The Alfred Jewel: A 1,100-year-old treasure from England's first king that proclaims 'Alfred ordered me to be made'
"The Alfred Jewel: An Historical Essay" at PG:
history
The Case of Caspar David Friedrich
Born 250 years ago, Friedrich reimagined landscape painting by portraying the vastness of nature as a setting for profound spiritual and emotional encounters.
By: Angelica Frey
A Brief History of the Library of Congress
Today, the Library of Congress holds over 25 million cataloged books, has items in 470 languages, and is home to the papers of 23 presidents, a cuneiform tablet, and a Gutenberg Bible.
By Katie Moench
https://bookriot.com/a-brief-history-of-the-library-of-congress/
More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress
I love pie. Living my entire life in #Aotearoa, my favourite pies are steak and mushroom, steak and cheese, and pepper steak.
But I love #Reading about PIE almost as much as I love eating pie, and Laura Spinney's "Proto was a delicious read. 4.5/5 at #TheStoryGraph for me
#linguistics #History #bookstodon
@bookstodon
Edited 36d ago
Phoenix Rising: Urban Planning after the Great Fire of London
https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2025/12/phoenix-rising-urban-planning-after-the-great-fire-of-london/
Lucrezia Borgia: Femme Fatale or Innocent Pawn?
https://www.thecollector.com/lucrezia-borgia-femme-fatale-or-innocent-pawn/
Books about the Borgia family at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Borgia&submit_search=Search
There were female gladiators in ancient Rome
https://historyfacts.com/world-history/fact/there-were-female-gladiators-in-ancient-rome/
My name is Alexandra. I help build I Write Like, a text editor. Unless one is a tech giant, the chances of people discovering their creation are slim, regardless of how wonderful the creation is. I wanted to change that, so I came to Mastodon.
I’m a writer. I share my short stories and poems, often illustrated with my own art and photography. I'm also interested in #science, #history, and #music.
I’m fairly new here and still learning.
If there's anyone left who can write, future historians are going to write that the 21st Century people* were the dumbest motherfuckers who ever fucked their mothers for want of a hole in the ground. We made Idiocracy look optimistic in just 20 years!
I literally can't think of anyone who fucked up this hard. Aztecs are the closest, worshipping Cortez as a god and letting him destroy their civilization. But some people survived that!
* (yes, your group, too.)
#history
The Remarkable Life Of Nancy Hart, The Patriot Heroine Who Fought Against Loyalists During The American Revolution
By Kaleena Fraga
"Nancy Hart was a mother of eight who allegedly disguised herself as a man, spied on Tory camps, and shot multiple Loyalist soldiers from her cabin in the backcountry of northern Georgia during the Revolutionary War."
Edited 35d ago
Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?
—
The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.
A big shout-out to @gbhnews for another incredible podcast series! I'm midway through "Scratch & Win", which documents the meteoric rise of the Massachusetts State Lottery, and it's pure nerd catnip: organized crime, gambling, power, machine politics, combinatorics, computer science history! I can't believe the interviews they managed to get (and that the closing song is sung by the former state treasurer). All props to the production and editing team. Ian, Isabel, Lacy, and everyone involved should be really proud. Waiting for the inevitable HBO miniseries!
https://www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scratch-win
Quote from episode 1 transcript:
The Massachusetts Lottery had already rejected nearly twenty prototypes by the time they settled on a final design -- the one with the paper flaps. Only to have John Koza, this recently graduated wiz kid with a dimpled chin and a combover, show up and tell them it was flawed. So on the spot they made a deal. Koza could take home 50 tickets and do his best to prove they could be hacked.
#MApoli #Massachusetts #History #Lottery #Gambling #math #podcast #PublicRadio #GBH #PRX
Discover the Self-Taught Genius of Leonardo da Vinci
By Shiori Chen
https://mymodernmet.com/self-taught-leonardo-da-vinci/
Leonardo da Vinci at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1629
I send thanks to the buyer from Alabama who purchased a framed print of
Lights of Matera -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/lights-of-matera-steve-henderson.html?product=framed-print
May the artwork take you to a place of peace and contemplation, a place of mystery and history that transcends trends and tech.
