Thoroughly enjoyed presenting my paper on Sea Shanties at #BAVS2026. Loved the audience engagement so much I almost burst into song! @19birkbeck.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social. Great to have reconnected with fellow Victorianists & Birkbeckians #victorian #nineteenth-century #liverpool #shanties

Final chapter! @janetteleaf.bsky.social shows how the sub-genre of spectral insects in Golden Age ghost stories inspire fear of what was once fleshly and is now transformed into the insubstantial and the exoskeletal. Bugs that go “Boo!” make the skin crawl like nothing else can. #NewDirections👻 🐜🕷🪳🐛

Dr Jen Baker@jendeavour.bsky.social · 3mo ago

*Very* excited that vol.1 of New Directions in the Ghost Story, edited by myself, @henrybartholomew.bsky.social & @joanpassey.bsky.social is out! Well done to all the contributors, and thanks for bearing with us! :) Please recommend to your academic libraries! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Huge excitement! I've written a chapter on 'Bugs that go "Boo!", and my contributing author's copy of New Directions in the Ghost story arrived today. Thanks to fabulous editors & fellow writers @jendeavour.bsky.social @joanpassey.bsky.social @henrybartholomew.bsky.social (@19birkbeck.bsky.social)

Six go to the Music Hall! Birkbeck postdoc pals with partners enjoying 'Iolanthe' at Wilton's. @19birkbeck.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social @jeremynewton64.bsky.social @vpfa.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social #Birkbeckontour

Our second 'Dracula' adaption this season - this time with fantastic beat-boxing, a capella pop songs. and a really funny script by Dan Paterson. Park theatre is a great little venue too. #Gothic #Dracula #nineteenthcentury #FrontRowFun

If you like #Victorian popular fiction, #Egyptomania or #19thCentury Art, I hope you'll like my article! I loved my editors! @vpfa.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social @ncsascholars.bsky.social @issegyptomania.bsky.social @mariecorelli.bsky.social @edinburghup.bsky.social

Dr Joanna Turner@coppertapestry.bsky.social · 8mo ago

‘Marie’ Christmas, Victorianists! Eleanor Dobson and I have co-edited ‘Marie Corelli Reconsidered’, a special issue of Victoriographies. It features @janetteleaf.bsky.social Adam Lewis Smith, Keiko Kiriyama, Stephen Edwards, and our own detective work into the authorship of The Twin Soul (1887) 🔍

Sign up for this week and next week’s online #Halloween #Gothic events with @gothicauob.bsky.social and @cncsi.bsky.social 🎃⬇️

Dr Emily Vincent@dremilyvincent.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The #Gothic haunting season is upon us! Free online events⬇️ 👾👹 Thurs 23rd Oct (5-6.30pm, UK) @gothicauob.bsky.social with @dreframss.bsky.social - email Gothica for link. 🎥📖 Fri 31st Oct, Halloween (10.45-5pm, CET) @cncsi.bsky.social Nineteenth-Century Gothic Afterlives: cn-csi.com/event/hallow...

I'm grateful to @bavs-uk.bsky.social @vpfa.bsky.social @issegyptomania.bsky.social bsls.ac.uk @incsa.bsky.social @thebsls.bsky.social & so many individuals within the #Victorian #Gothic #Egyptomania #LitSci #PreRaphaeilite communities for friendship & support during my Research Fellowships.

Dr Janette Leaf@janetteleaf.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Delighted to take up my 3rd Birkbeck Honorary Research Fellowship today. Looking back at some of the 30 conference papers I've presented since being awarded my doctorate, I'm excited for 2025-2026. @19birkbeck.bsky.social @theprofrog.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social

Delighted to take up my 3rd Birkbeck Honorary Research Fellowship today. Looking back at some of the 30 conference papers I've presented since being awarded my doctorate, I'm excited for 2025-2026. @19birkbeck.bsky.social @theprofrog.bsky.social @drvickymills.bsky.social @luisacale.bsky.social

Bathed in blood-red light at #Dracula @lyrichammersmith.bsky.social soaking up the staging, centring of the relationship between Mina and Lucy, & Mina's key editorial role. Nice nod to those in the know with the appearance of the yellow-backed 1897 edition! Loved it! #Gothic @indiekid.bsky.social

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre@lyrichammersmith.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Sending our best wishes to the company of Dracula ahead of their opening night tonight! You've got until 11 October to heed Mina Harker's warning, if you're brave enough. Tickets from £15 📸Marc Brenner 🎟️ lyric.co.uk/shows/dracula/

Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter: born 28 July 1866! An incredible woman: a writer, illustrator, nature lover and natural scientist, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, zoologist, archaeologist . . .

