The Women's Print History Project

Come for the witch trials, stay for the informative chapter about Newcastle architecture.

A graphic formatted like an eighteenth century title page that reads: The WPHP Monthly Mercury No 5.4 A Newcastle Novelist feat. Tricia Monsour Vancouver: Hosted by Moffatt & Sharren, [pencil annotation: Kate & Kandice] Vancouver and Saskatoon [pencil annotation: Feb. 19th] 2025.

This month’s episode of the WPHP Monthly Mercury features research by recent PhD graduate Tricia Monsour, who completed a scholarly edition of Jane Harvey’s The Castle of Tynemouth. We never can resist a bonkers novel—and we hope you can’t either: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/145

Seven people sitting around a table in a restaurant, smiling at the camera. Books and food are on the table. Bright interior with tall windows and yellow accents.

Happy 2025 and ten year anniversary of the WPHP! To find out what we've been up to in the lead up to this milestone (and to see a throwback photo of Lead Editor Kandice and Project Director Michelle in 2015), take a look at our 2024 Year in Review: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/144.

Oh hey it’s me. Check it out.

A graphic formatted like an eighteenth century title page that reads: The WPHP Monthly Mercury No 5.3 Bibliographic Intimacies feat. Megan Peiser & Emily Spunaugle Vancouver: Hosted by Moffatt & Sharren, [pencil annotation: Kate & Kandice] Vancouver and Saskatoon [pencil annotation: Dec 11th] 2024

An image of one woman's hand holding another woman's hand with a long green nail, captioned: really holding space for the Marguerite Hicks collection

For S5E3 of the WPHP Monthly Mercury, join us as we interview @meganpeiser.bsky.social and @embrarian.bsky.social about their work on the Hicks Collection. This episode has it all—a badass woman book collector, a Boston marriage, and even a heist (!!!): womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/143

Title page of The Happy Family; or, Winter Evenings' Employment. Consisting of Reading and Conversations, in seven parts

And the anonymously authored The Happy Family; or, Winter Evenings' Employment. Consisting of Reading and Conversations, in seven parts, which features passages by Hannah More: womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/17534.

Title page of Rachel Revel’s Winter Evening Pastimes; or, the Merry-Makers Companion

The pseudonymous Rachel Revel’s Winter Evening Pastimes; or, the Merry-Makers Companion which claims to promote “harmless mirth and innocent amusement:” womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/21890;

Title page of Isabella Jane Towers’s The Children's Fire-side: Being a Series of Tales for Winter Evenings

Some highlights include Isabella Jane Towers’s The Children's Fire-side: Being a Series of Tales for Winter Evenings: womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/10444;

Black and white engraving from The Happy Family; or, Winter Evenings' Employment. Consisting of Reading and Conversations, in seven parts of a five people sitting in chairs around a lit fireplace.

Happy December WPHP friends! Are you hosting a holiday gathering this year and looking for some entertainment? Search “winter evening” in our Titles search for some 19th century inspiration: womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/.

Check out the series here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/112.

This series includes spotlights on early 18th century printer Anne Dodd, the rivalries of the women in the Farley family, Scottish Royal Printer Agnes Campbell, American printer Jane Aitkin, and obscured London bookseller and printer Ann Vernor.

Collage of five book title pages.

As we continue to verify over 1500 firms on our Firms to Final Check list, you can revisit our Down the Rabbit Hole: Researching Women in the Book Trades Spotlight Series to learn about some of the extensive research we undertake to determine if a firm is woman-run.

A graphic in the style of a title page that reads: "The WPHP Monthly Mercury No 5.2, Deal with the Devil, Feat. Kate Ozment. // Vancouver: Hosted by Moffatt and Sharren, Vancouver and Saskatoon // 2024." "Kate & Kandice" and "Oct. 30th" is written in pencil next to the imprint and a devil tail is curling over the edge of the page.

A tombstone reads, "Yeet not lest ye be yeeted."