#italy #travel #europe #art #artwork #mastoart #fediart #buyintoart #ayearforart #fedigiftshop #vacation #town #historic #history #sale #sunset #lights #peace
Aethelflaed, Queen of the Mercians: Brutal Leader or Peace-Seeker?
Lady Aethelflaed is an anomaly in the annals of Anglo-Saxon history, a woman whose power and political influence were officially and widely documented.
By Imogen Davis
https://www.thecollector.com/aethelflaed-queen-mercians-leader-peace-seaker/
#OTD in 1922 American journalist Nellie Bly died.
She "was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and for an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly
Books by Bly at PG:
#OnThisDay, 24 Mar 1944, Éliane Plewman is arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France after six months operating as a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance. A courier carried messages and equipment around their network.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #EuropeanHistory #SOE
1/2
Edited 342d ago
4 Powerful Black Queens From History
"From ancient Egypt to Jamaica, meet four powerful black women who led their communities, embodying the traits of courage and independence."
Edited 28d ago
#art #history:
question: what's better than juliette greco?
answer: three juliette grecos.
the smoky-toned chanteuse & actor (interpreter of jacques brel & prevert, boris vian, charles aznavour...) was born #otd in 1927.
the OG boho certainly made a mark with her life. how could she not? jean-paul sartre declared her to have 'a million poems in her voice'.
#illustration #julietteGreco #music #cinema #france
I like the historian Timothy Snyder's observations about what has been happening in the US with respect to ICE recently, and why it is different from previous actions of this agency. I'll paraphrase him, so errors and omissions are mine.
Here's one point: masked thugs in mismatched camo are breaking laws that include abducting, assaulting, and executing people, and the regime is attempting to force us all to refer to this as "law enforcement". For all the many criticisms one might aim at US law enforcement, members typically wear blue, show their faces, and doctrinally aspire to behave transparently and professionally (please don't @ me with your critiques of law enforcement or hashtag ACAB comments; this is not meant as a defense, only a contrast. I've been beaten and teargassed by cops and witnessed far worse so I am acquainted with this aspect of US "law enforcement").
In other words the regime is attempting to change consensus reality so that Americans accept that the phrase "law enforcement" includes random, unprovoked breaking and entering by heavily armed masked men into homes or vehicles, assaults, and summary executions on the street, targeting all citizens. They want this to be a normal and accepted occurrence anywhere and at any time. Much as one might criticize previous administration's immigration policies---and one might really really criticize those---this attempt to shift consensus on "law enforcement" to include summary executions of anyone and all the rest is new (It is not new for certain groups; what I think Snyder is saying is that it'd be new for everyone to be targeted in this way, and for most people to accept that's just how it is now).
Snyder also points out that the border plays an important role here because it is where the country, and therefore the law, ends. In other words, it's not coincidental that the regime chose to elevate ICE. Historically, authoritarian regimes have a marked tendency to expand the lawlessness and indefiniteness of border zones to include the entire territory of the country, and the current regime is no different. Immigrants and immigration aren't the only targets here. The larger aim is to indefinitely suspend the rule of law nationwide by making the entire nation into a border zone (Recall the Texas governor kidnapping immigrants and shipping them to "blue states", a classic attempt to spread resentment of immigrants throughout the country). Again, this is a narrative move, an attempt to shift consensus reality.
So, one way to resist is to simply not accept either of these attempts to change reality. Continue to refer to what's happening as unacceptable, not who we are, etc. Continue to point out that out of control border "enforcement" has led to street executions. Continue to name these actions as the criminal acts of thugs. Continue to pressure people with power, such as lawmakers, to do the same. Not out of some misguided or naive nationalism or patriotism, but in order to keep a stake firmly planted in the ground against the forces attempting to move it. This is something we can all do.
Incidentally, all eyes on Haitian and Haitian-American people in Ohio over the coming weeks. The Haiti Temporary Protected Status designation ends this coming Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Haitians in Springfield were specifically abused during the Trump campaign. The US has a long history of abusing and dehumanizing Haitians dating back at least to Thomas Jefferson, so the Trump campaign rhetoric was no outlier or anomaly. Haiti is also one of the countries specifically named in the US State Dept's announcement about indefinitely halting immigrant visa processing. It would not be surprising if the next ICE "surge" targeted Haitian immigrants in Ohio given how the groundwork's been laid.
