Happy #PublicDomainDay, everyone! As of today, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 have entered the U.S. public domain, including Animal Crackers, The Maltese Falcon & I Got Rhythm. More info via Duke University's Center for the Study of the #PublicDomain: web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicd... 🗃️📜

This story reminds us that: a) Not everything has been digitized b) Not everything digitized is accessible to the public Also: What's happening at NASA is part of a broader trend of library closures in government & industry. (Even university libraries are moving away from physical books & journals)

“You can’t just get these things online,” said Dr. Williams...Older material hasn’t been converted to a digital format, while many recent scientific & engineering journals and texts are behind a digital paywall and will be harder to access from outside the library. #histsci #histSTM #humanities 🗃️📜📚

#OnThisDay in 2015, I left Philadelphia & set off for Kansas City to begin a new job at the Linda Hall Library. At the time, I could not imagine how much I would learn or how many kind & talented people I would meet over the next decade. Saying goodbye was hard, but ultimately things worked out. 🗃️📜

Pleasantly surprised to see my rare book presentation for @cockrellschool.bsky.social featured in a gallery of memorable moments from the past year at the Harry Ransom Center. See the other photos & follow @ransomcenter.bsky.social on IG: www.instagram.com/p/DS2nHXSD4h... #RareBooks #speccolls 🗃️📜🤘

Here’s an interesting counterfactual: What if there were multiple academic disciplines devoted to debunking overly simplistic and/or xenophobic narratives that conflate technological innovation & social progress? #histSTM #histsci #histtech #STS #AlternateHistory 🗃️

“Kepler was born the son of an innkeeper’s daughter and a mercenary…This is not the environment in which parents have portraits painted of their children.” @rmathematicus.bsky.social concludes the 2025 Christmas Trilogy by analyzing the few portraits we have of the early modern astronomer. #histSTM

Charles Babbage, Victorian polymath & inventor of the difference engine, was born #OnThisDay in 1791. In Part 2 of his 2025 Christmas Trilogy, @rmathematicus.bsky.social presents a survey of Babbage portraits from early engravings & paintings to daguerreotypes. #histSTM #ArtHistory 🗃️📜🎨

Excited to see Jennifer Schuessler’s piece on the history of #SaturdayNightLive — featuring photos, correspondence & other documents from the Lorne Michaels Collection @ransomcenter.bsky.social— on @nytimes.com’s list of the most-read stories of 2025! Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/... #SNL

Spending Christmas morning at the movies, as per tradition! 🎄 🎥 #SecretAgent

"[T]here are no youthful portraits of Isaac, as a child. This, of course, all changed when he became the most famous natural philosopher..." @rmathematicus.bsky.social kicks off his annual Christmas Trilogy by looking at the surviving portraits of Isaac Newton. #histSTM #ArtHistory #physics 🗃️📜🎨

“Dear Miss Crawford--I hope my verses won’t offend you. I know they are poor enough. But do you like my little card?” D.H. Lawrence sent this handmade #ChristmasCard to actress Grace Crawford #OnThisDay in 1909. More info via @ransomcenter.bsky.social: sites.utexas.edu/ransomcenter... #poetry 🗃️📜

As someone who moved to Austin from Kansas City, I can confirm they are both excellent barbecue cities! (I still miss LC’s burnt ends and Joe’s Z-Man sandwich & fries…) #barbecue #BBQ

Need a reminder of what good historical scholarship looks like after recent Bsky debates re: AI & research? @cassiusa.bsky.social's paper shows how historians use archival sources to reframe familiar narratives & restore agency to marginalized groups. Come discuss it tomorrow @ 1 PM, EST! #histSTM

Once the AI boosters vs Historians argument started getting into the reality of paper archival research, I haven't seen much more from the AI guys...

