iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Weekend reading. This week’s theme is “glorious cover design” #amreading #graphicdesign

2 hardbacks:
Álvaro Enrigue’s “Now I Surrender” featuring a colourful, graphic illustration of an eagle with talons outstretched. Colours are broken into pastel shades and vivid pinks, purples and umbers ochres and in the detail of the feathers are silhouettes of cowboys on horses.

Christopher Buehlman’s “Between Two Fores”. White gothic font on a vivid red background overlaying an image of a skeleton in medieval armour.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Happy demon goat month to all the #September birthdays! 🐐 La Vie Parisienne covers by birth month.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Today’s productivity is brought to you by….

Cartoon of a racoon clinging to a table edge, reaching maniacally for a cup of coffee. Image credit: simkaye

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

For everyone starting term today, some advice from my (very wise) MA 19thC students from a few years back. Wishing everyone a successful 26-27!

Whiteboard drawing of a brontosaurus in a fancy top hat with written notes: “don’t die. Drink water. Sleep good. Pray for your sanity. Love yourself! Accept yourself! Live deliciously. :)

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Mary Gillis @marygillis.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The users had a great deal of difficulty conveying this message without the aid of their digital brains, but the inarticulate sobs and howls got the point across.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Supermarket product: “NEW IMPROVED RECIPE! EVEN BETTER TASTE!!” Everyone: “Did you just add palm oil tho? It’s palm oil, isn’t it?” Supermarket product: “Shhhhhh. ITS BURSTING WITH FLAVOUR!” Everyone: …

Crop of a product label. Text: NEW RECIPE — BURSTING WITH FLAVOUR.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Turns out visiting Madame Tussaud’s in summertime has always been a deeply nightmarish experience! #c19th "OH, UNCLE GEORGE! DO THEY KILL THEM BEFORE THEY STUFF THEM?"

Illustration from Ounch magazine, June 10 1876. Young Victorian girl with her uncle, who wears a morning coat and top hat. They are looking at waxworks of (presumably) Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI or other figures from the ancient regime. She asks: "OH, UNCLE GEORGE! DO THEY KILL THEM BEFORE THEY STUFF THEM?"

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A spin-off to the📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" series…Covers that actually work in a deep-cut kinda way! This one is a nice ref to Heathcliff’s dogs, but also captures the malevolent centrality of H himself. Remember folks, there r no bad dogs, only bad Heathcliffs!

Withering Heights cover. Blue background with a graphic silhouette of a dog with docked ears and patterned with green swirls and thorns. #c19th #wutheringheights

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

As a child this one sentence, with its misleading context clues, from M.R. James's 'Number 13' led me to believe that 'stuepige' was a (frankly glorious, and much-needed) noun for the person who had committed an act of stupidity. I am to this day still sad that it means 'housemaid'. #19thC #stupid

'Such things rarely happen in Denmark, but some piece of stupidity had certainly been performed (which is not so uncommon), and the stuepige must be severely spoken to'

Clothbound cover of M R James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The font in an old Gothic style.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 5: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. “Get in, loser. We’re going rowing on the Thames in a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance. Also on Wednesdays we wear arsenic green.” #c19th

Cover of Our Mutual Friend featuring two young women, at school judging by their backpack and casual dress, and wearing jewellery and low rise jeans of c. 2002

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Menu from a banquet in Auckland in 1916, given in honour of novelist Henry Rider Haggard. What are we having? Alas, if you’re a veggie then you’re having boiled potatoes and vanilla custard. 😐 #food

MENU.
Victoria Pudding, Sherry Sauce.

Baked Vanilla Custard.
Apple Pie.
Liqueur Jelly.

Macedoine de Fruit.

Creme de Neopolitan.
Compôte des Poires.
Relisb.
Tartines Paté de foie gras.
Olives.
Soups.
Consomme a la Printiniere Royale.
Potage a la Colbert.
Fish.
Fried Fillets Schnapper, Hollandaise Sauce.
Entrees.
Langues d'Agneau en Persil.
Asparagus au Beurre Fondu.
Goints.
Roast Sirloin Beef, Yorkshire Pudding.
Roast Leg Mutton, Onion Sauce.
Corned Round Beef and Carrots.
Poultry.
Roast Turkey a la Financière.
Roast
Chicken, Bread Sauce and Seasoning.
Boiled Fowls a la Soubise.
Vegetables.
Baked Potatoes.
Cabbage.
Boiled Potatoes.
Green Peas.
sweets.
DESSERT.
Savoury.
Crôutes de Jambon Diable.
CAFE NOIR.

