Janet Dickinson

Detail of the "Glasses Apostle" painting in the altarpiece of the church of Bad Wildungen, Germany. Painted by Conrad von Soest in 1403, the painting is considered to be among the oldest depictions of eyeglasses north of the Alps

Nothing to see here? Well, this is a slow moving 🧵 for #skystorians and others about #eyeglasses of the past, about how to read in the past, where to buy eyeglasses, and how to do with them in general. The hashtag is #HowToDoWithGlassesInThePast

Let's roll.

Seventeenth-century portrait of A Man Reading by Job Adriaensz Berckheyde. This painting shows an bespeckled man in three-quarters profile reading a newspaper. He is older with a beard and moustache and is dressed in a tattered jacket with a large barrel hat. On the table next to him, a case for his glasses appears alongside a book opened to reveal a title page printed in red and black ink. The colour palette is typical of 17th century Dutch portraiture, with shades of neutral colors and a similarly toned brown-gray background.

"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!"

Catch up on the news from the @universalstc.bsky.social annual conference on 'Newspapers and Periodicals', which took place in June 2025, with our newest blog by @zbrookman.bsky.social (PhD Candidate and Research Assistant).

ustc.ac.uk/news/ustc-20...

Good to see him looking over you! I'm sure that this must be a good thing as opposed to being deeply sinister ...

A hand-coloured version of a woodcut map from Erhard Etzlaub "Rome Weg" from c. 1500.

A non hand-coloured version of a woodcut map from Erhard Etzlaub "Rome Weg" from c. 1500.

All roads lead to Rome.

Meet the earliest known European map with a scale: This woodcut "south up" map by Erhard Etzlaub offers a route to Rome - located on the top of the map - through #earlymodern German speaking Europe.

A 🧵 for #skystorians with an interest in hand-coloured maps.

1/5

Holden Lecture: Tickets and trifles: ephemeral print and Restoration England

Don't miss this year's Holden Lecture by Prof Jason Peacey at Senate House Library, University of London, 30 October at 6PM. It's inspired by Senate House Library's Spineless Wonders Exhibition. 1/2 @uclhistory.bsky.social

Spineless Wonders Explore the riches held in Senate House Library’s collections of pamphlets and other unbound and ephemeral publications. This free exhibition is open from 18 June - 29 November.

Spineless Wonders can be visited at Senate House Library until 29 November. Details here. 2/2

British History in the Long 18th Century Supported by Mark Storey and Carey Karmel, in memory of Arthur Burns

Autumn schedule for @ihr.bsky.social 's British History in the Long 18th Century fortnightly seminar is now live. @long18thsem.bsky.social. Join us in person at the IHR in London or on Zoom, for Mansfield on the Chevalier d'Eon, servants' travel, rhetorics of slavery, Bengal textile workers & more.

two complaints:

can't see a link to the edition (grrr journalists grrr etc) thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk

dads in the pub story gets one sentence I mean come on. thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/posts/blog/2...

And it's out! Open access and free to download. Thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social and @manchesterup.bsky.social. Excited to see it out in the world (and sure that despite all the proof reading, I will find typos) @hsmurphy.bsky.social @historyelaine.bsky.social @medievalbadger.bsky.social

The IHR Fellowship The IHR Fellowship is comprised of leading historians recognised for their research and the promotion of history.

Applications now open (until 27 June 2025) for the Institute of Historical Research's non-stipendiary IHR Fellowships. Ideal for active, non-affiliated historians who would benefit from a period embedded in @ihr.bsky.social 's community of public, local & academic historians, archivists, curators.

The secret lives of MI6’s top female spies For the first time ever, SIS officers reveal why women often make the best spies for our times

The appointment of Blaise Metreweli as head of MI6 would come as no surprise to anyone who has read Invisible Agents and Spycraft by @misswalsingham.bsky.social - if you have yet to do so, maybe now's the time ... @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/7417...

Rare Welsh-language Bible to be displayed at St Davids Cathedral The rare copy of the Bible in Welsh, printed in 1588, has never been displayed before.

'The book was translated in the year of the Spanish Armada – when Elizabeth I was monarch – by Bishop William Morgan as part of an effort to bring scriptures to people in languages they understood.'