Years ago, I gave a friend a tour of the Linda Hall Library's stacks. Afterwards, he asked why we kept all those old journals, tech standards, etc. Couldn't we just digitize everything? My reply: Not only was that completely impractical, but there was intrinsic value in preserving original docs! 🗃️📜

"What made her work additionally remarkable was that she had to do everything by hand...She compared the results by eye, computing in her head & on index cards the calculations that today’s software performs in an instant." -Dylan Loeb McClain on Inge Lehmann (HT @nytimes.com) #histSTM #WomenInSTEM

Chanukah cast iron cooking experiment (12/21/25): Chorrillana latkes! Inspired by a Chilean dish traditionally made with French fries, these potato pancakes are topped with caramelized onions, thinly sliced flank steak, and a fried egg. 🕎 🇨🇱

The holiday tradition continues! (Does anyone know if Jeffrey Combs is on Bluesky?) #StarTrek #LLAP

Happy #WinterSolstice to all my friends in the Northern Hemisphere! (And happy #SummerSolstice to folks south of the equator.) This snowy landscape was created by playwright Tennessee Williams & is part of @ransomcenter.bsky.social's collections. More info: research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/fin... 📜

A big part of being a historian is being a detective! Who did this? Why? Where? Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things? You have to learn how to probe, how to uncover, how to read against the grain, how to find unusual sources, how to interpret those sources. How to piece together a puzzle

Behold the Rainbow Moose in all its technicolor majesty! (attn: @jacklynch000.bsky.social)

Chanukah is the best time to enjoy a latke-topped hamburger! 🕎 🍔 jewboyburgers.com #AustinFood #foodsky

#CaptainAmerica Comics #1, featuring the 1st appearance of the USA's favorite super soldier, was released #OnThisDay in 1940. The famous cover showed Steve Rogers punching Hitler in the face, reminding readers then & now that Nazism & bigotry are un-American. comicsarcheology.com/index.php/20...

Waiting for the bus home at the end of a long week and listening to this impressive performance of Ravel’s #Bolero on homemade #8Bit instruments! youtu.be/kMGbGGllQoE?... #chiptune #retrocomputing #Commodore64

I can only imagine how much grief my @utaustin.bsky.social colleagues would give me if I somehow missed this question from yesterday's #LearnedLeague match... #HookEm #trivia🤘

PSA: your graduate program, even if in the humanities, needs an AI policy. Now.

Historians of technology (esp. computing), take note! CHSTM's #histtech working group meets next Tue., Dec. 23. We'll be discussing @cassiusa.bsky.social's paper on Lynn Conway & transness in the #ColdWar military-industrial complex. www.chstm.org/group/histor... (cc: @sigcisconf.bsky.social) 🗃️📜

Excited to learn about the launch of the Injury Studies Network. Lots of talented scholars are involved, including @safetyworkhstm.bsky.social, @bachynski.bsky.social & @slobogin.bsky.social! (Many thanks to @neurotimes.bsky.social for calling attention to this group on LinkedIn!) #histSTM #STS 🗃️

Historical work is best done in a context of free exchange across the globe. The AHA has compiled resources that might help individuals and departments navigate difficult international situations, especially regarding travel and academic freedom. 🗃️

Spotted today in @ransomcenter.bsky.social's stacks: A first-edition copy of The Time Machine (1895) signed by H.G. Wells. The catalog record indicates this presentation copy belonged to Richmond Temple but provides little additional info: search.lib.utexas.edu/permalink/01... #SciFi #booksky 🗃️📜

In this issue: -Articles on infrastructure & astronomy (Eun-Joo Ahn) & ocean drilling (Beatriz Martinez-Rius) [email protected]'s review of books by @patrickmccray.bsky.social, @ccmmody.bsky.social & Mark Solovey -James Hofmann's essay on the current state of Ampère historiography #histSTM

“If you want to teach someone how to do something, you had to let them sit at the keyboard.” Today's #histSTM & #histtech lunchtime read: @spectrum.ieee.org shares an excerpt from @patrickmccray.bsky.social's new book (README) featuring the RESISTORS, a NJ-based group of 1960s computer hobbyists.

