Why did the Confederacy lose? The U.S. had greater might, naval superiority, & arrived at better strategy, yes, but the decisive factor was this: Uprising. At least 1 million (out of 4) enslaved people fled & fought back—the greatest slave uprising in history. Lincoln recognized & ratified it. 1/5

If anyone needs further reasons to stay up-to-date on flu, shingles, RSV, and Tdap vaccines: wapo.st/46TQ6sn [gift link]

[Call for papers] FuMaSt – The Future of Manuscript Studies Fifth edition, Firenze, 5-6 February 2026 (no later than 30 October 2025). www.irht.cnrs.fr/sites/defaul...

My latest for @hyperallergic.com is on the many Roman bath discoveries made this summer—it’s a recap of an amazing excavation season and a deep dive into ancient flip-flops worn with socks. Thank you to @lisayinzhang.bsky.social for brilliant edits. May socks be worn with sandals without shame! 🧦 🩴

Smithsonian Folklife Festival is hiring for all sorts of different seasonal festival positions, applications due Oct 14 festival.si.edu/jobs

The Wound Man might strike contemporary viewers as a gruesome spectacle, an archaic precursor to the “Saw” movies, or the revenge fantasy of some jilted ex. But the figure is something else altogether, offering reassurance to patients coping with ailments of their own.

A fascinating article on the tomb of Hernan Cortes in Mexico City and how the conquistador is (and is not) memorialized. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/w...

Charles Whitwell ‘probably the most skilled and versatile instrument maker of the Elizabethan period’ #histsci #histtech thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/09/24/c...

Another important lecture in this series: @fancynahyan.bsky.social talking on "In Ibn al-Nafis' Shadow Transformations in Medical Theory in Islamic Societies (1200-1520)," Oct. 7: csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/events/onlin.... #histmed #MedievalMedicine #MedievalSky

Online course alert! "The Knights Templar: 1120-1314" Starting in November I will be running a six session online course on the history of the Knights Templar in co-operation with @medievalists.bsky.social For more information see below: medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/temp...

Updated list of online & hybrid seminars in the coming week, posted on the @kcommons.bsky.social Renaissance Science & Medicine page: renascimed.hcommons.org #HistSTM

Dutch cartographer and printer Joan Blaeu was born OTD in 1596. His most famous atlas runs to 11 volumes and includes the below map of "Nova Belgica," where certain events have been happening today: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #EarlyModern #HistSTM

The Library of Congress has three buildings on Capitol Hill but that’s STILL not enough space to store all of the collection items in the world’s largest library. Here's a look at one of the off-site Library storage facilities in Fort Meade, Maryland.

The next SHAC on-line seminar will be given by Dr Francesca Antonelli (University of Bologna) who will present: Family historians? Women and the construction of scientific memory, from Mme Lavoisier (1758-1836) to Lucie Laugier (1822-1900) Accessible live on YouTube at: youtu.be/-IqrYQ3h9gg

I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, invites applications for their fellowship in the Digital Humanities itatti.harvard.edu/fellowship-d...

I have likewise joined the exodus from academia-dot-edu in the wake of their new terms of service. For more on my background and work, you can now find me at Knowledge Commons: hcommons.org/members/karl...

the @folger.edu opens their long-term and short-term fellowship scheme for 2026. Includes book in progress fellowships, artistic research fellowships, and public humanities fellowships www.folger.edu/research/the...

It's the #AutumnalEquinox today at 18.20 GMT! This 16th-century paper machine, called a volvelle, helps explain how the sun moves through the sky from equinox to solstice throughout the year. Find a full explainer video on our exhibition website: history.rcp.ac.uk/exhibitions/... #BodyofKnowledge

Don't forget to register for my hybrid #Voynich lecture on Friday, Sept. 26, at 2:30 PM Eastern at the University of Toronto! After a year of work, Colin Layfield & I have important data- and material-results about the original structure of the manuscript! www.medieval.utoronto.ca/events/lisa-...

Loving the responses and how much people enjoy beautiful historical writing! Do have a look through the replies for excellent reading commendations and add your own, #SkyStorians 🗃️

#HPS program at the University of Copenhagen invites applications for Postdoc in History and Philosophy of Science as part of research project Human Variables in Biodiversity Assessment (PI: Joeri Witteveen): employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho... #philsky #PhilJobs #philsci Deadline is November 7, 2025.

"Seeing past crimes doesn’t mean we will punish them. Catching ideologues in a lie doesn’t mean they will reform their thinking. The camera has enormous evidentiary power but it also has the power to feed our narcissism." @philipkennicott.bsky.social on a new Riefenstahl documentary: wapo.st/4gyBDp3

Happy Earth Wind and Fire day to all who observe. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs06...

Excellent interviews with well-regarded historians of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany who wrote important books on these government's use of traditional womanhood to anchor their politics and policies.