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British Online Archives (BOA) @boapublishing.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

New primary source collection coming soon—The Strand Magazine, 1891–1930. Associated, famously, with Sherlock Holmes, The Strand became a British cultural institution, blending literary sophistication with broad, popular appeal. Learn more at buff.ly/99WFqyn.

britishonlinearchives.com

The Strand Magazine, 1891–1930 - Overview

The Strand Magazine was one of the most influential and popular illustrated monthly periodicals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Founded by George Newnes in 1890, the first issue…

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Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

CFP 📢📢📢 *New Approaches to Teaching the Gothic*, co-edited by myself & @factorygothic.bsky.social Critical practice; pedaogical reflections; case studies; particularly in a relation to these times/spaces of crisis. VERY broad cfp. Qus welcome 👇👇👇 call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/07/...

call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu

cfp | call for papers

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Sean Marshall @seanyyz.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Why I’m a fan of the Oxford comma.

TORONTO STAR
BOOK REVIEW
Sylvia Plath, a New York vigilante and Shah of Iran featured in latest historical fiction

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GETSEA @getsea.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

@ncsascholars.bsky.social opens submissions to the Emerging Scholars Award, the Article Prize, and the BIPOC Scholars Award. Winners will each receive $500 at the Annual NCSA Conference in 2026. Details below! Award submission deadline: July 1, 2025 tinyurl.com/yc3pnt4s

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Sihong Lin @sihonglin.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Glasgow is hiring a lecturer in medieval history (c.800-1500) on an open-ended basis. We are a lovely bunch in the medieval area, would be great to have a new colleague! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSF052/l...

jobs.ac.uk

Lecturer in Medieval History (Research & Teaching Track) at University of Glasgow

Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer in Medieval History (Research & Teaching Track) on jobs.ac.uk!

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Totally outside my research expertise, but I've just discovered that @uofglasgowasc.bsky.social has the House of Fraser archive dating from 1849. It's a gorgeous peek into changes in fashion, culture & consumerism. Call your fashion historian pals! #c19th housefraserarchive.ac.uk

Pencil sketch of a woman skiing in winter hat and scarf. Back cover of Dickins & Jones Ltd Winter Sports catalogue. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

A bride stands in front of a mirror in a fashionable early-Victorian boudoir. An older woman stands by the mirror in a blue gown. Three bridesmaids stand nearby with flowers in their hair. Image: 'The wedding morning' (1839). 'Upwards of a Century'. Dickins and Jones catalogue illustrating 100 years of fashion, 1909. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

Image: Front cover of McDonalds Ltd, Christmas gifts catalogue, 1916 showing a christmas tree adorned with candles and gifts. Gifts include lamps, scarves, cushions and among the regular festive decorations there are national flags of Britain, France, Belgium and other allied from WW1. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

Image: Photograph of the interior of the House of Fraser store in Buchanan Steet, Glasgow, decorated for Christmas, 1981. Several floors of sumptuously garlanded staircases around the central hall. Chandeliers decorated in green and red hang overhead. Image Source: The House of Fraser Archive at the University of Glasgow

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

"Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows." ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH 69% VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 68% www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...

The Most Versatile Majors Chart, TOPPED BY ENGLISH and VISUAL&PERFORMING ARTS

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 4: The Great Gatsby. “They say he killed a man, and bought that big-ass palace with the money he made from his Magic Mike themed speakeasy”

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 3: Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” (1901). Colonial adventure novel about an orphaned Irish boy who meets a Tibetan lama in Lahore and together they are drawn into the “great game” of imperial espionage. Nice shoes, babe.

Book cover featuring only the torso and legs of a person in khaki short-shorts and very pretty red heels with green and red tattoos.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

On train to Edinburgh and turn a page to find: 1870s jokes about train crashes?!

Two men in a Victorian train carriage in huge, inflated, full body puffer jackets which have swallowed up their faces. Text reads: PATENT FIRST-CLASS COSTUME FOR THE COLLISION SEASON.
Traveller. "YES, IT'S DECIDEDLY WARM, BUT THERE'S A FEELING OF SECURITY ABOUT IT I RATHER LIKE." (Yauns.) "ANY CHANCE OF A SMASH TO-DAY!?"
[Drops off to Sleep!]

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

One for the autobiography readers...and the Dracula fans 🪰 'Zoophagy', New Statesman and Nation (Apr 6, 1957): 449.