Many thanks to @rcolesworthy.bsky.social, @hartmann-villalta.bsky.social & the good folks @contingent-mag.bsky.social for compiling this list of literary studies works published by contingent scholars during the previous year!

Unsurprisingly, the climate of scientific persecution has led to the persecution of climate science...

Kirk Lazarus is Isaac Newton in “The Method of Fluxions.” (Coming soon to a #histSTM and/or #philsci theater near you…)

Question: Does telegraphy include communication via wireless? (Seriously though, this entire thread is delightful!)

Feliĉan Zamenhofan Tagon! (Happy #ZamenhofDay!) L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of #Esperanto, was born #OnThisDay in 1859. This Esperanto edition of #AliceInWonderland is part of @ransomcenter.bsky.social's Warren Weaver Book Collection of #LewisCarroll. search.lib.utexas.edu/permalink/01... #BookSky

Today in #scicomm logic! @peterbrannen.bsky.social: The story of CO2 is the story of everything. @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social: Everything is tuberculosis. Me: Therefore, the story of CO2 is the story of tuberculosis! QED. [Links to both books in alt-text] #TransitiveProperty #histSTM #booksky

"The purpose of this program is to fund 20-year term endowments that advance the #humanities ... by building the organization’s capacity in research and teaching of Western civilization, American history and government, and civics." (Presumably because there's a shortage of $ for these topics?) 🗃️📜

"Bless me bagpipes! I've heard of microtransactions, but this is ridiculous..."

My two-sentence review of the latest @erbofhistory.bsky.social video: Come for the military history (sniper vs. fighter pilot, #WWI vs. #WWII). Stick around for the #Peanuts references! #RedBaron #WhiteDeath #EpicRapBattlesOfHistory

Remember the @wired.com article about the remastering of #MadMen I shared last week? My @ransomcenter.bsky.social colleagues were able to find some production material related to the episode under discussion in our stacks! Read more & follow us on IG: www.instagram.com/p/DSI6EPFjR1... #TVSky 🗃️📜📺

"We must be prepared for such profound changes to alter the entire technological aspect of the arts, influencing invention itself as a result, and eventually, it may be, contriving to alter the very concept of art in the most magical fashion." - Paul Valéry #letterpress #aesthetics #philosophy 🗃️📜

"There seems a love in hair, though it be dead. It is the gentlest, yet the strongest, thread of our frail plant..." -Leigh Hunt, "On a Lock of Milton's Hair" (The author of #ParadiseLost was born #OnThisDay in 1608.) (More on Hunt's hair collection: sites.utexas.edu/ransomcenter...) #poetry 🗃️📜

Congratulations to Elizabeth Savage (Univ. of London), winner of @printinghistory.bsky.social's 2026 Individual Award! Elizabeth is an incredible scholar, whose investigations of early modern color printing bridge the divide b/w science, art & the humanities. #RareBooks #SpecColls #PrintHistory 🗃️📜

What’s that…you want to consult Ernest Lehman’s papers & learn about his work on classic films like #NorthByNorthwest, #WestSideStory & The #SoundOfMusic? I know a #humanities research center that can help you out! research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/fin... #filmsky #ShamelessPlug #OnThisDay 🗃️📜🎥

Hello, Bluesky! We want to fund your research! Check out our grants and fellowships! Here: www.hagley.org/research/gra...

"A specific risk is that generative AI tools always produce an answer, even when the historical sources are incomplete or silent. ... If you received an archival reference or document description from an AI chatbot, please keep in mind that it may be inaccurate."

Today's #ScholarSunday reading: @jrndohoney.bsky.social's Nuncius article on "armchair alchemist" Pierre Le Lorrain (abbé de Vallemont), who sought reconcile Cartesian mechanism & "occult physics" through his botanical investigations brill.com/view/journal... #histSTM #envhist #AgHist #alchemy 📜🗃️