#USPol #ICE #history #authoritarianism #tyranny #resistance #resist #narrative #immigration #Haiti
Here's one point: masked thugs in mismatched camo are breaking laws that include abducting, assaulting, and executing people, and the regime is attempting to force us all to refer to this as "law enforcement". For all the many criticisms one might aim at US law enforcement, members typically wear blue, show their faces, and doctrinally aspire to behave transparently and professionally (please don't @ me with your critiques of law enforcement or hashtag ACAB comments; this is not meant as a defense, only a contrast. I've been beaten and teargassed by cops and witnessed far worse so I am acquainted with this aspect of US "law enforcement").
In other words the regime is attempting to change consensus reality so that Americans accept that the phrase "law enforcement" includes random, unprovoked breaking and entering by heavily armed masked men into homes or vehicles, assaults, and summary executions on the street, targeting all citizens. They want this to be a normal and accepted occurrence anywhere and at any time. Much as one might criticize previous administration's immigration policies---and one might really really criticize those---this attempt to shift consensus on "law enforcement" to include summary executions of anyone and all the rest is new (It is not new for certain groups; what I think Snyder is saying is that it'd be new for everyone to be targeted in this way, and for most people to accept that's just how it is now).
Snyder also points out that the border plays an important role here because it is where the country, and therefore the law, ends. In other words, it's not coincidental that the regime chose to elevate ICE. Historically, authoritarian regimes have a marked tendency to expand the lawlessness and indefiniteness of border zones to include the entire territory of the country, and the current regime is no different. Immigrants and immigration aren't the only targets here. The larger aim is to indefinitely suspend the rule of law nationwide by making the entire nation into a border zone (Recall the Texas governor kidnapping immigrants and shipping them to "blue states", a classic attempt to spread resentment of immigrants throughout the country). Again, this is a narrative move, an attempt to shift consensus reality.
So, one way to resist is to simply not accept either of these attempts to change reality. Continue to refer to what's happening as unacceptable, not who we are, etc. Continue to point out that out of control border "enforcement" has led to street executions. Continue to name these actions as the criminal acts of thugs. Continue to pressure people with power, such as lawmakers, to do the same. Not out of some misguided or naive nationalism or patriotism, but in order to keep a stake firmly planted in the ground against the forces attempting to move it. This is something we can all do.
Incidentally, all eyes on Haitian and Haitian-American people in Ohio over the coming weeks. The Haiti Temporary Protected Status designation ends this coming Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Haitians in Springfield were specifically abused during the Trump campaign. The US has a long history of abusing and dehumanizing Haitians dating back at least to Thomas Jefferson, so the Trump campaign rhetoric was no outlier or anomaly. Haiti is also one of the countries specifically named in the US State Dept's announcement about indefinitely halting immigrant visa processing. It would not be surprising if the next ICE "surge" targeted Haitian immigrants in Ohio given how the groundwork's been laid.
#USPol #ICE #history #authoritarianism #tyranny #resistance #resist #narrative #immigration #Haiti
Edited 28d ago
A Bay Of Distinction
https://justin-farrimond.pixels.com/featured/a-bay-of-distinction-justin-farrimond.html
This beautiful oriel window, originally from John of Gaunt's Palace, is on the north wall inside Lincoln Castle's East Gatehouse. Intricate tracery, ogee arches, decorative pinnacles, it has the lot.
#PhotoOfTheDay #Photography #Art #Print #Architecture #History #Window #BlackAndWhite #Lincoln
The Cultural and Historical Evolution of Soccer to the World’s Favorite Game
"Soccer has been played in some form for hundreds of years globally, but where did it come from and how has it changed culture along the way?"
https://www.thecollector.com/cultural-historical-evolution-of-soccer/
Books about football at PG:
The first #concentrationcamp. Decades from now this #photo will (hopefully) be in the #history #books
my first edition of gif's artidote, my monthly newsletter. this one is available to everyone, but from february for subscribers only. if you enjoy this post, please subscribe for free or paid subscription to help me create more & support my project to detox the world one art-icle at a time.
http://gifsartidote.life/2026/01/20/january-2026-gifs-artidote/
#press #media #GifsArtidote #newsletter #january2026 #subscribe #share #CivilianJournalism #IndependentJournalism #blog #artist #photography #NL #Leiden #VeteranSquatter #history
Edited 33d ago