This is terrifying. In the past, Montana's Supreme Court has given some protections to women's reproductive rights. Not entirely clear that will continue. jessica.substack.com/p/montana-bi...

I'm having a "men explain things to me" day. Sigh.

Good day at the Bozeman Public Library’s book sale.

Perhaps this is why my dog is so interested in rabbits. They have something in common.

One things that has surprised me this semester is how many of my students never learned about the abolitionists or the people who opposed the annexation of Hawai'i and Texas. I need to do a better job of highlighting resistance in American history.

Bio DeCasseres was the daughter of Stephen Mack, Jr., Joseph Smith's 1st cousin. Born on a Ho-Chunk reservation, she was an early Indigenous poet and author. Wish the search for the origins of Joseph Smith's interest in Native Americans included her family. amandahk.substack.com/p/bio-decass...

Decided to start a Substack in hopes that writing really does beget more writing. I don't have paid subscriptions turned on yet, but it'll be a combo of Mormon history, environmental history, gender history, and literary history. Check it out! open.substack.com/pub/amandahk...

My Slavery and Civil War class is giving me hope right now. Taught Ira Berlin (history of slavery), David Waldstreicher (slavery and the U.S. Constitution), and now turning to Manisha Sinha (abolition). Class is going better than it ever has.

Teaching Roots tomorrow in my Family History course. My 8 yo was interested, so I let her watch Episode 3. She did fine. It made me think about how being forced to watch whatever your parents watched introduced kids to difficult topics. So much better than YouTube. www.imdb.com/title/tt0075...

I just got back from judging HS debate. The kids were wonderful but I felt uneasy after. There aren't always 2 sides. In HS, I was asked to argue against overturning Korematsu. Today, some kids were asked to argue against Indigenous bio-sovereignty. What are the kids supposed to get out of that?

Beginning to wonder if I should have paid more attention to those daytime TV ads about training for a career as a medical transcriptionist or paralegal.

I am teaching the Civil War and added a section on the history of slavery from the 15th century onward, since we don't have a course on slavery at my university. It's been eye opening. Most of the students received the same history education that I did, where slavery just pops into existence... 1/

If Trump had trouble sitting through a modern Episcopal sermon, he would have died in the middle of a Puritan sermon. Quote from a Puritan sermon that I read today: "The best of our works are ‘as menstruous cloths’."

Jack London is more interesting than I ever knew. His mother was a spiritualist who had a breakdown when her husband, a leading astrologist, denied being the father of her unborn child. His reasoning was that he was impotent. www.newspapers.com/article/san-...

Am I the only who gets embarrassed when you see your book in a bookstore? I had talk myself into going to a used bookstore today, because I knew they had a copy of my book in stock. Here’s a link to my book, I guess: www.amazon.com/Imperial-Zio...

My youngest has fallen in love with the musical Six and has a favorite wife of Henry VIII. It's Catherine Parr. Someone needs to tell her that Anne Boleyn is obviously the best wife.

Beautiful poem in the archives from Joseph Smith's niece Ina Coolbrith today. "Where is the peace that should with thee abide O Earth? Art still beneath the primal ban, Availing naught the Holy Crucified? No faith in God because no faith in man?"

This early twentieth century drawing I found in the archives at The Huntington Library is perhaps too accurate a depiction of motherhood.

I'm always shocked about how well flowers and leaves survive in the archives. 110 year old oak leaf from the Ina Coolbrith Collection.

Came across a fun satire today in which Ina Coolbrith describes her fellow poets as rare birds. I wonder what @benjaminepark.bsky.social, @jstuart.bsky.social, and my other #MormonStudies would be like as birds? Please imagine for me.

#MormonStudies folks! This is always a fun time.

My pastor just posted this image of Bozeman, MT, with a note telling the congregation that we have done a spectacular job and to keep it up. Never so glad to be in California.

As a Mormon historian, I usually work with digitized documents. I get excited and nervous whenever I see the actual documents. These are LA court records from the 1860s. #Mormonstudies

Started Kathryn Hughes' Catland after reading letter after letter from nineteenth century women about cats. www.amazon.com/Catland-Loui... It's so much fun. Who knew that cat breeds were developed less than 200 years ago?!

I tend to decorate my bedroom with things related to what I study. Mary Hallock Foote just joined Emma and Mattie Hughes Cannon. Now I just need an image from Annie Pike Greenwood and Minerva Teichert. What items from your research are in your house? #mormonstudies #academicmom

Worst pickup line ever: "There came into your eyes the deathless light and I saw not alone the Ina of your youth but the Ina of Ages. I was too deeply moved to speak of it then but cherish it as one of my most sacred memories." Asa Thurston Heydon to Ina Coolbrith Run, Ina!

