Ross Cameron

Black and white image showing a person helping another put on a glove. The glove is open, filled with water, as one hand slides in.

We are delighted to be partnering with @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social at The Royal College of Surgeons of England in our research on hands, craft and haptic skill in the nineteenth century!

Stay tuned for news about our collaboration and how to get involved!

We’re delighted to announce the first workshops in our Work of Mending series, in partnership with The Quilters’ Guild. These hands-on, research-led workshops explore what hands do and what they mean in historical and contemporary handwork.

Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/cc/the-work-...

A patchwork quilt features vintage, monochrome portraits of women, accented with embroidery. A blue fabric piece and beige, circular embroidery are in progress. Emotive and historical feel

🙌 Two weeks on from The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment and Identity conference, we reflect on the stimulating contributions of scholars, artists and makers who explored the hand across historical, cultural and creative contexts.

Read our latest blog here: www.thevictorianhand.uk/gallery/conf...

A huge thank you to all our delegates for joining The Hand: Emotion, Embodiment, Identity!

Your ideas, questions and conversations made the conference such a rewarding and inspiring event. We are grateful to everyone who contributed and helped make it a success 🤝

Final cover - #WritingOnTheMove, out in February from Berghahn. If you're a #travelwriting studies person and you've any sway with a university library, ask them to order it! It's got loads of good stuff inside, I promise!

✋ This 1845 daguerreotype captured the branded hand of Jonathan Walker - marked ‘SS’ for ‘slave stealer’ after he tried to help enslaved people escape Florida. Intended as punishment, it became an abolitionist symbol, though his story often overshadowed those of the enslaved people he sought to aid.

A vintage prosthetic arm lies on a textured surface. The metal hand, detailed with joints, is palm-facing up. A strap extends from the arm's base. Historic, mechanical.

⚔️ Götz von Berlichingen lost his hand to a cannonball in 1504 and commissioned an iron prosthesis with hinged, lockable fingers for use in battle.

He later adopted a more advanced model - one of the earliest functioning mechanical prosthetic hands - which he used across his military career.

I wrote a bit about touch and travel writing over on @victorianhand.bsky.social - read more at the link below!

A faint image of the bones inside a hand with a wedding ring. The picture is framed with green card with the title 'Hand mit Ringen [Hand with Ring]' and stamped by Wurzburg University.

In 1895 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered mysterious ‘X-rays’. His image of his wife’s hand - bones and wedding ring visible - captivated Europe.

X-rays transformed medicine, revealing the body’s interior without surgery. Early radiologists paid a price, as missing hands became a mark of the work.

🧵 We are delighted to be partnering with The Quilters’ Guild!

The Guild aims to give quilt-making the status it deserves as a craft and an art and its Quilt Collection preserves our patchwork and quilting heritage.

Stay tuned for more information about our collaboration and how to get involved!

Professor Bashord is standing in front of a screen displaying an image of the inked palm print of a gorilla, taken in London Zoo in 1936. The print shows the creases and lines of the palm.

Professor Bashford takes a question from the audience during the Q&A. Behind her, the slide shows a book titled The Psychonomy of the Hand.

We were thrilled to welcome Professor Alison Bashford to @globalaffairslu.bsky.social yesterday to discuss her new @uchicagopress.bsky.social book, Decoding the Hand.

Thank you to everyone who came along to hear insights into the entangled histories of science, medicine and magic!

A black and white poster with photographs of hands in motion on the right hand side.

We are delighted to announce that the plenary speakers for our upcoming conference are Dr Sarah Jackson, Professor Peter J. Capuano and Caroline Seymour!

Visit our website for more information: www.thevictorianhand.uk/conference

The always interesting Borders and Crossings conference series on travel writing is back - this time at Aix-Marseille University!

A photograph in the negative of a handprint with caterpillar-like bristles emanating from the fingers and palm, supposedly showing the human soul.

A fuzzy picture of a palm print, with what looks like white clouds apparently showing the human soul.

We’re launching our #handoftheweek series!

This week is Dr Hippolyte Baraduc, who tried to photograph the human soul via 'the most perfect organ after the brain', the hand.

Baraduc’s photos blend science and occult, showing how hands were seen as windows onto the inner self in the 19th century.

How might hands reveal an inner self – a soul, a character, an identity?

Join us on 12 November at Lancaster University to explore this question with Professor Alison Bashford (University of New South Wales) as she presents her book, Decoding the Hand.

Tickets: thevictorianhand.uk/alison-bashf...

We are pleased to annouce that Dr Ross Cameron @rosscmrn.bsky.social has joined The Victorian Hand team as a Public Engagement Fellow at @lcflondon.bsky.social!

Watch this space for upcoming annoucements about public engagement activities and ways to get involved with The Victorian Hand.