Zara Kesterton

Hot off the press — our reading list for the coming term. Join us every other Wednesday, 12-1pm, at Gonville and Caius to discuss cities in the long eighteenth century 🌇

Our mini-symposium will follow our termly discussion group – this term, on Cities. We meet fortnightly and lunchtimes at a central Cambridge location. To stay abreast of any news, you can subscribe to our mailing list here: lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscr...

This is a call for Papers Poster for the 'Salon'. Call for Papers: Mini-Symposium on Cities in the Long Eighteen Century (4 March, with 12 February Deadline) Keynote Speaker: Professor Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary, University of London The Long Eighteenth Century Salon and Workshop is releasing its call for papers for next term's mini-symposium on the theme of Cities. The symposium will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 4 March, at a central Cambridge location. We therefore invite applications for 20-minute papers from postgraduates and ECRs on the following themes, from any geography and any time period between the mid-seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries: Speech, sound, and other senses in cities Changing mobilities in urban areas Subaltern experiences in cities The natural and built environment in cities Reassessing urban centres and peripheries Any other theme that speaks to the unique urban dynamics in this period To apply, or should you have any questions, please send a 250-word abstract and brief bio by 12 February to the following email address: 18thcenturycam@gmail.com. Please note that the symposium will follow three discussion group sessions on ‘cities’ (provisionally 21 January, 4 February, 18 February, lunchtimes, at a central Cambridge location). For more on the discussion group, you can sign up to our mailing list here, as we will be releasing the reading list shortly. We especially welcome submissions that speak to the concerns of the discussion group, for which we will discuss some of Professor Ogborn’s work. We'll release a brief reading list in early January – all are welcome to join, regardless of whether you've been involved in the reading group before!

We're excited to announce our CFP for our Lent term mini-symposium on the theme of Cities! We're thrilled to have Professor Miles Ogborn as our keynote speaker. If you are a Cambridge-based postgraduate, recent postgraduate, or ECR do think of applying by 12 February!

Symposium programme: Wednesday 26 November 2025 Location: Vivien Stewart Room, Murray Edwards College, 1.30–4.30pm Keynote: Dr Anna Maerker (King's College London): Title TBC Presentations: Eleanor Peebles (MPhil in Early Modern History): ‘To Know Themselves’: Touch, Vision, and the Paper Body in Johann Remmelin’s ‘Catoptrum Microcosmicum’ Hettie Marsden (PhD candidate in Art History): “A System of Minor Actions”? Recreational Embroideries, Aesthetic Affection and Female Agency in Early Victorian Britain Mika Hyman (PhD candidate in History of Science) and Dr Stephane Crayton (Faculty of Music): Instruments of Sensation: Marin Marais’ ‘Le Tableau de l’Opération de la Taille’ and the Embodied Archive

A reminder that our Salon symposium is tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday 26 November! Our theme is ‘The Senses’ and we’re taking an embodied, medical history, musical, and craft-based approach to the long eighteenth century.

The Salon got off to a fantastic start last week when we discussed smell! This week, it’s Taste, and we’ll be meeting 12-1pm tomorrow in the Junior Parlour at Caius. We’ll discuss Robles’ chapter on ‘Squid’ in Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds + the online exhibition kitcheninthecabinet.com

Our first session of the term takes place tomorrow (Wednesday 15th) at 12 noon! Please note the updated location in the Junior Parlour, Gonville & Caius

Issue 127 Aurora (Pre-Order) COMING NEXT AURORA–Northern light Out 15 October FLAX AND FOOTBALL–Christian Jeffery PATTERN PLAY–Marimekko DIZZYING DELIGHTS–Valentino SPARKING JOY–Folk dress of Eastern Telmark A SMOKING SHUTTLE–Wel...

Many thanks to @zarakesterton.bsky.social for a very generous review of Shoes and the Georgian Man in the new issue of Selvedge. Much appreciated!
www.selvedge.org/products/iss...

It was such a pleasure! Spoiler alert: I loved the book 😊

Calling all Cambridge postgrads! Come to our discussion group and symposium

‘Only illusions are amusing …’: nature, artifice and femininity in eighteenth-century France through the lens of Louis de Carmontelle Abstract. This article considers the watercolour portraits of Louis de Carmontelle as a commentary on the relationships between illusion, reality, artifice

Excited to see this published @frenchhistory.bsky.social! ‘Only illusions are amusing …’: nature, artifice and femininity in eighteenth-century France through the lens of Louis de Carmontelle' by @zarakesterton.bsky.social 🌼🌺🌸🎨

academic.oup.com/fh/article/d...

