Joyce Dixon

A still life of a vase of vibrant flowers

A painting of a woman smelling a bunch of orchids

A photograph of a vibrant pink hollyhock

🌷🌿 Tickets are now available for In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World.

Opening 19 March, this exhibition will take you from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms. Details: www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/i...

In 1735, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus published the first edition of his seminal classification work Systema naturae. In the Kingdom of Animals, Linnaeus included humans, which he divided into four varieties according to geographical origin and skin colour. Linnaeus refined his classification of humans over the next two decades, publishing a much more developed classification in the tenth edition of Systema naturae (1758). This work has had fundamental consequences in the emergence of the concept of race, and the ways in which we understand and conceptualise differences between humans.

What happens when humans are classified?

On 19 March, 6pm to 8pm, we’re launching Homo Sapiens | Classifying the Human Animal at the Society, with a panel discussion exploring Carl Linnaeus’ classification of humans and its enduring impact on ideas of race and difference.

Book now: buff.ly/frgzC9H

Deadline approaching!

Pls RT!

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”

Conference at the University of Amsterdam ~ Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies

Monday, 15 June 2026

1/6

@asecsoffice.bsky.social @bsecs.bsky.social @thebsls.bsky.social

Pervenche Desséchée, or “Dried Periwinkle” from ‘Les fleurs animées’ or ‘The Flowers Personified,’ illustrated by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville. First published in 1847, but this is a later 1867 edition published in Paris by Garnier Frères.

#botanicalillustration #rarebooks

Sasha Archibald explores the love and longing contained in the pressed and illustrated pages of 19th-century seaweed albums, including “the most ambitious album of all” by Charles F. Durant: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/love-and-longing-in-the-seaweed-album #seaweed

Dark green background with white text overlaid reading "call for papers", surrounded by various natural history illustrations of animals wearing party hats.

🚨We have a SUPER exciting announcement!🚨

Our next Summer Meeting will be at @zslofficial.bsky.social on the theme of The Zoological Society of London at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World 🥳

📅1-3 July 2026
🗺️Zoological Society of London

Find out how to submit 👇🏻
shnh.org.uk/all-events/c...

The Portico Reunited blueprint

The Portico expansion CGI

🔗 Just in case you missed our big news at the end of 2025, our plans to reunite and transform The Portico moved a step forward, following planning approval from Manchester City Council...

Photograph of an opened book, tshowing a full page colour illustration of Sow Bread (cylcamen), Sea Milkwort, and Chickweed Winter Green. The flowers are coloured in shades of pink and white, the stems and leaves are coloured in shades of pink and green, and the roots are coloured in shades of brown.

Cyclamen bring welcome colour to winter!

Did you known a common name for cyclamen is sowbread or swinebread? Pigs are fond of eating the roots! 🐷

📷 Illustration from ‘The Flowering Plants of Great Britain’ (1855) by Anne Pratt [Baring-Gould Library 0691]

#FlowersOnFriday #FridayFlowers #RareBooks

The University of Glasgow is 575 years old today! We're joining in with the celebrations here at ASC 🎂 #UofG575 #TeamUofG

The Value of Early Career Arts & Humanities Research - by Professor Claire Squires | SAHA: The Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance A joint initiative of Scottish Higher Education institutions, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.

What's the Value of Early Career Arts & Humanities Research?

I wrote about this for the @sahavoice.bsky.social blog, drawing on my experience as Director of @sgsah.bsky.social over the past few years saha.scot/the-value-of...

Interested in turning your PhD into a book? 📚

Join this half-day hybrid event on 16th Jan exploring multiple routes from thesis to publication, with Booker-shortlisted author Sarah Bernstein and leading scholars. Includes a proposal workshop!

#PhDtoBook

Sign up: tockify.com/sgsah/detail...

British Society for the Philosophy of Science Doctoral Scholarships Doctoral scholarships awarded by the BSPS for doctoral work in the philosophy of science undertaken at any UK university

We are delighted to announce that the BSPS will be running a doctoral scholarship competition in 2026! The competition will open in February, and the deadline will be 27 March.
www.thebsps.org/funding/doct...

2026 AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award- Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) PhD Studentship at University of Stirling on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - 2026 AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award- Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) PhD Studentship at University of Stirling, listed on FindAPhD.com

Now open: 2026 AHRC CDA PhD Studentship 🎓

A collaborative project with @stir.ac.uk & @stirlingcht.bsky.social exploring built heritage, housing & climate justice, focusing on tenants in historic tenements.

🗓️ Closing date: 23 Jan 2026

🔗 Find out more: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Giovanni Aloi in front of a cabinet of curiosity

Join art historian @giovannialoi.bsky.social for an online talk on the enduring legacy of Cabinets of Curiosities. From early modern Wunderkammern to contemporary art, he explores how collecting and wonder continue to shape how we understand the world.

Thurs 29 Jan | 6:30pm-7:30pm

buff.ly/SKvWTwN

Fascinating article here by @joycedixon.bsky.social -

🚨Special announcement: our annual conference will be 3–4 Sept 2026 at LSE Library, in collaboration with @lselibrary.bsky.social, & Friends House, London.

Theme: Celebrating the Centenary of the Women’s Library: One Hundred Years of Women’s History.

Call for Papers coming mid-Jan! #WomensHistory

A post I wrote recently for the @chromotope.bsky.social Chromobase, on the aesthetic implications of Patrick Syme's colour charts in Victorian Britain:

chromobase.huma-num.fr/narratives/o...

Applications for our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships close on 5th January 2026, so don't delay! ⏳

We’re welcoming applications from scholars from across the globe to work with our unique research collections.

Apply now: glasgow.ac.uk/library/rese...
#UofGLibraryFellows

BSECS Annual Conference BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

Happy New Year #18thCists #skystorians!
We can't wait to welcome you to @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social NEXT WEEK for #BSECS2026.
You can register FOR THE CONFERENCE ONLY [no accommodation or meals] at the registration desk from 8am, 7 January.
Programme available here:
www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Le Rollier à longs brins (Coracias caudatus) by Jacques Barraband for ‘Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers, suivie de celle des toucans et des barbus’ by François Levaillant. Paris: Chez Denné le jeune, 1806.

University of Chicago Special Collections.

#rarebooks #birdart

Delighted to have an article published in The British Journal for the History of Science, on Charles Darwin's chromatic vocabulary on the Beagle voyage. With enormous thanks to @sgsah.bsky.social, @edincollegeofart.bsky.social, @sochistnathist.bsky.social

Thanks @philipcball.bsky.social for the lovely endorsement!

Heading home from the workshop ‘The Hand-Colouring of Natural History Illistrations in Europe, 1600-1850’. Huge thanks to @sochistnathist.bsky.social, @bsecs.bsky.social, @uni-konstanz.de and @tuberlin.bsky.social for making it possible.

A banner with the same information about the conference as the post - just a bit prettier.

⏰ Reminder: The deadline to submit your proposal for the BSHS Annual Conference 2025 at the University of Cambridge (8–10 July 2025) is TOMORROW!

💡 Individual papers & sessions on any HSTM topic are welcome.

📅 Friday, 10 Jan 2025
🌐 Submit here: conference.bshs.org.uk
🔁💚

Head of Membership and Development This role will lead on engaging with our community of members and developing our fundraising

✨We're #Hiring! ✨

Our new role, Head of Membership and Development, will be responsible for the development of our community of members, comprising Fellows and Associates, and play a vital role in helping to build a vibrant, active and engaged community.

Learn more here:

www.linnean.org/the-...