iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today looking up details to correctly cite a scholar I found she's also made some art. #DHMakes This is Interference Pattern II by Frances Rothwell Hughes. She started each square when she had time to embroider and stopped when interrupted by her newborn www.francesrothwellhughes.com/interference...

Detail of textile artwork, showing 6 by 4 squares. Each square shows the same pattern in different stages of completion, ranging from dashes, to diamonds, to a complex geometric pattern filling the entire square.

Framed textile artwork consisting of 4 rows of 25 squares. Each square contains a different number of embroidered stiches in black thread.

110752

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

@spil030.bsky.social were you ringing tonight? I just dropped a friend off at their hotel in the city and heard the bells.

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The first appointment of a female officer of arms in ordinary in England, Caroline McWilliams, has recently been announced! (In 2022 Professor Anne Curry was appointed Arundel Herald Extraordinary but this position is not part of the College of Arms) www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/news-grants/...

college-of-arms.gov.uk

Bot Verification

011

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I spy a "Book Trade Probate"-related chapter in this collection by @breanneweber.bsky.social!

011

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I was involved as an expert volunteer in the early part of this project. It is terrible to be at risk of losing your job at any time; I can't imagine what it's like to have it happen right as you reach the culmination of a multi-year project!

130

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I was helping my son with his science fair project the other day, and one graph had multiple overlapping coloured bands which were hard to distinguish. If only we could print each graph on its own sheet and overlay them! Then I remembered...

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Today I learned that the Latinised form of Auckland (New Zealand) is Aucopolis, with the corresponding adjective Aucopolitanus, though in scientific names the form Aucklandensis seems to be used. The main use of Aucopolitanus seems to be in relation to the Catholic diocese thereof.

000

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

In more (& bigger) ceremonial news, James Peill has been appointed Garter King of Arms as of 1 July. Usually one would expect another of the kings of arms to move up in the event of a vacancy, or at least one of the more senior heralds; Peill was only promoted to Richmond Herald at the end of May!

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

In ceremonial news, I see from footage of the Order of the Thistle service that there is a new Usher of the Green Rod. According to the Edinburgh Gazette, Baroness Grainger, the first woman to hold this office, was appointed Lady Usher of the Green Rod on June 19 www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/5158393

thegazette.co.uk

000

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

A grant of arms by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, with some lovely calligraphy, and unusual particolored mantling #heraldry

010

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

While looking up my alma mater today, I discovered that Vivienne Gray, Professor of Classics during my time there, died one year ago today. She was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after I started my degree; I can only remember seeing her twice in my four years in the department.

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I've just discovered that a couple of Australian universities offer a BLitt or BPhil, and that AUT and Waikato offer an MPhil by research (unlike Auckland where it's for if you won't achieve a doctorate), so now there are a couple of other ways I could theoretically complete my academic bingo card!

Table with six rows:
First undergraduate degree: BA, BSc
Second undergraduate degree: BLitt, BPhil
Taught postgraduate: BA (Hons), BSc (Hons)
Masters degrees: MA, MSc, MLitt, MPhil
Research doctorate: PhD, DPhil
Higher doctorate: DSc, DLitt

The following degrees are coloured green to denote I have been awarded them: BA, BSc, MSc, MLitt, DPhil

000

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Nice intersection with the 19th century College of Arms, and some antiquarians I have encountered. Nicholas Harris Nicolas wrote histories of various orders of knighthood, and Philip Bliss (mentioned in the full entry) edited the third edition of Wood's 'Athenae Oxonienses'.

011

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

Tim Welch @tfwelch.com · 10/05/2026

Most transport maps show where infrastructure is. I wanted to show what that infrastructure actually lets people reach. I’ve been building the Auckland Transport Access Atlas: an interactive map of car dependency, accessibility, equity, and planner priorities across Auckland. ataa.tfwelch.com

55115

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Interesting entry in the recently updated catalogue for the Court of Requests series at TNA: a wager between a gentleman and a publican about whose family and arms were older, as adjudged by Clarenceux and the heralds in 1637 (REQ 2/296/61). discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2...

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

000

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

New (to me) research library unlocked! Tangential to the documents I was looking at, I came across the proposal from the 1960s to build an artificial ski slope on Mt Wellington/Maungarei! This appears to be unknown to the internet, except for an newly digitised article on Papers Past.

Photograph of a sign welcoming visitors to the Auckland Museum Research Library/Te Pātaka Mātāpuna o Tāmaki Paenga Hira. The sign has white text on a black background and is written in both English and Te Reo Maori.

Photograph of the entrance to the Auckland Museum Research Library. A blue carpeted aisle curves away to the left. The right hand wall is wood paneled to about 2/3 of its height, and bookshelves are visible in the distance.