I often think-when confronted with a batch of autobiographies—of Renfield, the zoophagous maniac, Dr. Seward's pet patient, in dear old Dracula. Renfield suffered from the delusion that the more lives he could ingest the stronger he became. He devoured first flies,
later, to save trouble by a kind of arithmetical progression, spiders. The memoirs-addict re-sembles Renfield in that vicarious experience can be absorbed in bulk.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Racing into the weekend like…a Victorian roller skater?! Punch (15 Jan 1876) #c19th

Illustration of a young man in a bowler hat helping a young lady on with her roller skate. In the background a very dapper couple skate in perfect synchronicity.

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Digital Brain @yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Volcanic eruptions can create stunning lightning storms. Learn how ash particles generate electric charges high in the atmosphere.

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Michael LaFrance @mlafrance.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Crikey. Sherlock Holmes’s official dating profile is a real mixed bag! #c19th From ‘A Study in Scarlet’, ch.2 (1887)

Sherlock Holmes—his limits.

1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil.
2. Philosophy.—Nil.
3. Astronomy.—Nil.
4. Politics.—Feeble.
5. Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Chemistry.—Profound.
8. Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
9. Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.

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Daniel Grey @djrgrey.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Today's the day to email in your paper proposal, people (22nd May)! Thanks so much to everyone who has already submitted 🌟 We'd love to hear from you & while spaces are limited, we definitely will have some room for non-presenting delegates to attend too on 4 September 😀

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 11/05/2026

We currently invite applications to our 2026-27 Master's Scholarships programme: bit.ly/4dTHmXe Scholarships of £5000 are for students from groups currently underrepresented in academic history to study for an MA in history or a related subject. Closing date: Friday 5 June #Skystorians

bit.ly

Master's Scholarships programme, 2026-27: supporting groups underrepresented in academic history - RHS

Each year the Society awards Scholarships to support students who will study for a Master's degree in history at a UK university. Master's Scholarships, each of £5000, support students from groups cur...

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History Today @historytoday.com · 07/05/2026

Over the course of the 19th century snake oil transformed from folk remedy, to industrial medicine, to notorious fake. 🔓 Douglas R.J. Small’s new History Matters is free for 7 days www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...

historytoday.com

The Rise and Fall of Snake Oil

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

⭐️ I’m absolutely delighted that my article ‘The Volcano and the Vampire’ (@gothicstudies.bsky.social) has been awarded the honourable mention in the @ncsascholars.bsky.social Article Prize! Thank you NCSA! Entries for the 2026-7 prize now open. ncsaweb.net/ncsa-article... #c19th

Abigail J. Cooper, “Midwives of Invention: Black Healers and Reconciling Worldviews of Wellness in American Emancipation,” Journal of Social History 58.3 (Spring 2025): 424-50.

Honorable Mention:
Laura Eastlake, “The Volcano and the Vampire: The Case for a Volcanic Gothic,” Gothic Studies 27.1 (2025): 58-77.

Jeffrey Auerbach, “Underground Empire: Charles Warren, William Simpson, and the Archaeological Exploration of Palestine,” Journal of British Studies 63 (January 2024): 82-113.

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

📚"Covers designed by folk who didn't bother to read the book" Episode 2: Henry James, 'The Turn of the Screw' (1898) The novel is a #C19th gothic tale of a governess caring for 2 cherubic children who may or may not be in league with ghosts. Also...that's a nut.

Blue cover featuring two spanners (wrenches if you prefer) tussling oddly over a nut. There are no screws in this image. Not one.

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Douglas Small @drdouglassmall.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Psssst! 🐍 My article on the slippery history of snake oil is in this month’s issue of History Today.

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Dr Jordan Kistler @jordankistler.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

My book comes out next month and I'd love to talk to your research group/seminar series/PGRs about it! Potential talk topics: Why do we think natural history museums are for kids? How public are our public museums? Truth and fiction in the museum Looting: empire in the museum...

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Emma Butler-Marr @19thcenturyem.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Once again sharing our upcoming EHU19 PGR & ECR conference as the abstract deadline for 1st May is looming closer! We're very lucky to have @drclaireocall.bsky.social as keynote & running a journal workshop! Send any abstracts or queries to ehu19place@outlook.com ✨️ @ehunineteen.bsky.social

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Dr Laura Eastlake @victorianmasc.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Looking at illustrations by Charles Dana Gibson. I have questions about this one. (1903)

Illustration of a woman, with characteristic 'Gibson Girl' updo, carrying a serving tray. Lying on the serving tray, steaming as if recently removed from the oven, but otherwise smiling and unperturbed, is a small cherubic child with wings and legs in the air.

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