iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova @voloshkova.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So pleased to see my newly published article "Books of the Road: Experiences of Reading in Robert Lee's Travel Journal, 1824-1826" in Knygotyra (86) 2026. Open access👉https://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/knygotyra/en/article/view/48700/43165

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ISECS/SIEDS @isecs-sieds.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The annual ISECS Executive Committee meeting was held on July 9, at the University of Warsaw, in Poland. La réunion annuelle du comité exécutif de la SIEDS a eu lieu le 9 juillet à l'Université de Varsovie, en Pologne.

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Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova @voloshkova.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Delighted that my essay "Bluestockings and Their Spaces of Privacy in Conversation and in Writing: the Case of Mary Hamilton" has appeared in this fantasic edited volume on privacy in Early Modern egodocuments #Bluestockings #18thCStudies #eightheenthcentury⬇️⬇️⬇️

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Also OPEN ACCESS is the Introduction, co-authored by @nuriyabo.bsky.social, David Denison, and myself. Here we situate @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social in context of other 18thc digital initiatives, & highlight key findings of the contributions to the vol. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This article offers an overview of the research project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2023) — the impetus for this special issue — and positions it within the field of eighteenth-century studies. After outlining the project's genesis, we describe one of its core outputs, the digital edition of Mary Hamilton's archive, providing key technical information which is referenced in the articles that follow. We then summarize the contents of the special issue, reflect on answers to the project's original research questions that the authors provide, and highlight key synergies and themes.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

ALSO OPEN ACCESS is our 1st article, 'Reconstructing Mary Hamilton's Social Networks', by David Denison & Tino Oudesluijs, who present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks from ms letters-connecting not just correspondents but mentionees too onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Mary Hamilton's relationships and networking practices are central to this special issue. In this article, we present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks around Hamilton during five key periods of her life, connecting not just correspondents but also persons frequently mentioned in The Mary Hamilton Papers. We explain our methodology and present visualizations of the networks. By tabulating Hamilton's strongest relationships in each phase of her life, we can trace a selection of relationships over time. We reflect on the benefits and limitations of our approach, inviting expert judgement on its results and its potential for wider use.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Next is 'The Tip of the Iceberg: Reading Practices in Mary Hamilton's Archive, 1783–1784', by @crulph.bsky.social & I. A data-driven dive into what, how, where, when & with whom Mary Hamilton read, & reflection on DH methodologies applied to ms life writing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article evaluates the benefits and drawbacks of using quantitative digital analysis to reconstruct eighteenth-century reading practices using manuscript life writing. Our corpus is over a thousand pages of Mary Hamilton's letters and diary entries covering one year of her life. We report significant findings concerning the space, time, nature, and mode of Hamilton's reading, and the media, genre, authorship, and provenance of her material. Her reading diet is more dominated by female-authored manuscript prose, inflected by personal acquaintance, and reliant on a private loan economy than we anticipated — conclusions that we would not have reached using qualitative analysis alone.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Next up is 'Franks & Friendship: Eighteenth-Century Postal Practices in The Mary Hamilton Papers' by Christine Wallis, who uses evidence from TMHP to explore how postage and franking aided correspondents' politeness and identity work. It is also OPEN ACCESS! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

In '‘I was so ill, and so low…’: Women, Mental Health, & Strategies of Care in The Mary Hamilton Papers', @annafranjam.bsky.social explores how space, sociability & letter-writing were understood as strategies of self care by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Another OPEN ACCESS baby!

