Philip Allfrey

Floorplan of Epsom Library with annotations in red as to where the shelves were, and what they contained. The base document is Auckland Council Archives ACC 015/5837-18 (Epsom Library alterations and additions 1973)

Photograph by Henry Winkelman of the Epsom Public Library in 1924. The image shows what looks like a white stuccoed house with bay window and tiled roof, with the higher gabled roof of a hall rising behind. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0607.

The brain is a wonderful thing! Yesterday I had occasion to look up a photo of the old Epsom library, where I worked during high school and the start of university. Almost three decades later I can still remember the shelving layout, and what books went where, almost down to the letter!

There are also some ceremonial trowels (from laying foundation stones) if you're interested digitalnz.org/records?text...

Shovel A small ceremonial shovel. The shaft of the shovel is polished wood with a small curved handle. The head of the shovel is polished silver, with engraved text " PRESENTED TO / S.G. SMITH ESQ. / By Contractors J.T. Julian and Son / On the occasions of turning the first sod / ON THE MANGAMAHOE DAM CONTRACT / 25. 3. 29 ".

I'm sure I have seen some of these here in New Zealand, but this is the only one I can find at the moment
collection.pukeariki.com/objects/1757...

Very proud to share that one of my articles celebrating the 100th anniversary of the PhD in Aotearoa has now been published! This article explores how PhD dress in Aotearoa has changed in the century since the then University of New Zealand introduced the degree. newprairiepress.org/burgonsociet...

Photograph of pink macarons inside a glass domed cake stand on a kitchen bench.

I made some macarons for a shared lunch today, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out! #DHBakes

Unicode burlesque A #DigitalHumanities song inspired by 'Welcome to Burlesque' from the movie Burlesque

In honour of the release of "The life of a showgirl" I've finally gotten around to adding "Unicode burlesque" to my website of DH songs – "What is #DigitalHumanities? The Album" – after only two years!
Thanks again to @quinnanya.me for the inspiration
what-is-dh-the-album.netlify.app/singles/unic...

There is a clone of Arc called Zen which is based on the Firefox browser engine, which I need to check out.
zen-browser.app

Letter to Arc members 2025 On Arc, its future, and the arrival of AI browsers — a moment to answer the largest questions you've asked us this past year.

I've been using it for the past year or so, and I find the workspaces and side bar make it easier to manage all the (many, many) tabs I have open. Unfortunately the company has decided to discontinue active development as of a few months ago. browsercompany.substack.com/p/letter-to-...

Excellent, will do that!

@thegozfather.bsky.social REQ 2 question: I transcribed REQ 2/136/33 for my research a couple of years ago. Are you interested in the dates of the 3 or 4 documents contained therein, to make the catalogue entry more precise than [reign of Eliz 1]?

@spil030.bsky.social @connorsharp.bsky.social @ccrg.bsky.social Thanks all for your replies!

Do you mean de facto, or was there an official naming change? (Very apropos as I'm currently workin pn the definition of an "identifier" database field for a local history project focusing on that very area)

Thrilled to have been able to identify today a copy of a 15th century papal bull used as binding waste, and thereby establish a terminus post quem for an Old West Frisian text on the verso!

#Paleography #BookHistory

You're very welcome! I'm thrilled I was able to identify it! I thought I'd got as far as I could with the text, then tried one more search, on Google Scholar for "Nicolas de Pistorio" (with quotes and no h) and there it was! Will be very interested to see how it matches up with the Liege text.

Extract from a calendar of a cartulary: "65 - 1412, 1er Mars, Datum Rome apud Sanctum-Petrum, kl marcii, pontificatus nostri anno secundo." Then follows a summary of the document in French.

I found a match! The document is from 1 March 1412. It was another Nicholas, the secretary of pope John XXIII.
See "Notice d'un cartulaire du clergé secondaire de Liège", Bulletin de la Commission royale d'Histoire, 1872 Vol 14 p.360
www.persee.fr/doc/bcrh_077...

Sorry, I miscounted. Nicholas is on image 19, 5 lines from the bottom, and the date is at the bottom of image 20
So I would say it dates to the second half of the 13th century.

What looks to be a place name Colmen/Colomen also occurs twice if that's any help

In image 18, 3 lines from the bottom it reads "dilectum filium nostrum magistrum Nicholam de pistorio". Nicholas de Pistorio apparently died in India after 1291.
In image 19 the last line reads "... martii pontificatus nostri anno secundo", i.e. March in the second year of our pontificate

A few years ago I took my boys on a tri-modal public transport outing in Auckland: bus to the bus station, change twice to get to the farmers market, ferry to the city, onto the train for a jaunt two stops up the line and back (didn't exit station = free ride) & double decker bus home on the busway!

I agree this would be the way to do it, though really you would think anyone interested enough to read the article would recognise the abbreviations (I do, but then I can also tell you the associated academic dress at more than one institution!)

"One day in this last dream of all she would see the little white horse, and he would not go away from her. He would come towards her and she would run towards him, and he would carry her upon his back away and away, she did not quite know where, but to a good place, a place where she wanted to be"

Very sorry for your loss 💜

GitHub - BetaMasaheft/Persons: Authority files for each person Authority files for each person. Contribute to BetaMasaheft/Persons development by creating an account on GitHub.

I've come across a couple of TEI projects in passing which may be suitable:

github.com/BetaMasaheft...

github.com/srophe/persons

This project is one part fun (writing new lyrics for popular songs to describe elements of digital humanities), one part engaging with the preoccupation of the field in defining what constitutes Digital Humanities (via examples) & one part provocation (does this project count as DH? why or why not?)

Yesterday I was more than pleasantly surprised to discover that Renata Defelice has published a review of my side project "What is #DigitalHumanities? The Album" including translating one of my songs into Spanish!

revistas.unlp.edu.ar/publicaahd/a...
(If anyone knows the reviewer, please tag them!)

Number 39!

What is #Digital​Humanities? The Album Because defining DH takes a whole album. Or more.

Nice! I've just been thinking this week I need to get back to working on "What is #DH? the Album"
what-is-dh-the-album.netlify.app

Photograph of a wooden desk with brass handles and three panels of gilt-tooled magenta leather, the middle one of which is a sloped writing surface. At the back corners of the desktop are two sets of three small drawers connected by a galleried shelf. In front of the desk is a slat-backed wooden swivel chair.

I've been wanting a pedestal desk for my daily workspace for ages, and one finally came up locally in my price bracket a couple of months ago!

Yes, see vol 537 of Hansard from Jul 1993. 2nd reading, committee, and 3rd reading were held over a couple of days under urgency. At least some of the votes were conscience issues (ie not on party lines). 3rd reading vote was 64 to 4 (on p.155) with names given
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansar...

Former Windsor Herald, William Hunt, receives an honorary doctorate. #heraldry

Reupping the advice to always talk to the staff when you go to an archive.
Shout out to James at Auckland Council Archives today, who directed me to a record series I didn't know about which had valuable information about one of my local history projects!