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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

This exhibit is on display on the 3rd floor of W.A.C. Bennett Library and will be featured with a curators' tour on May 28th at our 10 year anniversary event. To RSVP, see this link: tinyurl.com/3yvucc7s or for more info on the exhibit, see this link: www.lib.sfu.ca/about/branch....

tinyurl.com

A Celebration of 10 Years of the Women's Print History Project

Join us on Thursday, May 28th (1-5 PM) at Bennett Library for talks, workshops, & a reception in celebration of the WPHP's 10th anniversary.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Curated by Denise Oleksijczuk, SFU SCA associate professor, and Salena Wiener, WPHP RA and SFU English PhD student, Earth Love: Intended Chiefly for Young Persons is an exhibit that explores women and children's engagement with botany and the garden, historically and into the present.

An open book showing botanical illustrations on the left and a title page on the right, titled "An Introduction to Botany" by Priscilla Wakefield.

Display of books and watercolor paintings in the "Special Collections & Rare Books Exhibit."

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Join us on Thursday, May 28th (1-5 PM) at SFU Bennett Library for talks, workshops, & a reception in celebration of the WPHP's 10th anniversary! For more details and to RSVP, see the Eventbrite link: tinyurl.com/3yvucc7s.

Illustration of a woman in 18th-century attire outside a library, alongside event details for The Women's Print History Project celebration

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Please join us to celebrate the WPHP on May 29th (2-5 PM) at SFU Harbour Centre. We will be holding a live podcast, roundtable, & talk by Dr. Kate Ozment, followed by a reception. For more details and to RSVP, see our Eventbrite page: tinyurl.com/5n7vfd67. We can't wait to see you there!

A banner with invitation text on the left side and a portrait of a woman with short blonde hair and a bright pink jacket on the right side.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

We believe that Dorothy Wordsworth’s poignant observations about the beauty of the moon honour to NASA astronaut Christina Koch’s historic venture around the moon and celebrate her return to our home planet. (9/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

"...All the Heavens seemed in one perpetual motion when the rain ceased; the moon appearing, now half veiled, and now retired behind heavy clouds, the stars still moving, the road very dirty.” [31 Jan 1798] (8/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

“When we left home the moon immensely large, the sky scattered over with clouds. These soon closed in, contracting the dimensions of the moon without concealing her..." (cont'd in next post) (7/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

“William called me into the garden to observe a singular appearance about the moon. A perfect rainbow, within the bow one star, only of colours more vivid. The semi-circle soon became a complete circle, and in the course of three or four minutes the whole faded away.” [30 Jan 1798] (6/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

"...The withered leaves were coloured with a deeper yellow, a brighter gloss spotted the hollies; again her form became dimmer; the sky flat, unmarked by distances, a white thin cloud.” [27 Jan 1798] (5/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

“Only once we were through the wood the moon burst through the invisible veil which enveloped her, the shadows of the oaks blackened, and their lines became more strongly marked..." (cont'd in next post) (4/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

"...At once the clouds seemed to cleave asunder, and left her in the centre of a black-blue vault. She sailed along, followed by multitudes of stars, small, and bright, and sharp. Their brightness seemed concentrated, (half-moon).” [25 Jan 1798] (3/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

“The sky spread over with one continuous cloud, whitened by the light of the moon, which, though her dim shape was seen, did not throw forth so strong a light as to chequer the earth with shadows...." (cont'd in next post) (2/9)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

As the WPHP prepares to launch its own mission to explore the range of surviving literary manuscripts by women in the Women’s Manuscript History Project, please enjoy these journal entries from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Alfoxden and Grasmere journals, all from within the same week in January 1798: (1/9)

Illustration of the Moon against a deep blue background with text at the top reading "PLENILVNIUM. pinxit ad Archetypum M.C.Eimmart a Norimb.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

To learn more about these women, the hundreds of women poets, and the nearly 2500 editions of poetry they wrote, visit our poetry genre, womensprinthistoryproject.com/genre/5. (8/8)

womensprinthistoryproject.com

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

“That while I pour the unavailing tear, And mourn that hope to me in youth is lost, Thy light can visionary thoughts impart, And lead the Muse to soothe a suff’ring heart.” —”Sonnet to the Moon,” Helen Maria Williams (6/8)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

“And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast; And oft I think—fair planet of the night, That in thy orb, the wretched may have rest” —”Sonnet IV, To the Moon,” Charlotte Smith (5/8)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

“A wandering cloud will sometimes cross her way, Her head oft bowing lets the stranger pass, While golden stars the canopy enlay, And shadowy forms fly o’er the waving grass.” —“Moonlight,” Susanna Blamire (4/8)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

“When in some river, overhung with green, The waving moon and the trembling leaves are seen” —“A Nocturnal Reverie,” Anne Finch (3/8)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

“Thou silver deity of secret night…” —“A Hymn to the Moon,” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (2/8)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Women poets of the long eighteenth-century took so much inspiration from the moon. Here is our attempt at a brief poetic lunar miscellany: (1/8)

Frontispiece to Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets. Black and white engraving of a woman in a white gown stands in a moonlit forest, looking upwards at the moon, with an owl perched above her on a book.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

A full digital facsimile of her game is available at Princeton University Library: catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9912.... (3/3)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

To celebrate NASA astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to venture around the moon, we want to share some of the many women in the WPHP who studied and contemplated the moon and the heavens. To learn more about Alicia Mant, see her Person record: womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/2808. (2/3)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Fancy some astronomical play? Alicia Mant’s The Study of the Heavens at Midnight During the Winter Solstice, Arranged as a Game of Astronomy, for the Use of Young Students in that Science (1814) represents one of many attempts by women writers to turn scientific learning into fun and games. (1/3)