Weird fact from a graduate student paper: In 1945, the Bishop of the German-speaking Logan 10th Ward enrolled in the Boy Scouts to prove his Americanness. There was no technical age limit. He then earned his Scout Badge. I imagine it looked something like this. #mormonstudies

In 1973, BYU published a bio of Ina Coolbrith, an important early California poet & Joseph Smith's niece. It ends with a strong statement of her faith in God. Spoiler: she flirted w/ theosophy, Buddhism, & agnosticism. Why do we make ppl in the past more faithful than they were? #mormonstudies

Just finished Ava Chin's Mott Street. Thanks @jstuart.bsky.social! Looking forward to teaching it next semester. Beautifully written. Brings up silences in the archive, sexual identity, and the current politics of immigrant. Highly recommended. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563929...

Ambrose Bierce was a 19th C humorist & skeptic. He briefly courted Ina Peterson, the granddaughter of Don Carlos Smith. Her aunt, concerned the older man had confessed to "using up" girls, put an end to it. It's unclear if the famous atheist knew of Peterson's ancestry. #mormonstudies

Rough day in the archives. My cat had a lump removed today and the vet sent it to a lab to be tested for cancer because of how it looked when they got in there. I then read a letter in which a woman had her cats chloroformed because she was dying and had no one to care for them. Sob.

Sometimes your bff has an affair w/ a younger man. Sometimes you do his homework & it gets published. Then, b/c you were kidding when you said, "this is just btwn us," you put it in an archive Ina Coolbrith to bff Charles Warren Stoddard, 1883 Love affair became a CA Supreme Court Justice.

Just arrived at the Huntington to begin a one-month fellowship. Finishing a book on Ina Coolbrith, Joseph Smith's niece, 1st poet laureate of California, and close friend of Jack London, John Muir, and Mary Austin. Also beginning a project on women, violence, and water in the American West.

Wasn't expecting this. Was there an early 20th C trade among non-Mormons in Mountain Meadows Massacre relics? Source: Elinor Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (Wyoming, 1914)

💔 I guess the only surprise is it took this long to happen — or to be reported — in Russia 😢 And if you don’t think this is likely to happen in certain parts of America in the near future, I fear you’ve not been paying attention 💔 Especially in #Idaho

Kash Patel is nightmare fodder, but I haven't finished having nightmares about other appointees, so I'll have to pencil in my nervous breakdown about him for next week.

Child: So, Mom, in Dog Man, they sew the dog's head onto the man's body. Me: Was that a good idea? Just because they *could* do it, doesn't mean they *should* do it. Child: They would have died otherwise. I really need this kid to be old enough for Jurassic Park to up our conversation level.

My 8 year old gave me a quiz today on space that included the question, "What is the most famous comet?" Apparently, the answer is not Hale Bopp.

Leaving for 3 weeks at Huntington on Mon, & thinking about 2 comments from women about women leaving for research: Female academic: How should I frame the life of a woman who left her kids w/ family to go to law school? How awful! Stay-at-home mom: Go! Don't feel guilty. They aren't infants!

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 2 #BookSky💙📚 #Books #BookChallenge

Just saw Moana 2. Just in case this is helpful for the other parents out there. Not as good as the first. Plot is loosely fit together. Songs are meh. But your kids will be entertained. They’ve integrated the haka and some Tongan language, but critiques of first movie still stand.

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:An... #booksky #books #bookChallenge Day 1

Boo! to the state of California for making it so hard to get my ADHD meds while I am on fellowship in the LA area for Dec. I'll guess I'll be searching out alternative ways to treat ADHD once I run out of my meds.

Starting this 1918 novel, which have been named Three Men and a Baby.

A colleague told me the university has finally figured out how to solve the dead fly problem in my hall. Admin put in the work order, and after vacuuming up 25 dead flies today, I’m elated to be entering a brand new work life with far fewer dead flies.

Just finished Alice Edna Gipson's 1930 novel Silence. After an obligatory paean to Idaho's pioneers, it explores their alienation from the land - the vastness & silence of the sagebrush & the sense it would swallow them whole. Worth your time if you can get a copy www.thriftbooks.com/w/silence/16...

Does anyone else's child keep asking in public if they can poop on your head? I'm trying to be an academic, here, kid. You are ruining the vibe.

Reading the original 101 Dalmatians with my daughter after discovering she had never watched the movie. Wasn't expecting a quick discussion of polygamy.

Huh — I wonder why female large animal vets might not be interested in working in a state where she can provide a higher standard of care to livestock than she herself could receive from human docs in this fecking state 🧐

I just bought my colleague Catherine Dunlop's book on the history of the Mistral, a very French wind. You should buy it too! #envhist press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...