Darren S. Layne

A painting of a bird beside the text "fix your shit"

There it is

Grayscale map of the Atlantic showing most of the Americas, Europe, and Africa. There are arrows showing the direction of trade, and each arrow has at least one number attached to it. The numbers match a key on the side that lists the products being traded and their place of origin. There are 15 different sets of commodities listed: 1:Midlands & Birmingham: Guns, Gunpowder, Metalware, Silks 2: Liverpool & Lancashire: Cotton-linens 3: Lancashire: Linens, Cottons, Cotton-linens 4: India: Cottons Cowries 5: Midlands & London: Metalware, Silks, Ceramics, Glassware, Guns 6: London & Glasgow: Credit, Shipping Insurance 7: New England: Beef & Pork, Fish, Rum, Wood, Whale products 8: Mid-Atlantic: Grain 9: Chesapeake Colonies: Tobacco 10: Carolinas, Rice, Indigo 11: Caribbean: Sugar, Molasses 12: Brazil: Coffee 13: Brazil: Gold 14: Mexico / Peru: Silver 15: Britain: Grain, Manufactures The map has a set of grey arrows going from West Africa to the Americas showing the number of enslaved workers transported. The arrows are sized relative to the numbers. The largest arrow shows 6 million enslaved workers going to the Caribbean. 3.5 million went to Africa, 650,000 to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America, and 400,000 to North America. A key in the bottom right lists a set of African kingdoms that participated in the selling of enslaved workers, including Benin, the Oyo Empire, Dahomey, the Ashanti Confederacy, the Kingdom of Allada, the Kingdom of Whydah, and the Nupe people. These kingdoms are outlined on the map.

Greyscale drawing of a floor plan of what looks like the first floor of a house, with ten rooms and a flight of stairs. The title at the bottom reads: "The Magic Bookshop." There are two exterior doors: a front door and a back door. The floor plan is on a tattered piece of paper that looks as if it is being unrolled from the top, so there is a curl of paper, or a scroll, at the bottom. Around the floor plan are four animals. A cat, labeled Angel, is resting on top of floor plan, dangling a paw down. To her left is a huntsman spider named Drusilla. At the bottom of the page on the left is a golden retriever named Willow, sitting behind the scroll like a good boy. On the right side is a cat named Spike, who is sitting on top of the scroll and crushing it like an jerk. Typical dog and cat stuff. There are four piles of books around the outside of the floor plan: two large, and two small From top left down in a switchback pattern, the rooms are labeled: Yellow: Books with gold covers Possibility: Mystery, Crime (where they do the spell) Exeunt Omnes: Older books (where Kennedy finds the magic book) The Office (where hazel makes tea) Bathroom Gurgler: Sci-fi, Fantasy (where Hazel goes to hide out) The Scriptorium: More modern books (where Hazel sends Luke to find a book for his niece) Taboo The Fishbowl: Romance (where Luke makes a pink and purple bookcase) Pooh Corner: Children, Young adult (where Bob has his armchair and the silent book club happens) A label in the central hallway reads: "(where they put a bookcase for Today's Donations). Another label on the stairs reads "Hazel's loft apartment" and there is an arrow pointing up the stairs.

Art. A greyscale map of southern Africa showing different biomes. The map map key indicates 7 different biomes: Succulent Karoo; Fynbos; Albany Thicket; India Ocean Coastal Belt; Mixed Woodland; Grassland; Nama-Karoo; and Kalahari Savanna. Each is represented on the may by a different shade of grey, with areas of more rainfall being darker, and areas of less rainfall being lighter. Several of the rivers are labeled, as is the Indian Ocean.

Art. Colored map showing the locations of Alderely Edge, done in a fantasy style. The map is drawn to look like an old map done on parchment, with torn edges curling up. Two bars with ribbons wrapped around them form a frame at the top and right sides of the map. The ribbon on top is blue, the one on the right is a dusty red. On the right side of the map, between the frame and the edge, the map is colored turquoise and does not show any land forms. Written in large vertical letters in this space is the maps' title: "The Edge". The main part of the map is cut with forests and cliffs, and has 13 locations noted. Each location name is in a small frame that looks like a torn piece of parchment. Two roads cut across the map, one labeled Macclesfield Road and the other labeled Artists Lane. They meet in the bottom 3rd of the map by a location called "The Wizard Tearoom." An arrow at the top left points up one of the roads and has a label reading "to Alderely Edge (village). An arrow a the other end of the road, at the bottom of th emap, reads: "To Macclesfield."

Friends, with the world on fire, it feels useless to be here selling my services. But I do need to keep the lights on, and the #maps pay the bills.

So...if you need a map(s) for a book project, let me know! I have space for new commissions.

Here are a few of my favorite maps I've done lately:
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Enjoyed a quick flirtation with Vancouver the other weekend for a book launch, some social time with colleagues, and a few truly great meals and coffees. Hard to believe it’s just five hours up the road.

Highland museum to display Flora MacDonald portrait for first time A HIGHLAND museum at the heart of Jacobite history is celebrating two new additions to its collection as it marks a century since first opening its…

Nice to see Flora headed home. @westhighlandmuseum.bsky.social

BANNED BOOKS WEEK Oct. 5-11, 2025. Censorship is so 1984 - Read for Your Rights. ala.org/bbooks. American Library Association

Censorship is so 1984. Read for your rights.

