I tried hard today. I’ll try again tomorrow.

I’m definitely feeling wistful as my time in Somerville draws to a close. It’s been an amazing summer, full of fun, friendship, and research. (So. Much. Research). I’ll miss it all.

Today I found a trove of previously unnoted coroner’s inquests from early nineteenth century Boston. The witness depositions are rich in the detail of everyday life but utterly heartbreaking. I left the archive feeling emotionally drained 🗃️

Happiness is a late afternoon sofa nap with the dog 🖤

Wet Archive Dog

As the calendar flipped this weekend, the sidewalks of Somerville filled with mattresses abandoned by people whose leases had ended. This one, at least, has something to smile about!

Between 1991 and 2018, I saw Phish many, many, many times, and then I just . . . stopped. It was such a joy to revisit that world again last night. Show #133 at Fenway was wonderful!

🗃️

Meredith McGill@mlmcgill.bsky.social · 3d ago

US Historian friends: a grad student asked about recent-ish scholarship on the “counter-Enlightenment” in the C18 and early C19 US, and I’m coming up short. Pre-Transcendentalist Rx to Unitarianism, which I can help on. All suggestions welcome!

May the energy of a happy retriever attend you today and every day 🌷

I feel seen

Annette Yoshiko Reed@annetteyreed.bsky.social · 5d ago

August as an academic

There is nothing epistemologically privileged about archives; they simply offer different kinds of material than we find in printed books, prompting us to ask different questions of them & develop different answers. Sometimes printed sources signify differently when found in manuscript archives 🗃️

I got a professional headshot for the first time in my life, taken for an exhibit on new research at @bpl.boston.gov Special Collections. The lens didn’t shatter, so that’s good! Picture Credit: Aram Boghosian

Kitchen Jams with Mrs Morris (and Patch) 💙 #guitar #guitarist #guitars

I can't speak to the specifics of Martin's example, but the general point he makes cannot be stressed enough.

Martin Paul Eve@eve.gd · 6d ago

Look, MIT Press are progressive in OA publishing. Heck, I have published with them and have another book under contract with them. But they always think they are the source of influence, never the influenced. They rarely acknowledge the work of others. www.researchinformation.info/analysis-opi...

Researching today, I came across a tiny textile scrap in an 1800 writ of attachment. (Details on the case in alt text). Any fashion, fabric, dress, or material culture historians know what textile it might be? Thanks! 🗃️

I’m coveting a set of @bpl.boston.gov’s book lamps: the perfect combination of whimsy and practicality!

teefs

Archival Name of the Day is: Asa Pool Hall 🗃️ 🎱

I had an unexpectedly rich day in the archives. Found an interracial gay sex prosecution from 1812 among many other fascinating cases. I cannot wait to start writing! Meanwhile, here’s Chester the Archive Dog, viewed from the front and showing off his sploot technique from behind

For some reason, I am not able to access genealogybank.com with Chrome this evening. Safari works, but Chrome doesn't. Anyone else having this issue? @historygirl.bsky.social?

My picture perfect pup 🥹

Seven years ago today, I tried to end my life. I’m so glad I survived! I won’t pretend that every day has been easy, but every single one has been precious, and many have been full of joy and love. Please, if you’re feeling despair, hang in there; ask for help; and know that things DO get better 🧡

If you have to be sick, it really helps to have a ruffly black dog with tufty toes to lay on you and stop you from floating away.

Yesterday, my cat Onion got outside while a junk hauler was taking a couple of large items. Not items with an opening he could have been in. He had to have darted. He's never been outside. Movers come tomorrow. We leave Monday. I've done all things (will list in a reply). #nolasky sad #caturday

I think this means that it’s time for a walk . . .

Just in time for the weekend, I’ve come down with a cold. Nurse Tulip and Nurse Mishmish are providing moral support while I hunker in bed. At least I get to catch up on sleep! 🤒

“This meeting could have been an e-mail” c 1785 🗃️

So much of social media is people connecting over things they're against, and I'm against them too, but it's a rubbish basis for genuine connection. I'm FOR: kindness, curiosity, patience, forgiveness, joy, innocence, whimsy, support, beauty, stewardship, imagination, loyalty, cats, and dogs. You?

My 30 minute commute home took an hour and forty-five minutes due to temporal flux in an E Line signal box between Science Park-West End and Lechmere. Fortunately, someone was able to reconfigure the solar matrix in parallel for endothermic propulsion and our alternate selves made it to Union Sq 🚀🤓

Niche question for #skystorians, but can anyone point me to a history of swimming, and the ability to swim, in colonial America? I know that Franklin was an excellent swimmer. There are so many drownings in the Boston Coroner's Inquests, and it makes me wonder how common the skill of swimming was 🗃️