The historian and the computer: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie tries out the first computer to be introduced to the catalogue room of the Bibliothèque nationale de France on the rue de Richelieu in February 1988 🗃️

The historian and the computer: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie tries out the first computer to be introduced to the catalogue room of the Bibliothèque nationale de France on the rue de Richelieu in February 1988 🗃️

Tree Portrait #3, Wakoto, Hokkaido, Japan (photo by Michael Kenna)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1997 (photo by Candide Höfer) 🗃️

Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1997 (photo by Candide Höfer) 🗃️

'Never Again War' (Nie Wieder Krieg) – German anti-war poster commissioned by the Socialist Workers' Youth in Leipzig for mass demonstrations against war in August 1924. Made by Käthe Kollwitz, who was born on this day – 8 July – in Königsberg in 1867. 🗃️

Frida Kahlo – born on this day (6 July) in 1907 in Mexico City – photographed in 1937 sitting next to an agave plant (US Library of Congress) 🗃️

A cappuccino in Canberra in 1973 (National Archives of Australia) 🗃️

A cappuccino in Canberra in 1973 (National Archives of Australia) 🗃️

This skyline of rooftops crowded with chimneys set against clouds, 1856–59 (photo by Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes, The Met) 🗃️

Looking forward to @hanspols.bsky.social public lecture at the State Library of NSW on the rise and decline of community mental health care in Australia. 6-7.30 pm August 12, 2026. Registration open. @anzshm.bsky.social @austhistassoc.bsky.social @aahpsss.bsky.social @sydsts.bsky.social

This skyline of rooftops crowded with chimneys set against clouds, 1856–59 (photo by Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes, The Met) 🗃️

This beautiful, delicate ornament in the shape of a bee – just 12cm long and made in gilded copper by Moche artisans in northern Peru in the 6th or 7th century CE (The Met) 🗃️

The videos of all sessions from the Sydney University Staff for Palestine 'Free Palestine, Free Speech' symposium are now online: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

🚨Conference: Disastrous Pasts and Sustainable Futures. Urban #disasters and #resilience in historical and social scientific perspectives. University of Warwick, 29-30 June 2026 🗃️ warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his...

This woman carrying an art folio with a picture of a human skeleton posing on the front in Paris's Saint-Germain-des-Prés, c.1953 (photo by Ed van der Elsken, Rijksmuseum) 🗃️

This beautiful, delicate ornament in the shape of a bee – just 12cm long and made in gilded copper by Moche artisans in northern Peru in the 6th or 7th century CE (The Met) 🗃️

Legislative elections will take place tomorrow (Sunday) in New Caledonia (postponed since 2024) – it's "a major election, but one that is not generating much enthusiasm" says Le Monde.

Distressing, but necessary.

The end of (digital) history

This group of people rugged up and seated in profile on a boat gliding across a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains in Switzerland, c.1900 (photo taken by the French painter Georges Maroniez; Bibliothèque nationale de France) 🗃️

That strange sense of validation in being confirmed by AI as being truly human.

Last week, a very senior administrator at Sydney Uni told us that when Israel supporters on our internal staff platform deny the genocide in Gaza, management expects us *not to challenge them*. Here's excerpts from our reply, in which we refuse this extraordinary request.

Typo of the Day: an induced comma

This exquisite cup in blue-green glass, attributed to Iran or Iraq, was made — mind-bogglingly — all the way back in the 9th or 10th centuries (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 🗃️

This exquisite cup in blue-green glass, attributed to Iran or Iraq, was made — mind-bogglingly — all the way back in the 9th or 10th centuries (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 🗃️

soutien à Patrick Boucheron qui a tout à fait bien fait!!!

Claude François's 'Cette année là', the Italian version. Di niente.