120

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

The other day I came across this visualisation of the percentage of female/male speech in Shakespeare that I made back in 2019 from @heatherfro.bsky.social's data and thought it was worth reupping. At the time there was a similar graphic for female/male speech in Oscar-winning films doing the rounds

A bar chart showing the percentage of words spoken by women in Shakespeare's plays vs that spoken by men. The purple bars for female speech are in all cases significantly shorter than the green bars for male speech.

Henry VIII: 17% female
Tempest: 7% female
Winter's Tale: 22% female
Cymbeline: 22% female
Pericles: 15% female
Coriolanus: 12% female
Timon of Athens: 1% female
Antony and Cleopatra: 25% female
King Lear: 15% female
Macbeth: 20% female
Measure for measure: 20% female
Othello: 19% female
All's well that ends well: 35% female
Troilus and Cressida: 11% female
Hamlet: 9% female
The Merry Wives of Windsor: 29% female
As you like it: 41% female
Julius Caesar 5% female
Twelfth Night: 32% female
Henry V: 5% female
Much ado about nothing: 27% female
Midsummer Night's Dream: 22% female
Richard II: 10% female
Love's labours lost: 21% female
Romeo and Juliet: 31% female
Two Gentlemen of Verona: 25% female
Taming of the Shrew: 12% female
Titus Andronicus: 13% female
Richard III: 22% female
Henry VI,Part I: 13% female
Henry VI, Part II: 15% female
Henry VI, Part III: 13% female
Comedy of Errors: 10% female

161

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

There are lots of things to admire in this image of a pedigree shared by in this recent post by @shamrockroots.com I particularly like the illustrations of people at the top of their lines of descent, and the diapering on the middle two flags (Original pedigree is held by PRONI, reference D1702/7/5)

Top section of the very large parchment roll entitled 'Genealogy of the right worshipful and worthy Captain Sir William Cole of the Castle of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the kingdom of Ireland'. It comprises an extensive family tree with many coats of arms painted on it. Beneath the introductory text are five figures, holding a banner or shield of their coat of arms, who are the progenitors of five of the lines from which William Cole descended

140

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

Shamrock Roots @shamrockroots.com · 12/02/2026

Heraldry! This is a huge family tree for William Cole, who established the Plantation town of Enniskillen. It asserts that he is related to many English nobility families, with wonderful illustrations of their coats of arms. #GenHour #Genealogy #IrishGenealogy

Very large parchment roll entitled 'Genealogy of the right worshipful and worthy Captain Sir William Cole of the Castle of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the kingdom of Ireland'. It comprises an extensive family tree with many coats of arms painted on it.

Close-up of a section of the very large parchment roll entitled 'Genealogy of the right worshipful and worthy Captain Sir William Cole of the Castle of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the kingdom of Ireland'. It comprises an extensive family tree with many coats of arms painted on it.

151

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

#DHMakes friends: my son has started a new school, and got into their Maker class. This means his normal education takes place in (and using the resources of) a makerspace! (3d printers, sewing machines, etc) He is absolutely loving it.

120

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Spotted over breakfast: a pūkeko in a (not a ponga) tree

A photo of the green foliage of some trees. Sitting in the middle is a bird with blue and black feathers and a red head and beak

120

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.

40730204

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

The brain is a wonderful thing! Yesterday I had occasion to look up a photo of the old Epsom library, where I worked during high school and the start of university. Almost three decades later I can still remember the shelving layout, and what books went where, almost down to the letter!

Floorplan of Epsom Library with annotations in red as to where the shelves were, and what they contained. The base document is Auckland Council Archives ACC 015/5837-18 (Epsom Library alterations and additions 1973)

Photograph by Henry Winkelman of the Epsom Public Library in 1924. The image shows what looks like a white stuccoed house with bay window and tiled roof, with the higher gabled roof of a hall rising behind. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0607.

010

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

Scott Pilkington @spil030.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Very proud to share that one of my articles celebrating the 100th anniversary of the PhD in Aotearoa has now been published! This article explores how PhD dress in Aotearoa has changed in the century since the then University of New Zealand introduced the degree. newprairiepress.org/burgonsociet...

newprairiepress.org

A Century of PhD Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article provides a brief overview of the history of the PhD in Aotearoa and explores its first academic dress, the disbanding of the federal university, and the evolution of independent universit...

153

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

I made some macarons for a shared lunch today, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out! #DHBakes

Photograph of pink macarons inside a glass domed cake stand on a kitchen bench.

010

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

In honour of the release of "The life of a showgirl" I've finally gotten around to adding "Unicode burlesque" to my website of DH songs – "What is #DigitalHumanities? The Album" – after only two years! Thanks again to @quinnanya.me for the inspiration what-is-dh-the-album.netlify.app/singles/unic...

what-is-dh-the-album.netlify.app

Unicode burlesque

A #DigitalHumanities song inspired by 'Welcome to Burlesque' from the movie Burlesque

020

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

@thegozfather.bsky.social REQ 2 question: I transcribed REQ 2/136/33 for my research a couple of years ago. Are you interested in the dates of the 3 or 4 documents contained therein, to make the catalogue entry more precise than [reign of Eliz 1]?

