Lucretia Baskin

A red brick row house with a blue giant squid Halloween decoration on all the windows

IT’S BACK. 🦑

In modern spelling:
“For Major Thomas Leonard to be published to the several companies according to the content of the proclamation as followeth: to the several companies in old Taunton, Freetown, and Dartmouth; of the remaining, I acknowledge of myself. Benjamin Church, Colonel.”

“For Major Thomas
Lenord to be
poubbleshed to the
several coumpeneys
acording to the content
of sad procllemation as
folloeth: to the several
compeneys in ould Tunton
Freetown and dart
-mouth of the remaing [remaining] compeneys I acknowledge
of my sellef,
Benjan Church Colonel”

A paragraph of very bad handwriting from 1711.

Today’s paleography challenge. We figured it out, eventually. Massachusetts, 1711, on a broadside printed in Boston. Going through the library’s broadside boxes is really hammering home for me the patterns that happen again and again and again in this country.

Spooky season is finally here! This Office of the Dead features a scene of the raising of Lazarus with skull-tacular details ☠️

Book of Hours produced in Italy and dated 1507, now @bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS. Douce 9, fols. 182v-183r

I have plotted for YEARS that when (if) I own a place with a powder room, it’s getting some kind of silvered wallpaper with flowers and critters.

Boston, MA: Institutional Records Archivist (Central Library – Built Environment) (term), Boston Public Library Visit the post for more.

Archivist job!

The Boston Public Library (BPL) is seeking an archivist for a 3-year grant-funded position to survey, inventory, and manage historic institutional records related to BPL’s Central Library in Copley Square.

very pleased to be offering an open ended Archives Cataloguing post working with the University of Edinburgh's wide and deep literary archives. please do share with anyone interested! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

The bats! I love them!

🧵

!!!

Massive container ship

Throwback: When Virgin Atlantic Provided Premium Passengers Free Motorbike Transfers A particularly unique way to get to the aircraft.

simpleflying.com/virgin-atlan... Limobike! Still exists. limobike.com

I remember seeing ads for doing the trip as a passenger on a motorcycle, and it being the fastest because they can slip through the traffic. Bags travel separately, of course. 🏍️🏥

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

It’s amazing that the toads remain chill! I might be a little jealous.

Gifted, clearly 🦎

Dear autocorrect: No, I definitely did not mean “Prada” when I typed the name of the museum in Madrid. 🙄🙃

I spent a LOT of time sitting in front of the Rogier Deposition when I finally got to visit the Prado. What a picture. Knocked me out to finally see it in person. That museum is just stuffed to the gills with hits!

Captcha asking “select images with a tractor”

This was a new one for me. Wondering if it is mishap driven.

Snakeskin Bookmarks (Yes, Really) | Timeless Linnea Vegh was working at a large, well-lit workspace in the Conservation Division on a recent day, considering an unusual problem in an 1869 Persian-Arabic dictionary published in India: Snakeskin. ...

Snakeskin Bookmarks (Yes, Really) 📜
#LibraryofCongress #Conservation
blogs.loc.gov/loc/2025/09/...

This looks amazing! I bought a copy of Powers of Ten from her earlier this year at an art book fair in Boston. She had so much other stuff I was tempted by, especially the paper constructions!

White text on a magenta background. Headline text at top introduces the Job Posting for the Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America. Paragraph text at the bottom provides a brief overview of the executive director's role in the humanistic society.

Magenta text on a white background, with more details about the job description and instructions to see link in bio for more details and application instructions.

📢We are now accepting applications for the position of Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America.

View the full job posting📝, including application instructions, at the link below. Please share with your networks!

🔗https://bibsocamer.org/news/job-posting-bsa-executive-director

Golden manuscript face inside green leaves, triangular.

Homer in the bush.

They're The Same Picture.

At the Brigham for the first time and this place feels like a gd habitrail. Glass tunnels and walls and levels and connectors and it’s nuts.

Nooooo I’m so sorry. I just had it for my second time. I took the antivirals this time and it knocked it out very quickly. Hope it passes fast and without too much discomfort.

Line go up

Covid AND norovirus spiking in Boston wastewater rn. FUN.

Doorbell prankster that tormented residents of German apartments turns out to be a slug People suspected teenagers playing ding dong ditch and called police, who found animal crawling on the door panel

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

A color photo shows the trunk and branches of what appears to be an Indian Laurel Fig illuminated by flash in the dark of night.

The @kcrw.com Art Insider newsletter is back from vacation, with a look at Ken Gonzales-Day's new survey at the Fisher Museum. I have a look at the way in which the land holds the stories of our most terrible histories.

email.kcrw.com/ken-gonzales...