Anna Cusack

A new 'Will of the Month' post over on the @materialwills.bsky.social blog 👇

October's post looks at the poignant will of Margery Gadyng, a married woman who died in childbirth in 1540, who used her final words to make provisions for her children's future care.

#skystorians #history #EarlyModern

Guilds and Companies in London, 1200–1700: Contexts and Comparisons Published in The London Journal: A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Our latest Viewpoint article is out: 'Guilds and Companies in London, 1200–1700: Contexts and Comparisons' by @mpdavies.bsky.social.

A 🧵 on the insights provided by this article into the history and historiography of these key metropolitan institutions in the medieval and early modern periods.

Three woodcuts, on the left a black devil with horns, forked tail and hooves. Centre two angels waving their arms around. Right a ghost - a person in a white winding sheet - holding a flaming taper and pointing.

👻All Hallow's Eve will soon be upon us! 👻

But what are the spirits associated with this night, and what should you do if one appears before you?

Read my post on #EarlyModern ghost beliefs to find out 🎃 🗃️

manyheadedmonster.com/2016/10/24/d...

New #EarlyModern hearth tax transcriptions for Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Norwich published #OpenAccess online!

In Offley 1663, Sir Brocket Spencer, baronet, had 24 hearths, while Widow Pilgrim was ‘poore and not able to pay’. 🗃️

Explore 370,406 others here: gams.uni-graz.at/archive/obje...

The Renaissance Wound Man: Parallels with today’s understanding of wound repair The image of the “Wound Man” first appeared in surgical texts from the late fourteenth century where it served as an illustrated guide to what medical practitioners might be called upon to treat. Acro...

I collaborated with cell biologist, Prof. Paul Martin to explore the relationship between early modern and modern wound healing through the lens of the Wound Man. Our article is available open access: www.jprasurg.com/article/S174... (first and likely last time I'll publish in a surgical journal!)

Done ☺️

Hi John. I can email you.

It could be...but mostly it's a gathering at a historic pub where people who are interested in the early modern period of history congregate for several hours ☺️

This is an excellent deep dive by @kjkesselring.bsky.social into the Devil in legal records. My (very) small contribution was coming up with the title, which I blurted out mid-conversation with Krista when told about the subject.

Woodcut of four individuals around a table which has tankards of ale on it and a candle in a candle stick. One individual on the right as you look at the image is smoking a pipe and standing. The others are sitting. They are dressed in late Elizabethan or early Stuart clothings with some hats with feathers. One individual may be a woman the other three are male.

Just your periodic reminder that there is an early modern pub night once a month for PhDs and ECRs and anyone else who'd like to join in London. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list please DM me.

Memento Mori finger-ring

Possibly made in Flanders, c. 1525-1575. (British Museum)

a close up of a person 's hand pressing a button on a computer keyboard ALT: a close up of a person 's hand pressing a button on a computer keyboard

Grading midterms for US study abroad students, and 1) I don't need to worry about AI as it is all handwritten, and 2) I was pleasantly surprised to see one student writing in perfect and beautiful cursive.

Birth! Death!! Domestic Religion!!!

Come along (or join online) to hear @emilymayvine.bsky.social's talk at the @ihr.bsky.social next Thursday.

Here is my first publication from my new project on the history of colonial Newfoundland and the Beothuk people, and I'm rather nervous to put it out in the world. Genuinely, all thoughts on this work are welcome as I head into writing a book about it...

I like the mouse idea...giving a little of an ant vibe with the antenna/potentially an ear. Loving it either way!

Coming soon to British Online Archives — Witchcraft and Magic in England, c. 1400–1920.
Featuring rare records from The National Archives, British Library, UCL, and The Folklore Society.
Register your interest: buff.ly/YBeFCF1

📅 Save the Date!
🎉 To mark 50 years of the Social History Society, we’re hosting a Social History Festival with @ihr.bsky.social!

🗓️ Fri 24 April 2026
📍 Senate House, University of London

Panels, a keynote + hands-on activities!
💡 Want to contribute? 👉socialhistsoc@gmail.com

More info coming soon!

Cropped image from a book, showing an engraving of two wombats walking on the ground, with vegetation around them. One wombat is a darker colour and one is a lighter colour. They are very rotund and look very fluffy.

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the wombats, for today is their special day!

To celebrate International Wombat Day, here is an engraving of a wombat from 'The Illustrated Natural History' (1863) by J. G. Wood.

📷 Reserve 590.2/WOO

#InternationalWombatDay #WombatDay #RareBooks

Callan, this is wonderful, congratulations! 🎉

The Experience of Work in Early Modern England IV: Harvesters This post is part of a series that marks the publication of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. The book is co-authored by monster head Mark Hailwood, along with Jane Whittle, Hannah Ro…

Final post in my series on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England'. It focuses on the heartbeat of the premodern economy.... the harvest.

manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/16/t...

Bandits & blasphemers: crime in 17th century Scotland Allan Kennedy unpacks what looking at crime and punishment can reveal about Scottish values in the 17th century

Pleased to see my interview with the BBC History Extra podcast has now gone live! Had great fun chatting with Emily Briffett about my book on 'Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland'. www.historyextra.com/membership/c...

Andreas Vesalius - De humani corporis fabrica (Of the Structure of the Human Body) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art possibly Philip Yorke (British); most likely Alexander Buchan, M.D. (British); Samuel Lane (British); Francis Turner (British); H.W. Turner (British); Sir D'Arcy Power (British); Harold and Frida Lask...

OTD in 1564, Andreas Vesalius (Andries van Wesel) passed away.
The Brussels-born physician broke a major dogma by dissecting human bodies himself and publishing De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), the masterpiece that reshaped our understanding of the human form www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

The Experience of Work in Early Modern England III: ‘Ploughmen go whistling to their toils’ This post is part of a series that marks the publication of The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. The book is co-authored by monster head Mark Hailwood, along with Jane Whittle, Hannah Ro…

As the agricultural cycle starts to wind down for the winter, my next post on 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' looks forward to its resumption in the new year, when...

‘Ploughmen go whistling to their toils’

manyheadedmonster.com/2025/10/14/t...

At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!

Looking forward to talking about the executed body this Saturday for @bodiesandbeing.bsky.social 👇🏻

I'm doing other lectures and walking tours for the month of the dead 😊

Such great news. Congratulations Dave!

A woman’s place was not in the home: New book challenges assumptions about women’s work in early modern history New research has revealed that women played a fundamental role in the development of England’s national economy before 1700. Far from being the unpaid homemakers and housewives of traditional historic...

Many congratulations to my colleagues in the Forms of Labour project team on the publication of their new monograph! 🗃️👏🎉

Brilliantly, The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England is available open access:

www.cambridge.org/core/books/e...

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

One week to go until Lyndal Roper's talk at @ihr.bsky.social!

Register for the hybrid event here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

And check out our other talks by @emilymayvine.bsky.social and @nailyas.bsky.social here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Delighted to see the open access publication of Crossings: Migrant Knowledges, Migrant Forms -- a superb volume featuring artists, poets, scholars, and a short essay by me on Dutch- and French-speaking women in 16th-century London telling their stories of migration. punctumbooks.com/titles/cross...