Expect the record-setting cold Philadelphia has experienced in recent days to continue for the next six weeks (😭), at least according to Punxsutawney Phil. 🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/pennsyl...

One of my most cherished classes is my 18th century novels course where the primary learning objective is "learn how read long novels." We did a "couch to 5k" approach to attention span and note-taking.

Blueskeets of the @rsaorg.bsky.social persuasion, I hope you'll save the date for 3 excellent book history-digital humanities panels at the conf Thurs 9-10:30 Collections as Data Thurs 11-12:30 Network, Media, Method Fri 2:30-4 Preserving Greek Texts Details: rsa.confex.com/rsa/2026/mee...

I love how Philly shows up

Sharpie, colored paper, and sandwich boards have become resistance art at the President’s House site. “I hope people will think about what other information is under threat of being disappeared,” said one Philly-area resident. 🔗 www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

One substantial bonus to of getting involved in this #dhmakes / #booklab world is incredible mail days A batch of prints from the indomitable @literaturegeek.bsky.social arrived & are headed to spots of prominence around @skeuomorphpress.org (though I may claim the Moby Dick print for my office…

"There’s an extremely hurtful narrative going around that my product, a revolutionary new technology that exists to scam the elderly and make you distrust anything you see online, is harmful to society."

A zine documenting the National Park Service’s “Life Under Slavery at George Washington House” exhibit—removed by the government January 22, 2026 in an act of censorship (zinebakery.com/bakeshop/cen...)

If you missed Ann Blair’s @ransomcenter.bsky.social Pforzheimer Lecture last night, you can check it out on YouTube: www.youtube.com/live/u16QHaI... I think you’ll agree that it’s both sharp and a lot of fun.

There is a lot of woe in the world, but here is one thing I'm excited about: nashhigh.itch.io/zinearranger This zine layout tool is a dream I never knew I had. You can upload a pdf of your, e.g., 56-page 1/4-sized zine in page order (1-56), and in seconds get back a 14-page doc you can print from.

#DHmakes Important zine tool alert!

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a group of journalists grabbed it and are relaunching the food magazine as a worker-owned co-op. Love it. [gourmetmagazine.net]

LJS 57 is a collection of astronomical texts, including works on eclipses, an introduction to astrology, the zodiac, and astrology concerning humankind collectively, with numerous tables, diagrams, and illustrations. Written in Catalonia, ca. 1361 #medievalsky Online: bit.ly/3C7Owmh

For the first time ever, @ransomcenter.bsky.social host @rarebookschool.bsky.social courses this summer, June 7–12: L-165: Literary Manuscripts w/ Stephen Enniss & Megan Barnard (this will be excellent) G-60: Evidence in Handpress-Era Books, 1450–1830 w/ yours truly rarebookschool.org/schedule/

This was so interesting and exciting to work on with @heatherwolfe.bsky.social and Jeremy Lopez. Carl Berkhout spent about 40 years, off and on, investigating this book, and we edited this posthumously published text from his annotated drafts. doi.org/10.1093/sq/q...

This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it. Don’t miss it.

The sound of Bow Bells

Some book trade ephemera for the cold weather: a piece of frost fair ephemera printed on the frozen River Thames by (or for) Mrs Sarah Baker on 18 January 1715/16 and probably later pasted into a book. Part of a collection assembled by A. N. L. Munby and now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Munby.b.131.

The first great American 250th anniversary date of the year arrives this Friday: the publication of Thomas Paine's COMMON SENSE, which occurred on January 9, 1776. Many sources have the date as January 10, 1776. This is incorrect. But what accounts for the confusion???? Friends, follow me.

all this is both foolish and unnecessary

Today is the last recipe of the old year: Barley porridge for hungover people. Perhaps it can be as useful to someone come New Year's Day as it was in 1600. www.culina-vetus.de/2025/12/30/b... #culinaryhistory #foodhistory #earlymodern #hangovercure

See those two black lines? The inner one is the line of the City wall. The outer one is THE CITY BOUNDARY. They aren't the same at all. GIVE ME STRENGTH 😵‍💫

A story about why book history and bibliography (the study of books and other textual artifacts as physical objects) are amazing and important fields and why I’m glad I call them one of my intellectual homes. The ending is somber, so fair warning. 1/n

Do you enjoy my periodic rantings on Isaac Newton's alchemical citations? If so, take a look at my shiny new article on our improved #TEI encoding system of Newton's citations & what we can learn from some preliminary analyses of the data! #BookHistory #histsci (tldr in 🧵) doi.org/10.14434/tc....

It’s a reminder that handwriting recognition — even without this kind of crossed letter writing — is a holy grail, but enormously complex compared to OCR (itself still not 100% as we know). Projects like Transkribus are getting close, but lots of caveats & complexities.

This is a fullgrown lily’s face,

This was a good rule pre-AI. It’s an even better one now, post-AI, but also one that feels like it shouldn’t have to even be stated.

Required reading

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

“Not only is ‘AI’ not especially new; protesting it has a long history.” New at PB: @cnygren.bsky.social & @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social take inspiration from a 1971 protest against the use of Stanford’s computational resources for America’s war machine in Vietnam.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

The British Library have a searchable interim Archives & Manuscripts Catalogues up & running: searcharchives.bl.uk (posting for all the folks who, like me, had somehow managed to miss this important development)

“let the arts which we are talking of beautify our labour, and be widely spread, intelligent, well understood both by the maker and the user, let them grow in one word POPULAR, and there will be pretty much an end of dull work” -William Morris, Hopes and Fears for Art

Okay gang, The Onion is 80 sign-ups away from our 60,000th print subscriber. This would put us in contention for the Top 10 most circulated newspapers in the U.S. So! We're giving our 60,000th subscriber a mystery box by our archivist as a nice lil thank you. Sign up now. I'd give it an hour.

You are the gates of the body and you are the gates of the soul.

Ready to start a movement that argues universities should spend money on their core functions, rather than flashy nonsense. Such as teaching and research for example.

I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary. www.icrc.org/en/article/i...

Hear more about #foodhistory, #slavery, my journey to the book Sweet Taste of Empire & my life as a quilter!! #booksky #quiltsky #quilt #artsky #history podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

I love these kinds of recipe recreations

New recipe(s) on Cooking in the Archives! Two attempts to prepare one of Lady Anne Percy's recipes for cracknells. Her manuscript is now held at the New York Public Library. I had fun working on this post with Sarah Peters Kernan. rarecooking.com/2025/12/03/t...

tatatá tá tatatatata táta

I'm so excited for this!!!!!

I loved working on this project with @nicosiamarissa.bsky.social for so many reasons, but most of all bc we agreed that any styling tricks had to leave the food edible at the end—and I got to taste all the recipes 🤤🤤🤤

Gorgeous photo on the cover taken by the brilliant photographer @gaypanek.bsky.social ! It was fantastic collaborating with her on the design, food styling, and photos.

So exciting to see a new book in the Spotlight on Shakespeare series. I can’t wait to read it!

It’s all happening: Shakespeare in the Kitchen is slated for publication in April 2026 🍽️📗🎉 www.routledge.com/Shakespeare-...

New recipe up on Cooking in the Archives! hou to bake Quinoces, a delicious quince pie 🥧 rarecooking.com/2025/11/17/h...