Michael Pearce

Pregnancy, health, ciphers and secrecy in early modern letters. The Countess of Westmorland to her daughter Grace. vanishedcomforts.org/2026/04/16/c...

Spotted in the printing room @theulspeccoll.bsky.social

Copper Harbor, Michigan Pop: 71 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Harbor,_Michigan Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7569761 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146264343 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83752327

And look at this stunning cover!

Come for the early modern hot takes on birthright and immigration, stay for the Syrian princess in exile who gave Albion its name, a model immigrant who became a traitor overnight, the insistence that real Englishmen use short words, and beer failing the nationality test. #thislittleworld

It's publication day. Again. #thislittleworld has crossed the Atlantic (a bit more comfortably than most of the people in it) and is out in North America today with @yalepress.bsky.social

In his comic moments Bruce invokes Pierce Penniless twice, as the Thomas Nashe character, and the presumption Anna of Denmark recognises these references may be interesting.

Remarkable resemblance between this doll and the old Bentham auto-icon. Now picturing him being brought into a doll's hospital.

Spot the works by today's artist, Quentin Metsys, that hung in the home of the great collector Cornelis van der Geest in my own time. Had all the stars!

Stonking great plane tree in our resort Mlini on the Dubrovnik coast of Croatia. #thicktrunktuesday

Picture is a good old copy oil painting not a fake. After Jan Wijnants, "Two dead trees". The National Gallery in London has a good original version. My partner gave me this one as birtday present, I chose it on eBay

BREAKING: Netanyahu announces that Hamas is trying to steal the election from him. How do I even satirise this crap? 😭😭😭

Nasty bug

Our November speakers are giving us quite a treat with their presentation #Hair Raising Histories: Conflicts Around the Use of Human and #Animal Hair in #EarlyModern Europe. Join us Nov 28. #MedievalSky #MedievalHistory #Skystorians #AcademicSky #HistorySky #MaterialCulture #Bodies #WhatsHistory

This guy is now head of Policy Planning at the State Department. After being responsible for the deaths of millions, he has failed up for sure.

Sierra is a second-year MA student researching the role of agency within early modern Scottish witchcraft trials, focusing on how trial outcomes involving childbearing bodies and children’s testimonies were represented and negotiated through legal and linguistic discourse. @uguelphhist.bsky.social

How can AI help (or hinder) historical research? Join us at UCL on 30 October for the EHS Women’s Committee Training Event, featuring a roundtable and a collaborative hackathon using real historical sources and datasets. Free to attend and open to all. To book: www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

@heatherwolfe.bsky.social

This is why humanities expertise matters. This is why we need public humanities. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho.... @folger.edu

Signature of Leonard Welsted: Not much to look at. I left it pinned in its place, (Moray Papers, NRAS 217)

The Trust's Emeritus Fellowships support academics to complete a research project and prepare the results for publication. Interested in applying? Visit our website for details: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/emeritus-fel.... Deadline: 28 January 2027.

Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas was born #OnThisDay ✍️ Artists have been inspired by his features and poetry. Read more in this new story 👉 https://artuk.org/discover/stories/dylan-thomas-the-poet-in-art 🧑‍🎨 Augustus Edwin John (1878–1961) © the artist's estate / Bridgeman. 📷 Amgueddfa Cymru

I gave regular lectures on V&A Academy until cuts recently, and now it looks like the whole thing is being cut into utter oblivion. Such a familar tale these days. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/10/26/v...

“So let’s celebrate the Brazilian people, who have refused to be bullied by Bolsonaro, by the American oligarchs, and by Trump … Let’s hope that in a little over one week’s time Americans will be equally clear-sighted and vote for democracy.” Paul Krugman paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-oligar...

#Sweden: Barge transporting #cannon, sunk in Lake #Hugn 1808, found and surveyed www.ecoticias.com/en/marine-ar...

After reading some of the the Home papers at the Hirsel, I was able to offer this context for the recipe books at Darnaway. Many families suffered in the 17th century, this is a story of Margaret Home, Countess of Moray: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare...

Commonplacing, lameness, disability, printing, massacres, the Tower, the church, landscape and more! #EarlyModern lightning talks for @ihrscb.bsky.social on Nov 12th at the @ihr.bsky.social, with @joesaunders1.bsky.social, @maybeitwasutah.bsky.social and more. Registration link to follow soon.

THESE ISLES: Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) was an Anglo-Irish countess, a key figure in the 1916 Easter Rising and the first woman elected to the British parliament, but declined to take her seat in 1918 because of Sinn Féin’s abstentionist policy. 1/7

Good morning #Portsmouth #WednesdayMotivation #MidweekVibes

Good morning #Portsmouth #TuesdayMotivation

It’s no longer possible for Britain to wash its hands of its crime against humanity, to deflect to others, to trivialise & to disavow. If it wants some moral influence in the world, an apology, a TRC & meaningful negotiation of e.g. debt relief is now necessary. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

May this despair come to every member of the reactionary international who salivates at the prospect of visiting terror on those they hate

The found ferret, returned to its keeper. Many years ago, now

This all starts from the wrong place. Figure out what you are assessing (and teaching), and much of the rest falls into place. All the current forms of assessment favour particular learning styles, and just shifting them around won't change that.

'Replacing written coursework with live verbal performance, without fundamentally reforming how oral tasks are designed and marked, risks systematically penalising students who stammer, as well as neurodivergent learners and those with other speech disfluencies.'

This has been my look for years! Who knew it had a name other than flung-the-gether? (and yes, I do garden...): www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...

The painting is a good copy of Jan Wijnant's "Two dead trees", we put it at the foot of the stairs

“Fascism is rising from frustration, born out of a crisis of livelihoods,” says Weber. “So, we need to reclaim these essentials now.” This is a very funny quote, considering the biggest fascist government on the planet is currently in the richest, most affluent society in the history of this planet

The painting is a good copy of Jan Wijnant's "Two dead trees", we put it at the foot of the stairs

Rubens’ last works included two monumental, pendant landscape views of his manor house Het Steen, oil on panel, c 1636: morning, autumn view with mackerel sky, later influenced Constable; evening ‘Rainbow landscape’ after haymaking, inspires hope. ALT ⁦‪National Gallery London | Wallace Collection

”It was the best of times; it was the worst of times...” Charles Dickens, Victorian novelist born in 1812; George Orwell noted “no English writer has written better about childhood...” Portrait by Daniel Maclise, 1839, National Portrait Gallery, London | Cartoon Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social

Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch designer & architect, born in Utrecht #OTD 1888, known for his distinctive Red & Blue Chair of 1917 and De Stijl design of Rietveld Schröder House of 1924 (Utrecht) Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Köln | UNESCO World Heritage

This fantastic mausoleum is the 'Kennedy Aisle', built c.1602 and once attached to the old parish kirk at Ballantrae. It holds a place in the tale of internecine rivalry and retribution among branches of the Kennedy family, to rival any plot in Game of Thrones. #Scotland #History

My new book is finally out! A short, readable overall history of beer tracing the long lines in the development of beer. Seeing history like that inevitably brings out an overlooked side of the history of beer: beer as a source of massive power. Please repost! www.garshol.priv.no/download/pow...