Happy Halloween! This year, we’re literally taking a trip to hell with Charlotte Dacre’s Zofloya. It’s Kandice’s favourite time of the year, so she sat down with WPHP collaborator Kate Ozment to talk about this demonic, orientalist bloodbath of a novel: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/141

Swapping witch hunting for ghost hunting in Season Three, Kate and Kandice read Mary Tuck’s Durston Castle; or, The Ghost of Eleonora (1804), reflecting on the eighteenth-century practice of reading aloud and the practicalities of sleeping in chainmail: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/132.

Season Two took Kate and Kandice on a witch hunt through the database to find only five titles that mention witches. Though there were only a few, our hosts encountered all manner of witches, from the silly to the eerie: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/89.

In Season One, Kate and Kandice read WPHP favourite, Elisabeth Guénard’s The Three Monks!! (1803), and Catherine Cuthbertson’s Romance of the Pyrenees (1803), novels rife with gothic tropes like abducted women, banditti, and dark family secrets: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/47.

To help you savour the last few days of October (and get you ready for another special Halloween episode coming this week!), listen again to our previous WPHP Monthly Mercury Halloween episodes.

Saving the most terrifying for last, read about some of the real horrors of the eighteenth century, the legal and social persecution of women, in Mary Wollstencraft’s The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria. A Fragment here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/49.

Or read about Ann Lemoine’s The Haunted Castle and how Lemoine used the various connotations of “gothic” to her advantage: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/48.

Take another look at one of our long time favourite titles, The Three Monks!!!, which features assassination, kidnapping, and banditti: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/40.

And how the Robinsons capitalised on the commercial success of Radcliffe’s most famous novel, the Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/39.

Read about how Ann Radcliffe redefined the gothic novel and became the highest paid and most popular novelist of the 1790s here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/37.

Happy spooky season, WPHP friends! To help you get into the Halloween spirit, revisit our Spooky Spotlight series where we dive into all things Gothic in the database: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/38.

A graphic designed like an 18th Century title page that reads: The WPHP Monthly Mercury No. 5.1 Authority Issues Vancouver: Hosted by Moffatt & Sharren [pencil annotation: Kate & Kandice], Vancouver and Saskatoon [pencil annotation: Oct 16th] 2024.

A meme of a blond woman in a pink hoodie looking annoyed with the caption, "I am going to create an authority record that is so wrong."

A screenshot of the WorldCat landing page with the caption "WorldCat" alongside a picture of a very fluffy cat exposing her belly with the caption "Not WorldCat."

Authority records, authority figures, authoritative scholarship… What does it really mean to have authority? The first episode of the final season of the WPHP Monthly Mercury is here to question authority—and maybe claim some in the process.
Listen here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/140

Meet Serena Spacek! Serena has been part of the team since May of 2023—we finally dragged her away from title checking and social media work to answer some questions. Read about her work on Eliza Haywood, her favourite WPHP facts, and her feline friends: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/137

Introducing Salena Wiener, one of our diligent RAs, and a dedicated PhD student in English Literature at Simon Fraser University! Learn about how Salena got involved with the WPHP, her research area(s), her debut chapbook, and more: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/136

Whether you’re looking for simple yet beautiful blooms for your luxuriant oasis, some beginner-friendly gardening tips, or just a spring-themed read, we’re sure you’ll dig this one. 👩‍🌾 Access it here: womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/23755

Hannah Woolley was a successful female physician and author of the long eighteenth century, whose works contain recipes, gardening tips, notes on domestic management, medicinal advice, and more: womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/5097 (3/4)

all sorts of plants and flowers,” and discover garden forms, plants, and flowers for your personalized gardening needs! (2/4)

Spring is the season of glooming showers 🌧️ and blooming flowers 🌷 —the perfect habitat for greens and plants alike 🌱. Delve into Hannah Woolley’s “The accomplish'd lady's delight in preserving, physick, beautifying, cookery, and gardening … the compleat flowerist with the nature and use of ... (1/4)