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Thrilled to have been able to identify today a copy of a 15th century papal bull used as binding waste, and thereby establish a terminus post quem for an Old West Frisian text on the verso! #Paleography #BookHistory

051

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Yesterday I was more than pleasantly surprised to discover that Renata Defelice has published a review of my side project "What is #DigitalHumanities? The Album" including translating one of my songs into Spanish! revistas.unlp.edu.ar/publicaahd/a... (If anyone knows the reviewer, please tag them!)

revistas.unlp.edu.ar

What is #DigitalHumanities? The Album (2022) | Publicaciones de la Asociación Argentina de Humanidades Digitales

Publicaciones de la Asociación Argentina de Humanidades Digitales (PublicAAHD)

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Former Windsor Herald, William Hunt, receives an honorary doctorate. #heraldry

020

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Reupping the advice to always talk to the staff when you go to an archive. Shout out to James at Auckland Council Archives today, who directed me to a record series I didn't know about which had valuable information about one of my local history projects!

020

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

It is such a rush to correctly deduce the location of a fully functioning *unadvertised* API when you need to get structured metadata out of a GLAM institution's catalogue! #DigitalHumanities

100

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Putting my paleography and local history degree to good use in correcting a listing at the local auction house :)

Screenshot of an auction listing, reading "Lot Details
watercolour and ink, named and detailed verso 'Miss Burke Auckland New Zealand March 29th 1862'. This inscription probably detailing the owner of this work. 220 x 440mm. Note: This catalogue description has been amended due to an expert opinion being received by Cordy's."
The note has been highlighted.

030

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Deep dive by @spil030.bsky.social into the history of the PhD in NZ on its 100th anniversary. Fun fact: the first Oxford DPhil was awarded to a New Zealander* * Dr James Brontë Gatenby was one of the first two DPhils, awarded in 1920. I don't know whether the other guy graduated before or after him

110

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I am delighted to announce that my data paper "Locations of Markets in English Market Towns, 1813: Constructing a dataset" has just been published in ZfdG This is a deep dive into the process & decisions that went into creating a dataset of market locations from a C19th text doi.org/10.17175/202...

doi.org

Locations of Markets in English Market Towns, 1813. Constructing a Dataset | ZfdG - Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften

This Data Paper presents the creation of a dataset for geographical information on markets in English market towns in 1813.

020

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

4am start this morning but all four of us made it to the ANZAC day dawn service at Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira. Lest we forget.

Photograph of a crowd of people gathered in the dark. A stone monument with flags is present to the right, and a bright light shines right at the camera.

Photograph of a crowd in front of the stone cenotaph at Auckland War Memorial Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira. The flags of Australia, New Zealand and the UK hang from poles on the side. The sun is just rising in the background.

041

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Yesterday I made a major breakthrough in my local history side project! I found a photo of the house I have been looking for for the past year!! (Thread)

110

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Pre-1956 arms of New Zealand on the left.

120

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

OTD 120 years ago, a cheque was drawn on Maungatautari Peeke, a Māori-operated bank, one of only three such cheques known to survive. This bank was one of two established by the Kīngitanga; the other was Te Peeke o Aotearoa, which used the same cheque design. www.kotuia.org.nz/kete-sets/cu...

Photograph of 19th century cheque drawn on Maungatautari Peeke (i.e. Maungatautari Bank). The cheque is entirely in Te Reo Māori.
(Image credit: Cambridge Museum)

Photograph of a Auckland War Memorial Museum exhibit featuring a £1/kotahi pauna banknote from Te Peeke of Aotearoa, and also a cheque drawn on the same bank.
More information: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/648032

0133

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Tonight's lunar eclipse/blood moon, photographed on a phone through a telescope.

Picture of the moon during a lunar eclipse. The moon has a red tinge, and light is starting to creep back in at the bottom edge.

000

Philip Allfrey @drpda.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Top-quality NZ academic-dress- history research thread from @spil030.bsky.social

020

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

"TL;DR — Network visualization is often done in the wrong way: first a network layout is produced using a heuristic, and then follow-up analyses are performed and evaluated according to the layout...." Also introduced me to the very useful term "ridiculogram."

2167

Reposted by Philip Allfrey

Vexiupdate - Flag news @vexiupdate.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

13JAN25 #TrinidadandTobago passed bill to replace Columbus' ships on national #coatofarms with a steelpan, citing removal of colonial symbols and their replacement with a symbol of cultural value to the nation. #heraldry Source: www.facebook.com/ttg...

121