🚨 PLEASE SHARE WIDELY 🚨 If you are an Exeter alumnus, and wish to express your horror at the proposed cuts to the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, please sign the Google Doc petition below. Not an alumnus? You can still help by signing the Exeter UCU petition at c.org/msXfsb2g5b 🗃️

Travellers in the dining car on board the Palatino train running between Paris and Rome, c.1960s (Ferrovie dello Stato) Back when a dining car had tablecloths, porcelain crockery, and real meals cooked on board by a chef (who apparently – at least sometimes – doled out the spaghetti himself) 🗃️

Here among the ads for servants, cooks, gardeners, etc in Tasmania's Launceston Examiner newspaper in March 1884, a straightforward request for "live native tigers" 😮 "Mr McGowan"=William McGowan of Launceston's City Park Zoo, the main dealer in living Tasmanian fauna (incl. thylacines) at the time.

Among the recipients of the Dan David Prize for 2026 is a historian based at the University of Melbourne. Add your name to this open letter, asking this scholar to follow the lead of principled people like Prof Catherine Hall, and refuse to accept the award. overland.org.au/2026/06/asso...

All aboard the horse-drawn omnibus trotting between the Panthéon and the Place Courcelles in Paris in 1912 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 🗃️

Here among the ads for servants, cooks, gardeners, etc in Tasmania's Launceston Examiner newspaper in March 1884, a straightforward request for "live native tigers" 😮 "Mr McGowan"=William McGowan of Launceston's City Park Zoo, the main dealer in living Tasmanian fauna (incl. thylacines) at the time.

Anti-racism is anti-racism.

All aboard the horse-drawn omnibus trotting between the Panthéon and the Place Courcelles in Paris in 1912 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 🗃️

NY-10, my district, is the most Jewish congressional district in the country, w/about 25% of voters identifying as Jewish. And yet tonight the district threw out pro-Israel Rep. Dan Goldman, and elected Brad Lander, who calls Gaza a genocide and favors an cut-off of weapons to Israel, by 30+ pts. 1/

A university that called the cops on its own peaceful students is now set to be represented by one of them in Congress

Among the recipients of the Dan David Prize for 2026 is a historian based at the University of Melbourne. Add your name to this open letter, asking this scholar to follow the lead of principled people like Prof Catherine Hall, and refuse to accept the award. overland.org.au/2026/06/asso...

A doorway, a courtyard, a street in the 19th arrondissement of Paris in 1970 (Michel Fromont, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris) 🗃️

In all the (deserved) outpourings of admiration for the late Carlo Ginzburg, it's surprising that so far apparently no one has expressed admiration for (nor even commented on) one of his most notable features: his very fluffy and very expressive eyebrows. (just parking this observation here)

A doorway, a courtyard, a street in the 19th arrondissement of Paris in 1970 (Michel Fromont, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris) 🗃️

Students in the reading room of the Sorbonne University library in Paris in 1929 (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne) Among these many studious creatures is a 21-year-old Simone de Beauvoir – she's wearing a cloche hat and looking back over her shoulder at the photographer (see detail)🗃️

Shame on the people who have accepted the Dan David Prize this year - especially those doing ostensibly 'social justice' work. It's easy to see those commitments are paper-thin.

Students in the reading room of the Sorbonne University library in Paris in 1929 (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne) Among these many studious creatures is a 21-year-old Simone de Beauvoir – she's wearing a cloche hat and looking back over her shoulder at the photographer (see detail)🗃️

These women workers at a large Parisian department store – enveloped in one another's arms and pretending to be asleep during a strike in 1936 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 🗃️

This. I'd also argue that playfulness – being relaxed, imaginative, and open-minded/-ended – actually produces the most original outcomes, so it's a win-win.

This aligns with my thinking and it reveals something so sad about many of our students: they don’t want to “play,” their K-12 education and life experience tells them that the only thing that matters is “winning”/outputs.

These women workers at a large Parisian department store – enveloped in one another's arms and pretending to be asleep during a strike in 1936 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) 🗃️

Has any Dan David Prize recipient rejected their award? Looking through these names of our colleagues and once again grappling with the utter failure of academia at our current moment