Amy Turner | The Bookish Historian

Small change is still change. I'm feeling a little optimistic for the first time this year given how many elections turned out tonight, and I'm grateful I made the time to vote. Voting is powerful, and it's important we exercise it. 💙

Engraving of a female witch riding on an animal skeleton, preceded by two men and a boy on a goat blowing on a horn, another naked man behind carrying two bones.

It's Halloween week! 🎃

Image: Lo Stregozzo: a female witch riding on an animal skeleton, preceded by two men and a boy on a goat blowing on a horn, another naked man behind carrying two bones, Agostino Veneziano, engraving, c. 1515-1525. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.97.146

#Halloween #Art

Me too!!! I love the colors and the temps and the smells!! ❤️🍁

Fall trees.

Fall trees.

Fall trees.

Blue bird.

From a fall walk today. 🍁🍂❤️

#OTD King Alfred the Great died on October 26, 899, in Winchester, United Kingdom, around the age of 50.

Images:

1) and 2): The Alfred Jewel, c. 9th century. Ashmolean Museum, AN1836 p.135.371.

3) Alfred the Great's will.

4) Alfred the Great, Samuel Woodforde. National Trust, Stourhead, 732296.

Oil painting depicting people attending a Halloween carnival.

Today's fall/Halloween painting: "Halloween Carnival" by American artist Henrik M. Mayer. #History #Art

🎨: Halloween Carnival, Henrik M. Mayer, oil on Masonite, 1938. Indianapolis Museum of Art, 77.62.

Lithograph depicting a raven flying into an open window.

"The Raven" was one of Edgar Allan Poe's quintessential poems. According to @jstor_org, this transfer lithograph was "created for Stéphane Mallarmé's French translation of the poem". #History #Books #Poetry

🎨: Open Here I Flung the Shutter, from "The Raven," Edouard Manet. The Met, 24.30.27(4).

Ink illustration depicting a couple of boatsmen paddling their crafts on a lake overlooked by a tree laden with fire-red leaves and a shelter. In the background are hills and trees.

Today's image: A couple of boatsmen paddle their crafts on a lake overlooked by a tree laden with fire-red leaves and a shelter. #History #Art #ArtHistort

🎨: Landscape with Autumn Foliage, attributed to Shen Zhou (1427-1509). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 69.131.9.

Landscape painting of an autumnal scene with livestock in the foreground.

During the month of October, I'm going to share artwork and objects depicting fall or spooky themes!

Today's work: Autumn oaks by American landscape painter George Inness (1825-1894).

🎨: Autumn oaks, George Inness, oil on canvas, ca. 1878. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 87.8.8. #History #Art

Cover image for a post called "Book Review: "Nemesis" by Catherine Hanley".

My new book review is live on Substack! I reviewed Catherine Hanley's latest work "Nemesis: Medieval England's Greatest Threat" about King Philip II Augustus of France. I highly, highly recommend it! #History #Books #BooksOnBluesky

🔗: thebookishhistorian.substack.com/p/review-nem...

The logo of the National Park Service. The outline is in the shape of an arrowhead. The background is covered with ridges and depicts a white mountain, a tall green conifer, a white buffalo, and a lake with trees.

#OTD American president Woodrow Wilson signed into law The Organic Act on August 25, 1916. The Act established the National Parks Service, which oversees more than 400 cultural, historical, and natural sites across the 50 states. #History #HistoryOnBluesky #NationalParkService

If I happened to do a bookish giveaway in September, who'd be interested? Would include some TBH-branded goods, at least one of my favorite history books, a pin, a bookmark...📚❤️🤔 #Books #History

Detail from a 16th-century manuscript illustration showing James I of Scotland and Queen Joan Beaufort, from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

On July 15, 1445, Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots, died around the age of 40 in Scotland. Joan was buried next to her first husband, James I, at the Carthusian Priory at Perth.

📷: Detail from a 16th-century manuscript illustration, from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. #OTD #History

The book cover of The Last Empress of France.

I've been reading more lately, including ARCs! One is The Last Empress of France by Petie Kladstrup and Evelyne Resnick. It's about Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Emperor Napoleon III.

Thank you to Harper Collins for a copy of this book via NetGalley! #History #Books #Nonfiction

I loved Bernini's fountains and sculptures, and all of the fountains! I also went to the Borghese Gallery, and all of the freestanding art was incredible! I absolutely want to go back!

How amazing!! I've only been to Italy once, Rome, Casperia, and Tarquinia. Florence is on my list, and I'd LOVE to get the Galleria della'Accademia. What was your favorite part of Florence?

I'm not honestly sure. I'm not an art history expert, but I wonder if it's more of an issue due to provenance and that the artist was known at some point. I tried to track down the painting at the Uffizi Gallery but had no luck as the website was slow.

I can totally see the resemblance!!

It really is!! There's so much we can learn from art, but, also, it's just so stunning! I'd love to go to the Uffizi Gallery someday.

Portrait of a young Marie de' Medici as a child. She wears a scarlet dress, a white ruff, and a headpiece made of flowers.

This stunning 17th-century portrait depicts Marie de' Medici, Queen of France and Navarre, who died #OTD in 1642.

Marie is buried in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris.

🎨: Portrait of Marie de' Medici as a child, unknown artist. Palazzo Pitti. #History #Art #Portrait

Line engraving of Henry VIII, looking pinched and grumpy.

On June 28, 1491, Henry VIII, was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. Old King Hal is primarily known for his proclivity for wives and a cantankerous personality in his middle age. #OTD

🎨: Line engraving of Henry VIII, Cornelius Metsys, paper, 1548. National Portrait Gallery, NPG D24929.

Portrait of Henrietta of England in a golden dress against a wooded background.

#OTD Henrietta of England was born on June 16, 1644, at Bedford House in Exeter. She was the youngest child of Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria of France.

🎨: Portrait of Henrietta of England, Peter Lely, oil on canvas, 17th century. Goodwood House Collection. #History #England

#booksky

“States’ rights” apparently don’t apply when Trump wants control.

ICE terrorizes our communities. People protest, and now Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles. This is how martial law begins in the so-called land of the free.

They are starting this. Your safety comes first. That doesn’t mean don’t stand up, just make sure the truth is documented before you do.

Please help us. We have people who’ve been hurt just trying to help others. More are out now. Please, record everything. We will hold those accountable who are breaking the law and attacking our communities. Do not provoke.

The world is watching. And we have friends everywhere. Upload everything, every moment. Don’t give them the chance to twist the truth. We have people on the way to help. You’re not alone. ✊🌙💚

We remain firmly committed to nonviolence, and just as firmly committed to standing up against actions that threaten our communities.

The deployment of federalized National Guard troops to California, without consent from local or state officials, is deeply troubling. These are tactics seen in authoritarian regimes, not in America. We want to be clear, the military should not be used to police civilians.