James_AL_Downs

Cropped image from a book showing a colour illustration of a walrus in side profile. The walrus is lying down in side profile on sandy ground next to a body of water. It has a slightly doleful expression on its face.

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

To celebrate World Walrus Day, here is an illustration of a walrus from the book 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc.

📷 Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldWalrusDay #WalrusDay #RareBooks

No, I'm fairly certain it just said 'Epiphone', but I do recall it had mother of pearl inlaid on the upper part of the fretboard and was a thing of beauty

I had the same guitar, in Tobacco Sunburst, in the early 90s

A Trail of Coins from Yemen to New York: Pirates, Plunder, and Enslavement in the World of Margrieta van Varick, ca. 1695 - Panorama Panorama is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication dedicated to American art and visual culture (broadly defined). The journal is intended to provide a high-caliber international forum for d...

NEW ARTICLE: Yemeni coins trace relations between pirates, merchants, and enslavers that traversed the North American, Arabian, & Madagascar coasts in the 1690s and shed light on colonial material exchange.

#vastearlyamerica #arthistory

journalpanorama.org/article/a-tr...

Classic Short Fiction: Mahmoud Saif al-Din al-Irani’s ‘My Secret Picture’ Palestinian short-story writer, publisher and translator Mahmoud Saif al-Din al-Irani (1914-1974) writes about love, loyalty, and gender expectations in the early twentieth century.

Classic Short Fiction: Mahmoud Saif al-Din al-Irani’s ‘My Secret Picture’

Palestinian short-story writer, publisher and translator Mahmoud Saif al-Din al-Irani (1914-1974) writes about love, loyalty, and gender expectations in the early twentieth century.

Palestinians scramble to save centuries-old books and manuscripts before they are lost With a ceasefire in effect in Gaza, a restoration team is painstakingly retrieving historical manuscripts, rare volumes, and archival documents from beneath the rubble of a destroyed mosque.

The secret mission to save Gaza's historical artefacts

Victorian carte de visite of a young woman leaning on a velvet chair

This carte-de-visite of one of my Fraser ancestors has always intrigued me

Front cover of 'Aviary', a book of bird photographs

Thank you. I recently reviewed this book and really wanted to write about how it would have been even better with some of your crow cyanotypes

Black and white photo of an avenue of tall trees

Poltimore
Kentmere Pan 400

My dad was fond of quoting a saying about Scottish weather he got from Tom Weir - 'November always borrows a few days from May.' Today clearly wasn't one of them, but we have had some fine days with crisp sunshine and clear blue skies, against which the autumn colours have looked lovely

I used to handle interlibrary loans for a public library. ILL is a magnificent expression of the idea that readers deserve books, and books deserve readers. It’s libraries everywhere pooling their resources for the benefit of everyone.

Killing IMLS could have killed ILL.

This is great news. 📚

Thanks for thinking of me Johnny - I haven't seen this before

Vibrant pink dove with Silly brown flower, mixed media drawing

Nervous Kingy, squiggly drawing of the pink king

Sooty sweep soo and Matthew, energetic oil pastel drawing

Pink monkey in darkness, atmospheric creature

Have been ill this week but will add more new drawings to my website very soon to keep things bubbling along, in the meantime these are all available if you like my stuff, and you might.

www.chloecumming.com

This has to be the funniest @churchtimes.bsky.social headline of the year, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book cover with the title 'The Indigenous Right of Reply to Archives: Working towards Indigenous Sovereignty, Healing, and Justice in Archival Practice'

Looking forward very much to reading this: 'The Indigenous Right of Reply to #Archives : Working towards Indigenous Sovereignty, Healing, and Justice in Archival Practice

Stand Up To Racism Exeter.

Try Chinese line dancing with Hikmat Devon.

✨ Stand Up to Racism at Exeter Library.

Exeter Library & Stand Up To Racism Exeter are joining forces to create a wonderful afternoon of celebrating local diversity with a free family-friendly gathering of food, music, activities and more...

SUN 30 NOV
12.30 - 15.30
FREE DROP-IN

The UK Disability History Month logo on a yellow background with a grey stripe across the top with 'UK Disability History Month 2025' written on it in yellow type. At the bottom in black type is ‘bit.ly/ExeterUniLibUKDHM’.

20 Nov-20 Dec 2025 is UK Disability History Month (UKDHM). #UKDHM platforms the history of disabled people's struggle for equality and human rights. Find out more at www.ukdhm.org.

Check out our DHM display in the Forum Library and explore more resources on our LibGuide: bit.ly/ExeterUniLibUKDHM.