A 19th century star chart titled "A New Game of Astronomy or the Young Student's Guide to a View of the Heavens at Midnight at the Winter Solstice" showing constellations and celestial lines.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

To celebrate NASA astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to venture around the moon, we want to share some of the women in the WPHP who studied and contemplated the moon and the heavens. To learn more about Margaret Bryan, see her Person record: womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/57. (5/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

The frontispiece to her lectures showed Margaret and her daughters, Ann and Maria, surrounding by astronomical instruments, including a telescope and an armillary sphere, a potent visual reminder of the importance and scope of girls’ education in the late eighteenth century. (4/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

With roots in Greek, Roman, Egyptian and other cultures, this gendering of the moon is found throughout poetry but has fallen out of use in scientific writing. (3/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Margaret Bryan (1759-1836), a scientist and educator, genders the moon as female throughout her A compendious system of astronomy, in a course of familiar lectures, published in quarto in 1797. (2/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

“The figure of the Moon’s orbit is nearly that of an ellipse; but, owing to the varieties of her affections, and their inequalities amongst themselves, not a regular one.” (1/5)

An engraving of a woman and two girls with scientific instruments in the background.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

We remember Barbauld’s “flight so daring” as we honor NASA astronaut Christina Koch’s voyage around the moon. For a full list of Barbauld’s publications, see her Person record: womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/16. (5/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

One of the most astonishing aspects of this poem is that the speaker appears to imagine herself voyaging through space: "Seiz’d in thought On fancy’s wild and roving wing I sail, From the green borders of the peopled earth, ... I launch into the trackless deeps of space," (4/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

“Summer Evening’s Meditation” is the last to appear in Poems, a volume that caused a sensation, going through five editions by 1777 and leading a critic to observe that Barbauld’s poems were “inferior only to the works of Milton and Shakespeare.” (3/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Anna Barbauld’s description of the emergence of the moon, eager to push “her brother,” the sun, “down in the sky,” offers one of the eighteenth century’s most tender portraits of the moon. (2/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

"...the skies... ...with mild maiden beams Of temper’d light, invite the cherish’d eye To wander o’er their sphere; where hung aloft DIAN’s bright crescent, like a silver bow New strung in heaven, lifts high its beamy horns Impatient for the night, and seems to push Her brother down the sky." (1/5)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

To celebrate NASA astronaut Christina Koch, the first woman to venture around the moon, we want to share some of the women in the WPHP who studied and contemplated the moon and the heavens. For a list of Somerville’s titles, see her Person record: womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/569. (4/4)

Page from a book with a diagram labeled "fig. 96" showing geometric lines and points representing the sun, moon, and Earth.

Page with text on lunar inequalities and a diagram of a circular orbit labeled fig. 100.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

According to Richard Holmes, Mechanism of the Heavens is “a masterpiece of descriptive explanation and analogy that unveils a complete scientific world view, covering everything from stars to insects.” (3/4)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

So wrote Mary Somerville, a Scottish mathematician and scientist, in 1831 in her “Preliminary Dissertation” to Mechanism of the Heavens, a translation of Mécanique Céleste. Somerville discusses advanced planetary mathematics in a language that is at once both accessible and stirring. (2/4)

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

"The heavens afford the most sublime subject of study which can be derived from science: the magnitude and splendour of the objects...impress the mind with some notion of the energy that maintains them in their motions with a durability to which we can see no limits” (vi). (1/4)

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Reposted by The Women's Print History Project

Leslie Howsam @lesliehowsam.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Required reading for #bookhistory and “fembib. Collaboration, mentorship, “data intimacy” and research.

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Reposted by The Women's Print History Project

Kandice @kandicedarcia.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Being sincere in public sets off my fight-or-flight response, but adding my favourite meme of all time to the social media posts helps.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

For our final spotlight in the Research in Reflection series, join PI Michelle Levy and Lead Editor Kandice Sharren as they muse on 10 years of the WPHP—their regrets, their accomplishments, and how they have tried to keep the humans involved at the forefront of of the project: tinyurl.com/23ajexte

A classic meme: Hugh Laurie's head on top of a giant manatee that is crashing into an air station. The caption reads, "OH, THE HUGH MANATEE."

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

In Kate’s contribution to our “Research in Reflection Series” she reflects on how the WPHP (delightfully, inevitably) shaped her her PhD work—and provided her with the opportunity to drop books in the British Library. Oops. Read about her ongoing love story with the WPHP here: tinyurl.com/5k55cpxm

A woman pushes a the book cart of shame, laden with old books, through the Rare Books and Manuscripts reading room at the British Library.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Continuing our "Research in Reflection Spotlight Series," RA Belle Eist details how following a rabbit hole into Jane Loudon's life informed both her MA project and her WPHP work: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/150.

A title page with ten lines of black printed text on a white background

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

In our next installment of the "Research in Reflection Spotlight Series, join RA Salena Wiener as she recounts how the WPHP helped shape her PhD research on women's labour in the production of manuscripts: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/149.

Thirteen lines of black cursive script on beige paper background

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

First up, in "Reflections of a Research Assistant: The Multitudes of WPHP Work," Amanda Law discusses the several roles she took on as an RA for the project, and the special place Phillis Wheatley Peters and her book of poetry hold in her memories: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/146.

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The Women's Print History Project @thewphp.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

As the WPHP comes to a bittersweet close this summer (😭), we're releasing one last Spotlight series to celebrate! Join our team down memory lane in our "Research in Reflection Spotlight Series" which will be published throughout the rest of August: womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/148.

womensprinthistoryproject.com

Research in Reflection Spotlight Series

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