And since it's #caturday, one of my favorite artists-with-animals photos: Lois Mailou Jones in her Paris studio in 1938 with the most adorable studio assistant ever

Lois Mailou Jones, The Musician, c. 1940

Things that seem completely wrong or is it just me: David Jason is older than Paul McCartney.

This is great news.

‘Thanks, or just a voucher is fine’

‘Exploring Digital Cultural Heritage’ is now out in the wild! You can download an open-access copy (PDF) or read the free digital edition on Manifold uolpress.co.uk/book/explori.... Loved working on this with Eirini Goudarouli, @amsichani.bsky.social & the @uolpress.bsky.social team.

Cover Reveal! Coming soon, open access, with Taylor & Francis. Edited by @cordeliabeattie.bsky.social, Suzanne Trill and @hagenilda.bsky.social.

"a thin commercial crust on top of older, quieter machinery." Beautifully formed and formatted, a long read worth ploughing through over your morning coffee... www.terrygodier.com/the-boring-i...

You can now read mine and @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social new article about the remedies 18thc women took six weeks before birth. doi.org/10.1017/S001...

It is my duty to inform you that there are baby capybaras at the Sacramento Zoo

'Sprouts, Monmouthshire.' (1943) Evelyn Dunbar is notable for recording women's contributions to WW2 on the home front especially the work of the Women's Land Army. She was the only woman working for the War Artists' Advisory Committee on a full-time salaried basis.

Also the Endings Project also had a special issue of DHQ dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/17/1/ind... which is well worth a read. And I don't only say that because I have an article in that on this precise this topic entitled: "Academics Retire and Servers Die" dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/17/1/000...

Bonne fête du travail! A French woman in overalls with lace collar, 1917. The French government didn’t provide clothes for women working in munitions & other plants. So they adapted men’s overalls & perked them up, often with jewellery. #fêtedutravail

May the 1st! It's time for Benjamin Zephaniah www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bIv...

All but one of the DH projects I did university hosting for in my last years in research IT support fell off the edge of the planet 3–5 years after I retired, despite explanations to the projects (and to IT) about continuance. After 50 years, too many DH academics are still not computer literate.

people are constantly asking me (the digital archivist) to take over management/hosting/upkeep of their websites and it’s simply not feasible. i don’t have the funds or time even if the websites *were* optimized for preservation (they are not - they are VERY not). i don’t know the solution, i don’t.

horror show from the p.o.v. of university staff lumbered with supporting those websites...

This is why in the Ethics of Linked Data we included "ethical sunsetting" sections to each of our checklist sections--you have to plan for your project's death before you plan for it's launch

Highly recommended!

So as someone very much aware of this - I’m no @archive.org, but if you know of a theatre production archive that’s going to disappear, do get in touch. I have better credentials than national governments, billion dollar tech companies, and well funded projects that didn’t budget for”after”

Texas A&M was the home of the Advanced Research Consortium (ARC) which was the umbrella org for a huge project that peer reviewed digital resources & had field-custom front pages. Any user could search reliable full digital collections, including paywalled ones. Almost all of it is now offline.

The WM is really important (and btw you should donate to it). But an important caveat people should know is that it doesn't necessarily archive *every* page on an archived website. Particularly in a database-driven site with thousands of possible "pages". You'll often find coverage is patchy.

This is cool, and has a nicely varied mixed funding model. about.hcommons.org/about-us/fundi… (I mean, just the fact that it *has* a funding page and is transparent about it is always good.)

Technical infrastructure does not just persist. It needs maintenance and, crucially, people to perform that maintenance. Servers need to be updated, SSL certificates need to be renewed, domains need to be paid for.

My very first website as a PhD student. But the same basic problem: only ever as stable as the creator's employment situation. Often set up by adjuncts, nuked as soon as a contract ended, pop up again for a year or two elsewhere, and eventually die when the adjunct gave up on academia.

All digital projects should include some sort of orphan statement giving other educational or non-profit bodies permission to copy/reproduce the data if institutional support ends. Even better upload the data to a repository.

Some further reading, while you're here: endings.uvic.ca/index.html The Endings Project is IMNHO a really important resource on best practices for the afterlife of digital projects. kdl.kcl.ac.uk/about/archivin… Kings DIgital Lab's approach to the problem of maintaining unfunded sites.

Bring back the Arts & Humanities Data Service! So much lost knowledge from short-sightedness... It was at ahds.ac.uk if folks have never heard of it, there's an archived page there now.

I still remember a conversation years ago with a colleague who was doing a project on the history of archives. Me: are you doing a database? Him: no, we're doing a book so it will last

I am on a bit of a mission on this at my University - some colleagues take the view that online resources are inherently ephemeral but I think Universities have a responsibility to provide long-term access to them; the cost is minimal (or at worst somewhat proportional to value).

Witness the Hansard at Huddersfield site, which allowed for unprecedentedly nuanced searching of the parliamentary record: opened to great fanfare in 2019, wiped off the server in 2024.

I don't think people fully understand yet just how fragile university-hosted digital resources are after external funding ends (especially if the lead academic retires or moves or is made redundant).

Yes, I got sucked into snooker again. There is something delightful about watching the bigging up rock star style intro for the players... "here comes the Wizard of Wishaw"... and it's your dad. Possibly your grandad.

April 27 - Happy World Tapir Day to all who celebrate it.

Nice way to spend a spring afternoon: couple chatting in the garden of an inn, 1690, by Cornelis Dusart. He was born on this day in 1660.

"Before social media, academia was more civil and scholars didn't get into so many stupid fights." Eminent sociologists in 1912:

Oh dear how sad what a shame

Dear USS, How are those Thames Water shares going? Love, TPR

Hello Wednesday. 🖼️ Whyn Lewis

Old woman, 1590, by Ludovico Carracci. Haunting image.

Great news: in England it is #NationalTeaDay Meaning it's time for Pieter van Roestraten, a Dutch painter working in England. And, by a wonderful coincidence, he was born on this day in 1630.

2/2 Boy with capitalist goose again. Was hilarious in the Dutch Golden Age, when Jacob Cuyp kept painting it.

Two jaguars (one, I'm sure, just napping!), painted in 1639 by Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp of Dordrecht, whose day is today.

Looking right at you: a goat (possibly demonic). With a kid (non-demonic). By today's artist, Jacob Cuyp of Dordrecht. Portrait specialist & father of Aelbert Cuyp.

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

Blessed are the cheesemakers 🧀

A young woman with a fantastic outfit. Also the column behind her is v. intriguing! Painted in 1567 by Steven van der Meulen, whose day is today.

#PIcturingPregnancy