The second volume of the series “Exploring Assur” presents the results achieved at ancient Assur chiefly in its New Town, through fieldwork and analyses undertaken in 2024 by the Assur Excavation Project. Out on open access and available for purchase: www.pewe-verlag.de?page_id=3198

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care? The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

Good to see the problems facing our colleagues @britishlibrary.bsky.social being raised here by @hetanshah.bsky.social (of @britishacademy.bsky.social). If this had happened in France it would be considered a national problem to be urgently addressed! www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Don’t miss the first talk in the WOMNH (Women in Natural History Museums and Collections) Online Fall Seminar Series! Monday 24 November 2025, 4:00–5:00 pm CET
by Louise Berridge (NHM London): “Women of the Riverflies”

The historic architecture of Ethiopia and Eritrea: a complete overview The modern countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea are home to some of the best-known historic architectural monuments in Africa.

The historic architecture of Ethiopia and Eritrea: a complete overview

www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-histor...

View of mountains above the cave of Jasana, near Slemani in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

On the road to Jasana

Part of Castlerigg Stone Circle overlooking a misty valley in Cumbria.
#StandingStoneSunday

Spoliation d'œuvres d'art en Tunisie pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale : "Un voyage sans retour" Depuis plusieurs années, la question des biens culturels africains spoliés pendant la période coloniale a été mise en lumière. Mais qu’en est-il de la période de la Seconde Guerre mondiale ? Alors que les études se sont largement concentrées sur l'art européen, des chercheurs se penchent aujourd'hui sur le destin des œuvres africaines. Parmi eux, le professeur Sofiane Bouhdiba, de l'Université de Tunis, qui a enquêté sur le contexte tunisien durant le conflit.

Spoliation d'œuvres d'art en Tunisie pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale : "Un voyage sans retour"

The so-called “Strike Papyrus” written by Amunnakht The scribe Amennakht is the author of this papyrus in the hieratic script. It is a report concerning a strike held during the reign of King Ramesses III in the village of Deir el-Medina. The workers protested because they had not received their regular food rations, which constituted payment for their work in the Valley of the kings. “Year 29, secondo month of the Inundation, day 10. Today the work squadron passed the control post shouting “we are hungry!” It is 18 days this month that (the men) go and sit at the back of the funerary temple of Tuthmosis III”. Despite various attempt at conciliation, the protest lasted a number of days. To the officials who tried to persuade them to return to work, the workers replied: “We are here because of the famine and thirst. We are not accustomed to not having unguents, fish, and greens. Write to the pharaoh our perfect lord, take note of our words, and write to the vizier, our superior, because we are in need of our provisions”. Inv. no. : Cat. 1880 TPOP Material: Plant fiber / Papyurs Date: 1187–1157 BCE Period: New Kingdom Dynasty: Twentieth Dynasty Reign: Ramesses III Provenance: Egypt, Luxor / Thebes, Deir el-Medina Acquisition: Purchase Bernardino Drovetti, 1824 Museum location: Museum / Floor 1 / Room 06 DEM / Central wall Selected bibliography: Andreu, Guillemette (a cura di)-Andreu, Guillemette, Gli artisti del faraone: Deir el-Medina e le Valli dei Re e delle Regine, Milano 2003, p. 187. Cline, Eric H.-O'Connor, David (ed.)-Cline H., Eric-O'Connor, David, Ramesses III: the life and times of Egypt's last hero, Ann Arbor 2012, pp. 67, 112, 118, 120–122, 136, 141, 352. Edgerton, William F., “The strikes in Ramses III's twenty-ninth year”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 10 (1951), pp. 137–145. Gabler, Kathrin, “Methods of identification among the Deir el-Medina workmen and their service personnel: the use of names, titles, patronyms and identity marks in administrativ…

November 14, 1152 BCE: the first recorded workers' strike occurred in ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses III. Artisans and laborers working on the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina stopped working in protest of delayed and insufficient rations, a form of wages. collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/materi...

Colour illustration a malbrouck sitting on a branch and holding a piece of fruit. It appears to be smiling rather sweetly. Next to the malbrouck is a colour illustration of a mandril, who is sitting on the ground with its knees pulled to its chest, one arm resting on its knees. It appears to be looking rather hopefully at the piece of fruit.

Kindness comes in many forms. It may just be sharing your fruit with a good friend (which we would like to think is what's happening in this illustration!).

📷 Illustration of a malbrouk and a mandril from 'Animated Nature' (1828); Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldKindnessDay #KindnessDay #RareBooks

As Maltese is a Semitic language I added a large collection of old Maltese books (on linguistics, history, folklore and literature) to the Arab World Documentation Unit, but I haven't yet catalogued it and would really like a Maltese studies specialist to come and do some work on the collection

Merchandise MERIP is pleased to offer a limited quantity of merchandise items. New items will be added to this page as items become available, and announcements of newly available items will be made on our…

SUPPORT MERIP: Show your support for MERIP by picking up a poster or a tote bag today!

Huge thanks to all our @britishlibrary.bsky.social colleagues who've been working so hard on this for so long!

My beetle collection