Emily Price

The beautiful Gladstone's Library, a grand neo-Jacobean building of red sandstone.

A plate of food including cheeses, grapes, a Greek salad, celery, bread, eggs, and chutney.

Behold @gladlib.bsky.social! Also, behold the vegetarian platter! Again, I did not make it myself: skilled and friendly people made it, brought it to me, and then cleared it away while I went back to reading. As a woman who lives alone, this was nearly as remarkable as the magnificent building.

From a notebook, handwritten in black ink: "It is impossible to give any idea of the ornamentation by mere description," accompanied by a sketch of window tracery.

From a notebook, hand-drawn in black ink, the west front of a church or cathedral with two towers.

From the Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne for the Diocese of Norwich, 1859: "It is impossible to give any idea of the ornamentation by mere description" so he'll just toss off a series of incredible beautiful and detailed sketches then, apparently, if that will do. #history
#archives
#victorian

where my only tasks were to read and think, eat the delicious meals someone else cooked for me, and sit in big comfy chairs by a lovely fire drinking wine in cozy company. It's the closest I'll ever get to being M. R. James and it was magic.

I'm going to spend this pre-holiday week repping @gladlib.bsky.social, because I still dream about the week I spent in residence there...

A printed play with hand-written annotations and edits in pencil.

A printed play with hand-written annotations and edits in pencil, including the addition of "a lickspittle, a pander and a pimp..."

Another Christmas treat from the archives, this one for fans of the second-best version of A Christmas Carol. From the National Library of Scotland, it's Alastair Sim's annotated copy of a play he directed and starred in the same year he was Scrooge.

I love a proto-bro.

Awesome. Based. A+ prank from this proto-bro.

A tuxedo cat sits on a wicker side table, a torn-up felt ornament shaped like a mince pie at his feet.

Close-up on the poor mince pie.

Congratulations to Birdie who has defeated the mince pie ornament, again.

This is Thomas Kibble Hervey's 1837 "The Book of Christmas; Descriptive of the Customs, Ceremonies, Traditions, Superstitions, Fun, Feeling, and Festivities of the Christmas Season." Fun, Feeling, Festivities, and Nightmare Fuel!

A 19th century book about Christmas propped open with snake weights on a grey pillow. An illustration depicts carol singers.

An illustration from a 19th century book, showing a busy market on Christmas Eve.

An illustration from a 19th century book about Christmas, showing a panto scene.

If I'm in the archives of a Christmas time, I will ask them to bring out the festive Victorian Christmas books as a treat. Shout-out to the patient archivists at the National Library of Scotland and shout-out to mind-blastingly terrifying old-timey pantos. #bookhistory #christmas #archives

Things do change on the road, I find! Also hold up and OMG, I've read your article in the Historical Journal about Irish Protestant travellers (and learned a lot from it). That's you, who knew (many, many people knew).

Amazing. Can't wait to read it and get their perspectives-- any mentions of shared meals and/or confessional differences, spoiler alert?

It's followin'-o-clock at my house!

It IS gross. It's so gross!

NASA May Have Inadvertently Killed Life on Mars, Scientist Says In all our explorations of Mars to date, no evidence has been found that meets the rigorous standards to claim that we have conclusively found life.

The hits just keep coming for us, the universe's most dipshitty species.

www.sciencealert.com/nasa-may-hav...

I'm always a huge fan of medieval demons who love their work. Look at that grin! I should have such job satisfaction.

Seeing as how I saw your post as I was scrolling at 2:30 am, time limits sound like a very good plan.

Thanks for this list and I’d love to be added (early modern travel, especially people sharing meals on the road, currently writing about English people making jokes about eating frogs’ legs).

A snow-covered hill in Michigan at sunset, with a 19th-century house in the distance.

A sidewalk covered in ice which has frozen on top of fallen leaves, with a tiny dog in the distance.

People will ask what I miss about Michigan and my answer is the snow, the miles of unbroken, deep, silent snow. On the other hand, you have the picture on the right which is Michigan in February, which no thanks.

Wait what, there are tiny piggies where you live? Just hanging out?? Are these farmer piggies or roamin’ piggies???

I’m sorry but this cat is ridiculous. Her form is far too good and I must pet her.

Imma need some of you to think about thriving out of spite. I had big plans for 2025 and I’m definitely not gonna pre-derail them for likes of Elin and Tromp. I’m getting more involved. Loving harder. Writing hornier. Having more fun. I’m gonna be so kind to my neighbors, bitch.

Indexer! (I hardly know her)

Hey #historians and anyone else who against all odds has the budget to hire an indexer, I am once again available. The books I index win MAD AWARDS and that's like 30% due to their indexes, probably. Get in touch, tell your friends, and thank you.

Hi there! I’d love to be added to this or a subsequent list (EM travel, material culture, interfaith dialogue). Thank you!

A little girl dressed in Christmassy plaid tries an olive ball.

A little girl dressed in Christmassy plaid tries an olive ball, looking up with a creased brow.

A little girl dressed in Christmassy plaid tries an olive ball, looking to the side as if considering her options.

A little girl dressed in Christmassy plaid tries an olive ball, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

The brief for the department's Winterfest at @newcastleuni.bsky.social was "cultural foods," so I'm bringing the olive balls from the 70s Betty Crocker cookbook my mom was given when she got married. Midwesterners love them; Geordies perhaps less so, going by my niece's reaction.

A tuxedo cat looks at himself in a makeup mirror; the background is a pink curtain.

I'm going to post about some cool stuff I found in the archives and such but first, my ridiculous cat!

Aw jeez, you gotta let us know when kitty comes home, because kitty will definitely come home, aw man.

YouTube video by lbw ever King of the Hill - Bobby Feels So Good Thanks To Chuck Mangione

I finally deactivated my twitter account and baby, it feels so good. See you here from now on.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJRW...

I’ve been feeling guilty about this for a while (an anxious academic? but how) so to be clear @ladyhistorian.bsky.social kindly gifted me an invite code a while ago but I somehow effed it up, and then I was like, well I obviously can’t tell her; I better just go away forever. Anyway check out my cat

Which one of you chums turned me on to Deadloch? I suspect @ladyhistorian.bsky.social. I’m halfway through the first episode and I’m in love.