Tessera

Coming up on 16th March, 6.30pm in London - Undertakers and Death: A merry dance? at The Last Tuesday Society - my LTS debut! Undertakers, skeletons and an uneasy alliance in the 18th century. #skystorians #history #london thelasttuesdaysociety.org/exhibition/u...

Undertakers and Death: A Merry Dance? with Dr Dan O’Brien LIVE - The Last Tuesday Society

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm […]

thelasttuesdaysociety.org

Thanks to everyone who came along to Arnos Vale for my talk The Unquiet Dead! Such a fantastic evening and some great questions too - it’s always so much fun to share my research. Coming up is The Last Tuesday Society on March 16th! #history #skystorians

The Spielman Centre at Arnos Vale cemetery. A neoclassical building with four columns supporting a triangular roof. It is early evening and the moon hangs above the building.

TONIGHT online and at Arnos Vale cemetery in Bristol My @cendeathsociety.bsky.social research in action for The Unquiet Dead - a lively trip through the unexpected events in 18th cent burial grounds. Tickets available: arnosvale.org.uk/the-unquiet-...

The unquiet dead
A man with a lantern cowers before a towering but rather comical ghost that has long white robes and spindly fingers.

Death appears in a tarot card with a swishing scythe amidst terrain littered with bones and skulls. From @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social #skystorians #deathhistory #history

A tarot card depicting a skeleton with a scythe representing death. It stands amidst skulls and bones.

New Talk: The Unquiet Dead – The lively burial grounds of the 18th century Wed 25th Feb, 6.30pm  Hybrid talk. In-person at Arnos Vale Cemetery & online. Join me for a talk on the unpredictable world of 18th century burial grounds - robbers, spectres & revelry. arnosvale.org.uk/the-unquiet-...

A caricature scene of a man in a graveyard being startled by a ghost. He holds up a lantern and looks in horror. Before him is an open grave.

Thanks to everyone who came along to today’s talk at Christ Church Frome. Brilliant to have such a large audience to share my research with and a really treat to answer some fantastic questions afterwards. Next - Arnos Vale cemetery 25th Feb #frome #deathhistory #skystorians

Dr Dan O’Brien points towards a screen featuring a caricature of a patient on the deathbed surrounded by a physician, death and an undertaker

A cartoon in which three undertakers run towards and an old man wearing a red cap. The old man is about to be speared by death, personified as a skeleton.

Free talk tomorrow in Frome! Sat 31 Jan, 11am A Flock of Ravens: The business of death in eighteenth century England. Join me at Christ Church in Frome for a talk about the early undertaking trade and 18th century funerals. No tickets - just turn up! ⚰️ #history #deathhistory #skystorians

Sat 31 Jan, 11am
Christ Church in Frome
A Flock of Ravens: The business of death in eighteenth century England.

Free talk coming to Frome next weekend! Sat 31 Jan, 11am A Flock of Ravens: The business of death in eighteenth century England. Join me at Christ Church in Frome for a talk about the early undertaking trade and 18th century funerals. No tickets - just turn up!⚰️ #history #deathhistory #frome

A Flock of Ravens
The business of Death in eighteenth century England with Dr Dan O’Brien

Christ Church Frome
Saturday 31 st January 11am

Free talk coming to Frome! Sat 31 Jan, 11am A Flock of Ravens: The business of death in eighteenth century England. Join me at Christ Church in Frome for a talk about the early undertaking trade and 18th century funerals. No tickets - just turn up!⚰️ #history #deathhistory #frome

Caricature of an undertaker meeting an elderly man and offering his services. The undertaker is carrying a coffin on his back and holds his hat tightly in his hands. The old man is enraged with his visitor. The old man’s dog is also barking fiercely at the undertaker.

Many thanks to @profilebooks.bsky.social for this copy of Molly Conisbee’s ‘No Ordinary Deaths’ a social history of death which is this death historian’s sort of thing!! It has undertakers too! More thoughts to come! #skystorians

Molly Conisbee’s book No Ordinary Deaths featuring two skeletons standing alongside a large urn

Ok, an object which demonstrates my passion for death history. A fragile Delftware plate titled ‘You and I are Earth. 1661’ It was found in a sewer and went into the collection of @londonmuseum.bsky.social #skystorians

A round white plate that is inscribed with the message ‘You and I are Earth 1661’

Excellent evening talking as part of Goths for Breakfast -‘Night of the Leaving Dead’ looked at the some of the curious things that happened involving both living and the dead. Here we have two of Newton’s cartoons ‘Resurrection Men’ and ‘An Apparition’ from British Museum! #gothsforbreakfast

Richard Newton’s An Apparition. A grave robber is startled in a nocturnal burial ground by a tall, white ghost. The two characters are surrounded by the graves of the burial ground.

Richard Newton’s Resurrection Men. Three grave robbers are gathered around a grave when a tall white ghost challenges them with a bone.

Maria O’Brien - 1958 - 2025 My mum died suddenly yesterday evening at home. Despite her chronic RA she always seized the most of life and history and listened to many funerary tales. She always encouraged my studies and my research into death history!

Dr Sam Hirst@romgothsam.bsky.social · 2y ago

I will be joining in for this brilliant day of ideas and gothicness - the tickets are going fast but hopefully you can join me for ‘Night of the Leaving Dead’ ⚰️

Goths for Breakfast is coming! Check out the programme and get those tickets while they're still hot! A full day of Gothic goodness? Where all the money goes to charity? Try and stop me! romancingthegothic.com/2025/01/20/g...

If you are in Australia or would like some death history to start the day I will be giving an online talk for NDAN about the lively and often busy world of 18th century burial grounds - 7th Feb - 7pm AEDT / 8am GMT Tickets: www.trybooking.com/events/landi...

A cartoon depicting a churchyard. Sat on two tombs are a lawyer, gravedigger, clergyman and physician. They are in the company of a skeleton representing death and all of the characters are having a good time drinking and smoking. A hearse arrives at the distant wall of the churchyard and the driver raises his hat in a salute to the gathered friends.

At Donmar Warehouse this evening for Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. A whole performance based on a segment of War and Peace #musicals

A view of the Donmar stage from row C of the stalls. In the foreground there are tiny lightbulbs. A haze hangs over the stage which is surrounded on three sides by the seats.

Welcoming me to any new Bluesky members and the regulars (you are very much appreciated too!) Here is a one of my favourite mourning rings - a memento mori and an example of eighteenth century mourning ring from British Museum #skystorians

A mourning ring. The bezel is decorated with an enamelled skull placed over woven hair and surrounded by diamonds.