collaboration and interdisciplinary methodologies in work on 'picture-going' in Victorian Britain at #bavs2026.

Darwin’s life story is one of the great scientific narratives of our time. Read more from Janet Browne, author of Darwin: A Biography. press.princeton.edu/ideas/a-new-... #darwin #evolution

A new biography of Darwin

This idea for this book began with a simple question: Why do so many modern biologists have a picture of Charles Darwin hanging in their laboratories?

press.princeton.edu