Today kicks off #BannedBooksWeek, and this year's theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.

https://www.ala.org/bbooks.

Late tonight, a federal judge issued a sweeping new order prohibiting the president from deploying any National Guard forces—from any state or DC—to Oregon.

The president cannot keep playing whack-a-mole with different states’ Guard units to get around court orders and the rule of law.

Narrator’s voice: ‘Portland is not, as the mushbrained man shell of a human being asserts, burning to the ground.’

I am grateful to @agdanrayfield.bsky.social & his team for standing up for our state. This reaffirms what we have always known: the Administration’s lies about Portland do not reflect the reality on the ground.

This paragraph from the Trump-appointed judge makes it clear what’s at stake here.

if you’re a visual learner i made you some maps of where the people quoted in this article as supporting portland being occupied by troops live

The treatment of children in the 21st century… I am at a loss for words from Gaza and Greta to Chicago to Khartoum, to everywhere under attack, where aid has been relinquished and denied, where children can not access healthcare, gender affirming or otherwise. I am at a loss.

Peacehammer 40K: Paintinge litel miniatures of gardeneres, sculptors, academics. Trimminge hedges. Makinge friendes.

Hey #vastearlyamerica folks, I'm thinking about putting together a panel for @cndhistassoc.bsky.social 's conference next summer, looking at religion and violence in the colonial wars between New France and New England/the mid-Atlantic (or just France & England in Canada). Anyone interested?

Many thanks to the editors at the @historicaljnl.bsky.social blog for publishing this short piece, and to @ellasbaraini.bsky.social for her help with it. My recent article, and one of the central ideas of the book manuscript I’m currently working on, in a nutshell.

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

Emergency World Naked Bike Ride planned in Portland, with blurred photi of naked bicyclists.

Portland enacts emergency powers of nudity to check federal overreach.

booke
booke
reade a booke
then anothir booke
aftir that anothir booke
bookes are freakinge awesome

David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People - RHS Launched in 2023, the David Berry Fellowship provides an annual award of up to £2,500 to undertake research on the history of Scotland and the Scottish people worldwide. Applications for the 2026 Fell...

RHS funding opportunity: David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People.

The Society's Fellowship, for up to £2500, supports research by historians of Scotland at any career stage: bit.ly/4ns6LJj

Closing date for the 2026 Fellowship: 6 March 2026

Really appreciate your sharp eye and synopsis, Chris. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

A really detailed update on the legal proceedings between Ancestry and the National Records of Scotland. Well done to Chris for reading and explaining!

Even if - like me - you have no Scottish ancestry, these are important issues for the wider #FamilyHistory community.

Check out this really bad cosplayer, y'all.

Sending thoughts & prayers to the war-ravaged city of Portland, Oregon now under siege from attack by Antifa & other domestic terrorists. Take solace in dear leader's words: "Nothing bad can happen. It can only good happen." (and "DON'T TAKE TYLENOL"). Let the healing begin...

In a sane country with competent leadership, the 50 highest-ranking Democrats would call a press conference to denounce what just happened as a threat to the republic and demand Trump's immediate impeachment and removal from office.

I don't know he could make his intentions more clear.

On 1 October, We host Dr Nicola Martin from @uhihistory.bsky.social who will discuss:

“The British Army and interpretations of the Laws of War in the eighteenth century”

Details here:
www.linkedin.com/posts/instit...

#Skystorians #EarlyModern #17thC #MilHist #LAW
@forsvarshogskolan.bsky.social

This is a gorgeous initiative, but I don't see this a cognate body. The problem isn't groups of users who pool their resources to help others; it's the predatory corps with repositories of unstructured/contextless data that folks pay into. I'm not anti-genealogy; I'm pro-archive & pro-professional.

It's not frustrating for me, but I know it is for many who are seeking a signal or symbol to substantiate their familial stories and identities. In the end, people are going to believe what they want to believe and all we can do is help give them helpful tools, rather than impotent ones.

resolved: sandwiches taste better when cut diagonally

Very excited to welcome Prof Clotilde Prunier to the JST #JacobiteStudies Virtual Workshops tomorrow (Tues, 30 Sept) at 5pm UKT. Prof Prunier will be sharing some of her current work on the links between the Stuarts and the Catholic Mission in Scotland 1719-1788.

jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...

One of the numerous versions of the portrait of the Prince in 'Harlequin' dress - that is, an English person's idea of tartan. He wears a dark blue Garter sash and blue bonnet as well as his tight-fitting particoloured suit of jacket and breeches with white stockings. Leaning on a sabre, with a targe resting on the ground. In a brooding brown landscape with a rocky outcrop and a castle in the background. Some condition issues. 74.5 x 63cm (29 5/16 x 24 13/16in).

Portrait of Prince Charles Edward, attributed to James Worsdale or Wassdail (c1692-1767), at Bonhams, Edinburgh (est. £5,000-8,000) #Jacobite #c18th #c18 #18thc

We've got a stellar set of speakers this term at @ihr.bsky.social. Come along an immerse yourself in the latest early modern history research! #EarlyModern 🗃️