The journal Victorians (formerly The Victorian Newsletter) is out, with new format and new editor Kristen Pond, featuring a forum on amateurism and professionalization in science with intro by @aktange.bsky.social. Some terrific work here, and all is Open Access. muse.jhu.edu/issue/55573 #C19th

New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView Vivienne Seonaid Dunstan, 'The Scottish urban hierarchy and its interaction with the print trade and venues for reading, as revealed by an 1820s trade directory' doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory

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A really fine summary of this important aspect of the 19th-c newspaper press. Thanks, too, to the always terrific Victorian Commons for the link to this splendid clip about Dickens's experience as a Parliamentary reporter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AROf... #19thc #C19th @rs4vp.org

Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913) was an intellectual icon of the Victorian era ✍️ Alison Stone has created a fantastic #openaccess resource containing many of her diverse writings, inc lots of newly attributed journalism, plus a short biography and comprehensive bibliography. www.juliawedgwood.org

Lord Houghton's reminiscence (ca. 1879) about the Courvoisier execution in 1840. Interesting, but not surprising, that Thackeray omitted this rhyming song from his magnificent essay in Fraser's Mag. about what he called "the sickening, ghastly wicked scene": "Going to See a Man Hanged." #victorian

What a fun essay about photographs in middle-class parlours. I'm especially glad to know about Charlotte O'Conor Eccles and this piece in The Windsor Magazine about "the average hostess" babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=md... #victorian #19th-c

A marvelous thread about the ethical framework within which practicing historians operate. It is so second nature to us that it usually goes unsaid so it’s bracing to see it laid out so clearly here—a necessity in these times when there are so many deeply dishonest appeals to “history.”

If your research centrally involves the 19th-c. British press, you should for sure consider applying for a Curran Fellowship. Anybody can apply, and the process is blessedly straightforward. My late friend Eileen Curran would be proud to see all the fine projects that her generosity has assisted in.

I was already loving these contemporary "takes" on New Yorker classics, but this one has me fantasizing about going back in time to eavesdrop on Gopnik and Mitchell as they sit chatting at one of my own favorite spots, the Grand Central Oyster Bar.

Anna Maria Jones has written a wonderfully detailed account of Dark Blue and its eccentric editor, John Christian Freund, for BRANCH: branchcollective.org?ps_articles=...

Sheridan le Fanu published his vampire novella 'Carmilla' in a magazine called 'The Dark Blue' between 1871 and 1872. I don't think I've ever seen a bound volume of The Dark Blue until today...and it's BEAUTIFUL! 💙 #c19th #vampires

This is cool: I didn’t know that the John Hay has the manuscript of 1984–the only surviving Orwell mss. www.brown.edu/news/2025-08... #bookhistory

This 1996 collection of essays about Victorian sexuality is now open access, thanks to the Big Ten Academic Alliance www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

So glad to know about this book, Martin -- and about the series, too, which I've belatedly added to the list here: www.victorianresearch.org/journals.htm...

Since I last shared a link to this little collection of "C19 literary life" books on HathiTrust (most of them memoirs, my favorite genre) I've added quite a few titles, including ones by such obscure scribblers as Comyns Carr, Fitzroy Gardner, and Lucy Walford.

So you find yourself doomscrolling through Bluesky and feeling more and more downhearted and then up pops an engrossing thread that a fave scholar has taken the trouble to put together and suddenly the world looks a little brighter. Thanks, @peteorford.bsky.social!

Book historian Bill Bell's latest blog post is a meditation on the liberating experience of the British Museum Reading Room. crusoesbooks.wordpress.com/2025/07/30/a... #bookhistory

Marvelous. @rs4vp.org take note!

"People living on the bottom floor of nearby apartments had to erect wooden defenses outside their windows to prevent coffins from crashing into their houses." longreads.com/2025/07/22/p...

A pleasant Victorianist pastime: zooming in on the faces in Frith's "A Private View of the Royal Academy 1881" to see how many look familiar, then looking up the rest on the key to the painting: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co... upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Finally, the bringing together of the greatest history *brains* with a boatload of *cash*. Result: The Historians’ History of the World. This news just came my way (via a local bookshop) from Appleton’s Booklovers Magazine, November 1905. I sure hope it’s not too late to place my order.

Admiring the pollinator garden outside the local library yesterday I spotted this little guy among the yellow blossoms. Made my day.

