Mairi Cowan

Towards a history of the hammock: An Indigenous technology in the Atlantic world - postmedieval When Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere beginning in the fifteenth century, they learned that Indigenous groups across the Caribbean and South America valued few technologies as much as the h...

if you would like to read about early modern hammocks, it's publication day for the article the brilliant @marcynorton.bsky.social and I wrote about them! (open access)

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Snow on a plant against a wooden fence

Hivernal. Time for more more tea and blankets

That's what I thought too! Maybe it's from her private stash

Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D™ 10356 | LEGO® Icons | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop CA LEGO® Icons Star Trek model kit for adults

LEGO Star Trek TNG!! www.lego.com/en-ca/produc...

Spot (😍😺) is included on the crew! Guinan is holding... Romulan ale?

Tree with yellow leaves against the blue sky

Bright November sky

This Toronto side street has emptied of Halloween trick-or-treaters right around first pitch time

Historian discovers new details in Canada's first documented 'demon possession' case | CBC Radio A demonic possession, a do-it-yourself exorcism, and the execution of an accused witch — welcome to daily life in Quebec City, circa 1660. Historian Mairi Cowan shares the story of Canada’s earliest...

Halloween is the perfect time to learn more about Canada's first documented 'demon possession' case.

Check out this interview with Mairi Cowan about her book The Possession of Barbe Hallay.

A drawing of a bat looking into a hood on a pole.

Happy Halloween from the Wren Library, our Halloween Bat is courageously looking into this spooky hood.
mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B...
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Bright red tree among golden trees, and some with bare branches

Autumnal ravine morning

Delighted to share the Call for Papers for a special issue of French Historical Studies on the theme "European-Indigenous Relations in the French Americas" (to be co-edited by Scott Berthelette and myself)

CFP and submission guidelines can be found here:
read.dukeupress.edu/french-histo...

Historian discovers new details in Canada's first documented 'demon possession' case | CBC Radio A demonic possession, a do-it-yourself exorcism, and the execution of an accused witch — welcome to daily life in Quebec City, circa 1660. Historian Mairi Cowan shares the story of Canada’s earliest r...

CBC Ideas is replaying the episode about my research on the case of witchcraft and demonic possession in 17th-century New France! Fun listening for spooky season! 👿🧙 👻https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/quebec-demon-possession-witchcraft-in-1660-1.6685584

Excellent way to think of it!! Thank you

Got COVID + flu shots today. Sometimes my immune system lets them slip through unobtrusively, and sometimes it's all BAM! POW! We'll see tomorrow which it is this time.

NEW: Indigenous Research Grant, 2025-2026 | The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada The latest news from the Archive of the Jesuits in Canada. Get updates on the latest exhibitions, blogs, press releases, and videos today.

The Jesuit Archives are offering a new $2500 grant focused on Indigenous researchers investigating Indigenous topics. This is a very rich archive with much Indigenous language material. archivesjesuites.ca/en/indigenou...

Hand holding a red leaf against green ivy leaves

Little black cat sitting on a wooden floor, looking up at the viewer

Good morning from a floofy house panther

A page from a bird guide shows the entry for Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). The page provides a detailed description of the bird (excerpt: "a medium-sized songbird with a black bill and large blue crest ). Underparts are blue with some white and some black barring on the wings and tail. There is a prominent black "necklace" around the head and throat."), along with information about the bird's distribution and habitat (excerpt: "throughout the southern half of Ontario but more common south of Lake Superior. Found in... woods, shrubby areas, urban areas, backyards..." - a small map of the province of Ontario in the lower right-hand corner of the page indicates its range.

If you're just jumping on the Blue Jays bandwagon, don't worry - making sense of our complicated world is what we do here at the Museum! We've put together a one-page guide of everything you need to know to avoid sounding like a fairweather fan over the next month. #LetsGoBlueJays

With thanks also to @keithsgrant.bsky.social for running the series

Spent the afternoon pulling apart @historianmairi.bsky.social's article on foodways in New France for my students to use as the basis of their first secondary source analysis. I think they came out with a better idea of what it means when I ask "how did they use the sources to make the argument."

Ah - a job well done! Thank you for teaching with it and also for letting me know!!

Fat Bear Week 2025 Fat Bear Week 2025

🎶 It's the faaaat beariest tiiiiime of the yeeeeeaaar! 🎶

Happy #FatBearWeek to all who celebrate this abundantly wholesome time

explore.org/fat-bear-week

The best week!!!

A Japanese colour woodblock print of a scene including river, mountain and autumnal maple leaves

The autumn equinox is here in the northern hemisphere, meaning that the new season has officially begun.

This woodblock print by Hiroshige captures the colours and feeling of autumn beautifully.

🍁 Maple Trees at Mama, Utagawa Hiroshige 1 (1797 - 1858) , 1857. EAX.4362

What and when is the autumnal equinox? When is the autumnal equinox, what date does the autumnal equinox fall on and when does summer end?

Happy Autumnal Equinox with lessons from the Royal Museums Greenwich: www.rmg.co.uk/stories/time...

Those resources from @ruralcolonialns.bsky.social are good. I discuss problems with translation on p. 12 of The Possession of Barbe Hallay, with a note leading to discussions by others who have come to sometimes similar, sometimes different conclusions.

Oh wow! I hope it goes well

Wheeee thank you for thinking of it!

Read "Sanctity, Solitude, and Society in Early Canada: The Life of Jeanne LeBer, Recluse of Ville-Marie (1662–1714)" by CMS Alumna, Laura Moncion, in 'The Catholic Historical Review', Volume 111, Number 3.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/16/artic...

Dear #MedievalSky & #SkyStorians, could you help, please? I am looking for depictions of orcas from before 1700
I already know:
Olaus Magnus, Sebastian Münster, Pierre Belon, Guillaume Rondelet, Conrad Gessner, as well as the ones on bestiary.ca (s. pic) & the mural in Greifswald
Thanks in advance!

A green tree beginning to turn red

This tree showing its back-to-school colours at the University of Toronto @utm.utoronto.ca @utoronto.ca