🌹I was so lucky to take part in an incredible conference: “Plants & People: the Cultivation and Propagation of Botanical Knowledge Among Non-Professional Communities, c. 1600-1800" (8-9 July 2025) at Cambridge; organised by @zarakesterton.bsky.social and @lucyjhavard.bsky.social 🌱 🌿 🌺

That’s a wrap on #plantsandpeople! Thanks to all of our wonderful speakers, keynotes, artists, and attendees for two days of fantastic discussion and hands-on experimentation. Over and out from @zarakesterton.bsky.social and @lucyjhavard.bsky.social !

Now for the final paper of the day! We hear from Christina Welch from the University of Winchester on ‘People and Plants in the Colonial Caribbean: Indigenous and Enslaved African People’s Medicinal and Horticultural Knowledge’ 🌱 🌅 🌺 #peopleandplants

Next up is a paper by Margaux Shraiman entitled 'A Surinamese Butterfly Among Cape Flowers: Maria Sibylla Merian’s Copies of botanical illustrations from the Cabinet of Johanna Breda and Levinus Vincent' 🌼🦋 #plantsandpeople

…and a glimpse into our earlier study session at the Fitzwilliam Museum, a tour of the botanical highlights of the prints and drawings collection led by Catherine Powell Warren 🌷🖌️ #plantsandpeople

Our final panel of the conference on ‘Empire and Knowledge’ begins with Joseph Bienko’s paper on 'Baconian Buccaneering: William Dampier’s Excursion to Panama' ⛵️🌿 #plantsandpeople

And now for the final paper of this panel on Medical Knowledge… Lauren Owen’s from Florida State University speaks to us about recipes for health and wellness in 18thC France! #plantsandpeople

Our third panel of the conference on Medical Knowledge kicks off with a paper from Nikolas Brusletto on ‘Botanical Knowledge in the Norwegian Black Books: Folk Medicine, Embodied Experience, and Social Networks’! #plantsandpeople

We have two workshops running in tandem this morning at the #plantsandpeople conference - one on botanical images at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and a practical workshop on early modern dye production with Nabil Ali! Thanks to @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social for the use of your greenhouses!

Thank you so much Leonie! It’s such a delight to have you here as our keynote 🌿

Thanks so much Grace! Your paper was a real highlight today 🌿

Our second and final keynote of the day, @leoniehannan.bsky.social now speaking on ‘Plants as Process: Embodied Knowledge and the ‘Liberty of Air’’! #plantsandpeople

And moving to the final paper of this panel, ‘Gardening as Knowledge Practice: Historical Handbooks for Kitchen Gardens’ by Sanne Steen 🪏🪴📚 #plantsandpeople

And now it’s time for Janet Stiles Tyson’s paper, ‘A Curious Herbal in the Commercial Book Market’, examining Elizabeth Blackwell’s famous illustrated work #plantsandpeople

And we’re back, fuelled after a lovely lunch break! 🥗 🌯🥪 We begin our panel on ‘Books and Knowledge’ with a paper from Grace Murray from Birkbeck entitled ‘Marginalia and Memory Books: Writing Garden Labour in Eighteenth-Century London’ #plantsandpeople

The final paper of this panel is from Maja-Lisa Müller from Universität Bielefeld, entitled ‘Mushrooms and Mimesis: 18thC Wax Models as Deictic and Didactic Boundary Objects’! 🍄🍄‍🟫🍄

Now we hear from Alasdair McNeill from Birkbeck on ‘Cheesemakers and Plant Knowledge in Early Modern England’! 🧀🌻 #plantsandpeople

Now onto our first panel on ‘Embodied Knowledge’! We begin with a paper by Océane Fontaine Cioffi on ‘Naming Selecting, and Using Plants: Botanical Knowledge in 16thC Perfumery’… 🌸🌺🪻#plantsandpeople

The best thing about running a conference is inviting your dream keynote speakers! Follow along for updates throughout today and tomorrow 🌸

Our next event of term is taking place TODAY! (Monday 2nd June) at 5.30 pm (not 5 pm!) in the Junior Parlour at Gonville & Caius College. We'll be hearing papers from João Moreira da Silva @joaomoreiradasilva.bsky.social and Andrés Jácome. All are welcome to join!