Speaking of the Illustrated London News, a paper whose pages I never tire of turning, here's an account of its (mainly 19th-c.) history I put together some years back for the publisher Gale, which has made the essay free to access. It was fun to write. www.gale.com/intl/essays/... #C19th

The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals had its annual meeting in Chicago this past weekend, and as a local I was very pleased to see so many attendees enjoying the city. The weather was lovely and we were at Loyola's Water Tower campus, an easy walk to the lakeshore and much else. rs4vp.org

Jason Camlot’s fascinating plenary lecture at #rsvp2025 on the figure of voice in C19 periodicals of speech and elocution #victorian #19th-c

Terrific panel on C19 periodical advertising at #rsvp2025. Here’s one of @vjctorianist.bsky.social ‘s slides, showing adverts vs sales in the Northern Star. #19th-c #victorian

The free electronic version of my book Selling Sexual Knowledge: Medical Publishing and Obscenity in Victorian Britain is OUT TODAY! You can download it from the link. Paperback ($35 USD) and hardback versions will be released on July 10. www.cambridge.org/core/service...

For those who remember working at the Round Reading Room of the British Museum under the great rotunda, a recording from the BBC of what it sounded like -- the echoing voices, the footfalls, the trolley. Scroll down to 'British Library - British Library reading room...' tinyurl.com/4mpj3ctk

Yay to Maria, Paul, and Shannon, who not incidentally are long active and much valued members of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals! @rs4vp.org

Just when I thought I couldn't possibly take any deeper delight in Stephen Fry than I do already, it turns out he's a fan of Max Beerbohm's "Seven Men," which features (among other fine portraits) the preposterous but tragic figure of poet Enoch Soames: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/b...

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

Now is a moment to reshare this video

Anytime is a good time to binge Westlake's novels featuring tough-guy Parker. Sometimes hardboiled is just the way to go. Parker wants his money. And he wants it now. Trouble is, there's always some loser in on the heist who louses it up for everybody else. www.thestacksreader.com/parker/

Lovely to see Jackie Banerjee’s admiring TLS review of the exciting new books by @mdamkjaer.bsky.social and Julia Thomas on fiction in C19 periodicals www.the-tls.co.uk/literature/l... #c19th

Happy start to the grass court season to all who celebrate. But my-oh-my was that RG final something else again or what? Here’s The Tennis Podcast’s stunned but joyful take on it: shows.acast.com/thetennispod...

General registration for BAVS2025 is now open. Come and join us in Oxford in July and help to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the formation of BAVS.

A friend of mine is puzzling over this 1855 New York State census listing and I'm at a loss. The listed occupation appears to be "Phintion," which makes no sense to either of us, but we can't think of an alternative reading. Any ideas?

One of the fundraising emails in my inbox today nicely illustrates, on its subject line, how typos can matter. Do better, Democratic Party of Illinois.

With dear friend Rushmore DeNooyer at our 50th Brown University reunion this weekend. Such a moving experience.

Calling all grad students! If you're working on Victorian periodicals, the VanArsdel Prize is for you. Honor the OG Rosemary VanArsdel by keeping the field sharp. Guidelines here: rs4vp.org/awards/vanar... #VanArsdelPrize #GradStudents

For an introduction to the varieties of 19th-c. handwriting it would be hard to beat the volumes of The Autographic Mirror magazine (1864-66). They were also a favorite of folks like "Antique" Smith (1859-1913), a prolific forger of literary manuscripts. archive.org/details/bib_... #C19th

I was in nerd heaven last weekend after prevailing upon an old friend and fellow Victorianist to let me rummage through his collection of original unbound issues (“numbers”) of 19th-c periodicals that look like they were just handed across a shop counter. Here’s a handful of sample covers. #C19th

"[W]e have taken a number of specialist resources (which have sat on older technologies, and where we have lacked income streams to support them) offline." So Victoria's journals are now available only via ProQuest. How easily public access to essential scholarly resources can disappear. #C19th

MVSA: engrossing talk by Kristen Renzi based on her work in the Foundling Hospital archives, now (partially) online at archives.coram.org.uk

Hotel bar in Fort Wayne, Indiana, serving its customers state-sponsored TV.

What a fun and eye-opening article, and a fascinating project! Makes me think about collaborators like the Cowden Clarkes and the Howitts in a richer context. It's so rare, too, to see authorship treated in a way that doesn't privilege fiction. #C19th

There's an interesting discussion on VICTORIA re: critical studies of 19th-c. culture. Martin Hewitt @vicmanch.bsky.social has raised a number of provocative issues; his post today can be found here: list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/vi.... To join in, subscribe for free at list.iu.edu/sympa/info/v... #C19th

In honor of women’s history month, the biographical database Orlando is open access. Wish I’d found out sooner, but good to know. view.updates.cambridge.org?qs=02674e9ef...

Fully funded PhD studentship (for UK or international candidates): AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship Imperial Intimacies: Portraiture and the East India Company, c.1757–1857, with Tate and the Courtauld courtauld.ac.uk/jobs/