When you are determining where to submit your scholarly essay for potential publication & you opt not to send it to a specific journal bc their publisher is, say, licensing “content” to train AI — please tell the journal editor. This info is crucial for editors but shadowy / difficult to document.

#BAVS2025 you were a blast! 5 x Birkbeck papers from @drvickymills.bsky.social @nonfictioness.bsky.social @helenaesser.bsky.social Julia Kuehn and me! Great to hang with @jeremynewton64.bsky.social too! Such fun and sociability with so many great #Victorian scholars! @19birkbeck.bsky.social

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use

Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic works. Even better, the museum has placed the vast majority of these images into the public domain, mea...

openculture.com

CFP for Sex in the #19thC (deets in alt) Abstracts (300 words), biographies (100 words), and should be submitted on Monday 22d September 2025 to rrr @ soton.ac.uk. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a travel bursary, and include your full name, discipline & institution.

Romance, Revolution & Reform@rrrjournal.bsky.social · last yr.

We're delighted to announce that the CfP for our 2026 conference @stir.ac.uk, 'Sex in the Long C19', is now LIVE! We are grateful to have received generous funding from @bavs-uk.bsky.social, allowing us to award travel bursaries to some delegates. Abstracts due 22 September 2025. Share widely!

Bye forever, WeTransfer.

My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Architect Alfred Waterhouse born #OTD 1830 to a Liverpool Quaker family. Buildings include Manchester Town Hall, London’s Natural History Museum, Liverpool University's Victoria building. His love of red brick and terracotta led to him being nicknamed 'Slaughterhouse Waterhouse'.

Also, if you're working on C19 sources, see @patrickleary.bsky.social's invaluable list of open-access 19th-c periodicals here:

‪Still buzzing after an amazing #VPFAextremes conference! What a treat to hear so many talented speakers and to present on Hypnotic Gothic alongside Birkbeck pals! @vpfa.bsky.social #Gothic #victorian

Delighted to welcome my splendid colleagues at @issegyptomania.bsky.social to Bluesky 🦋. Please consider giving them a follow on this platform, or even in becoming a member, they do incredible work on the reception of ancient Egypt and host numerous online lectures, seminars, and conferences!

The International Society for the Study of Egyptomania@issegyptomania.bsky.social · last yr.

Hello! We are ISSE, The International Society for the Study of Egyptomania! ISSE is dedicated to the ethical study and research of the historic & modern day fascination with Egypt #Egyptomania #ReceptionStudies

New exhibition launching at the Guildhall Art Gallery, London, soon! One of the most remarkable artists of her generation, Evelyn De Morgan, is returning to Guildhall Art Gallery this April in an exhibition that premieres two newly restored artworks. Find out more: bit.ly/3QftfhI

Go follow our friends at the De Morgan Foundation, who have just joined Blue Sky. They have the most amazing collection of Evelyn De Morgan art and William De Morgan ceramics.

De Morgan Foundation@demorganfoundation.bsky.social · 2y ago

The energy we bring going out on a Friday night with our closest girl friends. #FridayNight 🖼️ ‘Storm Spirits’, Evelyn De Morgan, 1900. #evelyndemorgan #artherstory #arthistory #preraphaelite

Roses are red Violets are purple Brain's flailing about Like an upside-down turtle! #AcademicValentine #AmNotWriing

The real-life models for Grant Wood’s American Gothic – Nan Wood Graham (Wood's sister) and Dr Byron McKeeby (Wood's dentist) – sitting in front of the painting at an exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Public Library (Wood's hometown) in 1942

May your insects bring more singing and less stinging in the coming year!

Seasons Greetings! Hope you're enjoying it as much as Starevich's 1913 insects gathered around the Christmas tree!

Christina Rossetti was born #otd in 1830. Her poem 'In the Bleak Midwinter' was originally published by Scribners in January 1872 as 'A Christmas Carol'. Gustav Holst set it to music in 1906. It was my father's favourite! @wikivictorian.bsky.social @19birkbeck.bsky.social @c19qmul.bsky.social

#Macbeth west end. Tennant, as always, was great at Shakespearean unhinged. All sound through headphones. No on-stage witches. Atmospheric music. Minimalist monochrome staging. Glass screen divided acting space. Lady Macbeth's white dress invited blood, but remained spotless! Prefer Terry's beetles!