iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Aled Thompson @aledthompson.bsky.social · 17h

Daily birds 77 - Greater lophorina

A black bird facing forward with its tail feathers spread out so it looks like an oval with a blue segment on its chest and above the eyes, an an open beak to show a yellow mouth

Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's publication month! "Critical histories of the Arts and Crafts movement" is out October 20. More to come about book launch events, including a digital program with @morrissocietyus.bsky.social

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British Transport Films Stills @btfstills.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

THIS IS YORK (1953)

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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

All glory to the Reduced Mouse

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Gregory Hays @aristofontes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

on fægerre Verona þǣr we leogedon ure gesyhðe

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Spotting from over the weekend, the walls with highly 1990s border papers are my favorite.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Looks like another example of the Smithsonian database shift breaking all previous links and citations. What a mess. And the NMAAHC website collections search is currently returning a 404 error! Not even linking to the centralized Smithsonian database!

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WTTW - Chicago PBS @wttw.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

On Fridays at 8:00 pm beginning October 2, CHICAGO STORIES returns with four new documentaries that reveal the people, ideas, ingenuity, conflicts, and communities that helped shape Chicago. #ChicagoStoriesWTTW wttw.com/chicagostories

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Abigail Swingen @abigailswingen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Working on a book, article, or dissertation on #18thc British world? The Lewis Walpole Library offers 4-week visiting fellowships and 2-week travel grants for scholars. The deadline for applications is November 2. 🗃️ More info: walpole.library.yale.edu/fellowships/...

walpole.library.yale.edu

Visiting Fellowships and Travel Grants | Lewis Walpole Library

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Back again to say: all old links to the Cooper Hewitt collections database breaking is especially bad because lots and lots and lots of CH objects are on Wikimedia Commons. And now none of them have functional links to their catalogue records.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

At some point recently the Cooper Hewitt collections search moved from their website to the general Smithsonian collections search database and let me tell you, that discovery is ruining my afternoon!! Look at this object page. LOOK AT IT. www.si.edu/object/straw...

si.edu

Strawberry Thief | Smithsonian Institution

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Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

🦃 The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier /. London: Printed for R.L. and M.P., 1678.. [Source]

Turkey illustration from historical archives

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What an interesting window! Really lovely image of Shap Abbey, too.

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Jim Wald @citizenwald.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Mabel Loomis Todd was a multitalented cultural figure. Among her passions was painting and her renderings of Indian Pipes--Monotropa uniflora, a favorite plant of Emily DIckinson's (www.emilydickinsonmu...)--inspired the design for the cover of the early editions of the poems

former exhibit in Emily Dickinson Museum featuring the career of Mabel Loomis Todd:

behind a row of books:
small painting of white Indian Pipes on black; light-colored plate with hand-painted lupines; photos of Austin Dickinson and Mabel Loomis and David Todd, and thumbnail of child propped up on a primitive World Typewriter (https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_849978)

in the foreground, a pencil on handwritten and typed documents
at left, the magazine, The Bachelor Arts

Indian pipes: white on black, mounted on a red-brown background

Amherst History Museum

scene from a class visit to Amherst College Special Collections:

on gray foam cradle, a volume of Dickinson's poems:

inside cover: Amherst College ex librir
flyleaf: inscription in ink in the year of publication:

To my father and mother
with love
Mabel Loomis Todd
Amherst,
November Eleventh, 1890

(at bottom inscription in pencil indicating that it came from daughter Millicent Todd Bingham)

on table:

lower left:
book cover, light green spine, vellum-covered boards with gold floral image:
In the Garden of Dreams

lower right:
book cover, light green spine, vellum-covered boards with gold floral image of Indian Pipes

Poems
Emily Dickinson
Third Series

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oddly, they don’t include photos of the cat and dog. Here’s ΖΜΑΡΑΓΔΙΝ (Zmaragdin, ‘Emerald’) the cat (who is appropriately on its own luxe pillow), and a leaping ΩΚΕΑΝΟΣ (Okeanos, ‘Ocean’) the dog. 📸 Anatolian Archaeology

From a large floor mosaic which depicts a grid of panels, each with its own image against a black background, dividing by strands of guilloche. This one depicts a white cat on a pillow, its name in Greek above, translating to ‘Emerald’.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I somehow have come to a point in my life where I'm making arguments in document comments about how to properly cite Monty Python sketches.

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Paintings of London @paintingsoflondon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

'Early Autumn, Hyde Park' (from 'The Colour of London', 1907) by Yoshio Markino

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Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

my mistress' dumps are nothing like a truck

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 11/09/2026

everyone enjoy this lil repair to some lead roofing that I saw the other day

A patched hole but the patch has been augmented with a little smiley face

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Finally tracked down the appearance of this Morris dress box in Bridgerton just so I can accurate when casting aspersions about it.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

years pass by and still I love Creature

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Applications are now open for 2027-28 Short-Term Fellowships at the Newberry library! @newberrylibrary.bsky.social These fellowships support PhD-holding scholars and PhD candidates for 1-2 months of intensive research in the Newberry collection. Deadline: Dec 4 www.newberry.org/research/fel...

newberry.org

Short-Term Fellowships

Short-Term Fellows investigate specific Newberry collection items that are essential to their scholarship.

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Morris & Co. on Screen @morris-on-screen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Midsomer Murders Series 5 Episode 4, “Ring Out Your Dead” William Morris, “Fruit” (designed as wallpaper), c. 1866

A tea shop, with cafe curtains in Morris & Co. “Fruit”: a criss-crossing pattern of thin branches with narrow olive-type leaves and citrus and pomegranate fruits, on a cream ground. To the left DS Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) faces the camera, speaking to DCI Tom Barnaby, who sits close to the camera at right, back turned.