#EarlyModern #Oxford

THIS THURSDAY

🎙️FREE LECTURE: The British Imperial Way of Warfare

Join Prof Yasmin Khan on 10 June (4:30pm BST) for a fresh take on British warfare – highlighting the often forgotten roles of Asian non-combatants. Free, online or in Oxford!

🔗 Book now: buff.ly/2wLvVWl

Image from the National Army Museum.

Due to my good fortune elsewhere, I can no longer maintain all of my teaching at NYUL, which provides a wonderful opportunity for someone to take on one of my courses. I hugely recommend this - students and colleagues are excellent and the pay is decent. Happy to discuss! apply.interfolio.com/167669

A section of the Civitas Londinum map showing the City of London at the top, the River Thames in the middle, and bull baiting and bear baiting rings at the bottom.

Hello! We're The London Archives, a free public archive focusing on the history of London from 1067. We look after over 100km of manuscripts, books, drawings, engravings, photos and films spanning 1000 years of London's history!
Give us a follow.

#archives #history #LondonHistory

We are looking for a new colleague!

📢Call for Papers📢

Music and Reformation: A Symposium at Lambeth Palace Library, 16 September 2025.

We welcome proposals from people at all career stages, and from professional and amateur practice.

For more information, click the link to the Symposium Call for Papers document below.

Tudor & Stuart History

Mon 30 June, Jon Cooper: ‘Usury and the politics of interest in later sixteenth-century England’ (Zoom only)

All welcome! Details and booking here: www.history.ac.uk/seminars/tud...

#earlymodern

Mon 2 June, Katy Gibbons: ‘Religious objects and Political Loyalties: The 7th earl of Northumberland and Catholic resistance to Elizabethan rule’ (Zoom only)

Mon 16 June, Alistair Bellany: 'The Rains of 1661: Dearth, Religion, and Politics in Little Ice Age England’ (in person and on Zoom) 2/3

Tudor & Stuart History

As the @ihr.bsky.social Tudor & Stuart seminar is not formally on Here yet, here's our programme for next term (please RT):

Mon 19 May, Paulina Kewes @paulinakewes.bsky.social and Fred Smith: ‘Excommunicating Henry VIII’ (in person and on zoom) 1/3

The British Academy Network: We are delighted that the Wolfson Foundation will continue to support the Early Career Researcher Network for Early Career Researchers in the humanities and social sciences for a further 3-ye...

Plus another reminder that the Early Career Researcher Network is free to join for any Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences postdoctoral graduate based in the UK. You don't need to be employed by a university or in a research post to join. 2/2 thebritishacademyecrn.com

Mughal Matriarchs: The Untold Power of Royal Women in the Renaissance | MEMOs Mughal India’s queens were a formidable force for impoverished and isolated England

A new MEMOs blog post from Lucy Morgan today! She examines the hold of Mughal royal women on the early modern English imagination

memorients.com/articles/mug...

Big news! The digital edition of Alice Thornton's four Books is now complete and online. There are 1,019 pages (c. 270,000 words) of Thornton’s life-writings in both modernised and semi-diplomatic versions and they are fully searchable.
#EarlyModern 🗃️ 📚 📜
thornton.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/posts/news/2...

Sole portrait of England’s ‘nine-day queen’ thought to have been identified by researchers ‘Compelling evidence’ suggests figure is Lady Jane Grey, making it only known depiction made before 1554 execution

Planning a trip to Wrest Park. This is an intriguing possibility!

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

What a line-up @anneapplebaum.bsky.social Yuval Noah Harari, @misswalsingham.bsky.social @soniapurnell.bsky.social @questingvole.bsky.social 🥂 Excited that my book #Spycraft @yalebooks.bsky.social , co-written with Nadine Akkerman, is included in SUCH good company by @economist.com !

‘Richt honorabill’ ladies: Noble Power and Aristocratic Women in Sixteenth-Century Scotland | The Scottish Historical Review This essay began as a talk given in October 2023 to inaugurate an annual public lecture in honour of Jenny Wormald. It takes its inspiration from her work on noble power, re-examining how noblewomen i...

Discover Jane E. A. Dawson's free featured article in issue 103.3

'‘Richt honorabill’ ladies: Noble Power and Aristocratic Women in Sixteenth-Century Scotland'

Read the article (and explore the new issue) here: www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10....

That’s excellent news, congratulations!