John Prine or Bryan Bowers 🎶

Okay, is it just a coincidence that right after another wave of people depart from academia-dot-edu on account of their updated AI policies, now the Knowledge Commons site has come under a DDOS attack taking all profiles offline for anyone trying to move there? 🧐

36 mo postdoc / research fellow position in Philosophy, History, and/or Social Studies of the Life Sciences in the STS dept. at Technical Universtiy of Munich, apps due Oct 31: #histphil #histsci #histSTM www.sts.sot.tum.de/en/sts/arbei...

Excited to learn about this year's Ig Nobel Peace Prize awarded to scientific researchers who showed that alcohol consumption improves the ability to speak a foreign language. What brave humanities scholars will take up the challenge of proving whether this also applies to paleography skills? 🤔 🤪 🪶

✨What Do We Know About How Printers and Bookworkers Learned Greek in the Sixteenth Century ? Han Lamers and I are delighted to host Martine Furno (IHRIM / ENS de Lyon) at the second online seminar of the Early Modern Hellenism Colloquia 📆Online on 25 September at 15.00 CET (via zoom)

Happy birthday to Léon Foucault, who demonstrated the motion of the Earth not only through his eponymous pendulum but through more precisely designed gyroscopes that would later become crucial components of numerous devices for navigation: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #HistSTM

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2025 John Ben Snow Book Prize for best book in British Studies dealing with the period prior to 1800. www.nacbs.org/news/snow-bo... @yalepress.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social @melkatrey.bsky.social @asheeshksi.bsky.social

Call for applications - The J.B. Harley Research Fellowships in the History of Cartography Awards range up to £2000. The closing date for applications is 1st NOVEMBER.  Apply here:  www.maphistory.info/harley.html Please forward to others who might be interested.

Today, at long last, is publication day for @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social's Cultural History of Magic. I contributed a chapter to the volume on the Enlightenment, which features a case study on the prosecution and decriminalisation of magical acts in Lithuania www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cultural-...

Today on the blog, I celebrate the forthcoming paperback release of The Emperor and the Elephant by looking at elephant diplomacy in the twenty-first century. #elephant #diplomacy @princetonupress.bsky.social salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/09/18/p...

🧵 (5/5) So the TL;DR is if you're tired of constantly trying to find an academic profile and open repository system that is a nonprofit alternative to other for-profit options, create a free account today and check us out. Visit hcommons.org to get started 😊😊😊

This week on The Medieval Podcast with @5minmedievalist.bsky.social : Forensic Medicine and Death Investigation with @sarabutler.bsky.social www.medievalists.net/2025/09/fore... #criminalforensics #medievalcrime

I didn't know until a few years ago that the British Museum had posted high-res images of the Tonindeye (Zouche-Nuttall) Codex, and as I was taking a coffee break just now and looking at them it occurred to me that other people also might not know and find them as interesting as I do.

We’re hiring! We need people to get documents in DC and people who need documents in DC to help us with testing Sourcery ahead of launching in our third city. sourceryapp.org/2025/09/17/j...

Call for entries: the Partington Prize www.ambix.org/partington-p...

Includes a large number of titles of possible interest to #medievalsky and #earlymodern folks: 👇 📚

Does your teaching touch upon the Black Death? Then don't miss the one and only Dr. Monica Green's open-access, introductory teaching module for the History for the 21st Century (H21) project! www.history21.com/owit-module/... #earlymodern #histmed #medhumanities #medieval #worldhistory

In case you missed it, the September 2025 Renaissance News e-newsletter has arrived! See what's happening at @rsaorg.bsky.social here: conta.cc/4mWnWmf #RenTwitter #earlymodern #professionaldevelopment #RenSA26

Congratulations to the shortlisted authors for the Hughes Prize 2025! Check out these four highly intriguing books from different corners of the history of STEM, all of them perfect reads for non-experts. Accessible to broader audiences, they will take you to unexpected places and times! 🧵

The @ihr.bsky.social Late Medieval Seminar series for autumn 2025 is now published. Themes from ladies in waiting to the custom house, and a roundtable on editing sources. All seminars are hybrid (or fully online), also, I'm now one of the convenors! www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Ever wondered what Chaucer’s clerk Nicholas would get up to with his astrolabe in the Miller’s Tale? In 10 days there’s a chance to learn about and make this most iconic #medieval instrument at a study day at the #Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Literally #MedievalSky!

heyo! things are bad, but I'm doing an online course for the 92nd Y in NYC. "Illuminating the Dark Ages: Separating Myth from History" 4 live online meetings beginning October 9. see more and sign up --> roundtable.org/live-courses... we'll discuss...

On this date 190 years ago, Charles Darwin arrived at the Galapagos Islands, where he watched the tortoises, flung a few iguanas into the sea, and collected some birds that he couldn't yet identify: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #HistSTM

Our Buy More, Save More sale starts TODAY! Before September 21st, get 40% off 1 book, 50% off 2-3 books, and 60% off 4 or more books. Limited to a specific collection of titles; terms and conditions apply. Save now at yalebooks.com/more!

Sad to see the Goddard visitor center close. 🔭