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Aled Thompson @aledthompson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Miniature birds 39 - Baltimore Oriole

A yellow bird with a black head and black and white wings

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Applications are now open for 2027-28 Newberry Library Long-Term Fellowships! Scholars with PhDs can apply to spend 4-9 months at the Newberry working on a book or other large-scale project with direct relation to our collections. @newberrylibrary.bsky.social www.newberry.org/research/fel...

newberry.org

Long-Term Fellowships

Long-Term Fellows spend four to nine months immersed in the Newberry collection and in our scholarly community.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

So happy that the news is out!! Proud to say I have an essay in this volume - "'An idea of a rose-hedge': William Morris's Rose". (Image: Cooper Hewitt)

Section of William Morris Rose fabric, a dense repeating pattern with symmetrical, interwoven repeats. The primary motifs in the pattern are pink and red roses, yellow and orange tulips, and light-colored birds, on a ground of blue and green rose leaves and white and pink rose stems. The background is the plain, off-white color of the cotton, with light blue selvedge visible on the sides.

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This Roman perfume bottle shaped like a bird is 2,000 years old, yet it looks like a modern design! 📷 Corning Museum of Glass glasscollection.cmog.org/objects/7194... #Archaeology

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

this is my kind of Air and Water Show

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Andrew Wasserman @onceatrophic.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

First week in August syllabus drafting reminder: If you assign anything I’ve written, I’m always happy to zoom into your class! Or if you just want to have your students discuss what public art they think is v v great or v v dumb, always happy to do that too!

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Morris & Co. on Screen @morris-on-screen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Another episode of Sewing Bee, another Morris & Co. pattern. The Great British Sewing Bee, Series 12 Episode 2, 2026 William Morris, "Strawberry Thief", 1885

Screenshot from Season 12, Episode 2 of The Great British Sewing Bee, showing Sam working in his studio, which has white walls and a sloping attic roof. There is an upholstered box (ottoman?) at his feet covered in "Strawberry Thief" fabric.

A cropped detail of the previous image, centered on the "Strawberry Thief" upholstered box.

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

OK since people seem interested in the Southern California Modernism class I'm finishing up teaching: I'll post four images from each lecture, one lecture per day (there are 18 lectures). Lecture 1

El Alisal, Charles Fletcher Lummis's river rock house in Los Angeles

Cover of Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, showing Rancho Camulos

Reyner Banham on a folding bik ein the Mojave

Santa Barbara's mission revival train station

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Morris & Co. on Screen @morris-on-screen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Morris on Screen is now also on Instagram! I’ll be posting the same on-screen sightings over there, plus possible bonus stories if I spot Morris & Co. patterns in the wild. www.instagram.com/morris_on_sc...

instagram.com

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

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Mathew Lyons @mathewlyons.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

There’s nothing like waiting 161 years to leave a bad review

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Also: Actual descriptive alt text, not captions. I sometimes see academics using alt text as a space to add more writing to a post. That's not what it's for. I also unfollowed a big-ish writer account on here because he uses his alt text to make clever jokes with no description. Not what it's for!!

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The Map Center @mapcenter.com · 03/08/2026

Did You Know that any three points on a plane (that are not colinear) can be inscribed in a perfect circle?

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Hard to beat a day spent unfurling long-furled geological wall charts held in the @theul.bsky.social, from painted Humboldtian vistas to a full set of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins's diagrams of extinct animals. A treasure trove.

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Rob Delaney @robdelaney.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

🐳 You’re God damned right @hesterblum.bsky.social & I made a TWENTY-FIVE EPISODE PODCAST just about 𝐌𝐎𝐁𝐘-𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐊. Subscribe now at exploringthegreats.com/moby-dick & enjoy our thrilling trailer:

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

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Seva @seva.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

the ideal academic life is being an eccentric Victorian lord. Invent a stamp licking machine at 22. Get elected to the Royal Academy for counting the beetles on your estate. Die in an arsenic explosion. The perfect life.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I’m sure we all know the devolved state government system in the US causes many weird problems, but as someone who has moved around a lot in the last few years: how do we not have a centralized car registration / ownership tracking system.

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

So I have recently learned (and my students will learn next week) that the cover of Taj Mahal's eponymous debut was the Salt Box on Bunker Hill, which was moved to Heritage Square before it burned down a year later

two houses, the Salt Box and the Castle, await moving from an otherwise razed Bunker Hill. Photo by Boris Yaro/LA Times, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-grand-avenue-history-2019-story.html

cover of Taj Mahal, with Taj Mahal playing guitar on a chair in front of a fence behind which is the Salt Box. There are psychedelic birds and insects around him

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Such a cool piece of research, and I love bowerbirds so much!

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

So exciting to see the Pauli Murray Center on this list - and as the cover photo! Also really interested to read about the Conserving Black Modernism fund, what a cool collection of projects across both grants.

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Sarah Mead Leonard @smeadleonard.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Spotted a pattern for the first time in about a year - I really need to be watching more British TV!

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Kat @byekitty.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

when you’re doodling in meetings but you’re William Morris

a page from a notebook including artistic stylised floral patterns and designs for the letter G alongside notes possibly relating to socialism

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I respect someone who doesn't blindly follow the crowd, but this is also a case of an overcorrection that presents an alternative view of the past that is equally one-sided. Here's a - hopefully short - thread on both this particular issue & on historical overcorrections as a phenomenon. (1/n)

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