Abstract
This article examines how space, sociability, and letter-writing are conceptualised as self-care strategies by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Building on a recent proliferation of interest in histories of mental health and emotions, it explores familiar correspondence written to Mary Hamilton between 1776 and 1809 by Louisa Murray (Lady Stormont), Jane Hamilton Holman, and Lady Mary Webb, which addresses low spirits, nervousness, melancholy, depression, and agitation of mind. It finds that three distinct yet interrelated strategies of care — change of scene, intimate sociability, and therapeutic epistolary practice — gave these correspondents important ways to manage and maintain mental health.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Then, er, it's me again! In 'A ‘generous Rival’? Mary Hamilton and Frances Burney', I use archival & digital approaches to solve the mystery of why Hamilton loved Burney but Burney loathed Hamilton. The answer is one to which many novelists may relate. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article combines close reading of manuscript correspondence with digital analysis of reading practices to trace literary and sociable interactions between the Bluestocking writers Frances Burney and Mary Hamilton between 1782 and 1796. I argue that Burney's well-established dislike of Hamilton was motivated by the (accurate) perception that Hamilton was a shallow and disingenuous reader of her novels, more interested in capitalizing on Burney's celebrity than appreciating her work. Hamilton and Burney's differing characters as readers and writers sat uneasily together, compromising their friendship's potential — a conclusion that can only be reached by combining traditional archival research with digital scholarship.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Next, it's Mascha Hansen with 'The Literary Court: Reading Queen Charlotte'. This article investigates the literary cultures revolving around Queen Charlotte, in some of which Mary Hamilton took part. It's our last gold OPEN ACCESS contribution! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article investigates the literary culture revolving around Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) between 1761 and 1818. The Queen's library, sold after her death in 1818, contained more than 4500 volumes, and the sales catalogue (1819) offers a fascinating glimpse into her collecting habits and reading interests. This article uses the catalogue, as well as manuscript letters recently digitized by the Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers project and The Georgian Papers Programme, to show how she connected with other readers both in and out of Court via a shared love of reading.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Now Anne-Christine Gardner w/ 'Self-Corrections as Indexes of Social Relationships: Observations From Mary Hamilton's Correspondence With Frances Burney (1783–1789)'. Anne & I take complementary approaches to the same material: IMHO it's a fun conversation! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article explores how social relationships are developed and conveyed through correspondence, with a particular focus on self-corrections in the surviving letters from Mary Hamilton (1756–1816) to Frances Burney (1752–1840). The findings show that the more closely connected the writer feels with the recipient, the more self-corrections are deemed socially acceptable. Engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue with Coulombeau's (this issue) assessment of Hamilton and Burney's complex and evolving relationship, this essay underlines the importance of self-corrections for the study of handwritten documents as well as social relationships and networks in the past.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Closing up this v interdisciplinary special issue is Yoko Iyeiri, with an analysis of how Hamilton's enormous archive shows linguistic change, specifically in relation to the development of the adverb. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article explores adverbs in The Mary Hamilton Papers, examining the factors which may influence correspondents' decisions as to whether or not to use the -ly suffix (e.g. exceedingly/exceeding). While the use of -ly forms is generally well established in the dataset, tendencies differ depending on the specific adverb. This study investigates some factors determining the choice of forms — e.g. the nature of the word that the adverb modifies — arguing that linguistic factors are more influential than extra-linguistic factors in the data examined. Mary Hamilton's own writings exhibit a slightly delayed adoption of -ly compared to the overall trend in the entire dataset, suggesting possible linguistic conservatism that warrants further research.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

It's here! Our special issue of JECS (journal of @bsecs.bsky.social), a bumper vol of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on 18c networks, gender, sociability & manuscript, deriving from @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social project. I'll be skeeting today about the contributions in turn...stay tuned!

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Then, we have @voloshkova.bsky.social with 'Mary Hamilton, Manuscript Poetry, and the Bluestocking Network: Promoting Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter', investigating Hamilton as promoter of poetry. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Abstract
This article considers Mary Hamilton's agency and influence in promoting poetry within and beyond Bluestocking circles during the 1780s. Drawing on evidence from Hamilton's diaries, correspondence, and manuscript books, it reconstructs Hamilton's relationships with Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter, demonstrating how these poets benefited in terms of prestige from their well-connected friend's proactive stance. Hamilton's varied activities enhanced the visibility of female poets in society, helped to establish a positive perception of their works, and made a significant contribution to the cumulative influence of the Bluestockings on late eighteenth-century literary culture.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

More for the OED: bas bleu, indigo (in humorous reference to Bluestocking views), dissertation 'debate', haut ton. Chaperon and dirty (as verbs), moonshine (adjective), a bundle of nerves, jargonic, lucet, parliamenteering, spa toilet, strongle, tarot. #Linguistics #18thC #c18th

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Breaking Up of the Blue Stocking Club. Etching, hand-colored (London: Thomas Tegg, 1815. NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle)

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Kristina Decker @kristinadecker.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

I’m absolutely delighted to receive my contributor copy of ‘Bluestockings and Landscape in Eighteenth-Century Britain’. Thank you to the editors, Markman Ellis and Jack Orchard, and congratulations to all contributors. I can’t wait to read all the other chapters!

A hardback book is held up against a green landscape.

The first page of a chapter and its heading.

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Amy Humphries 🌱🌸 @amyjanieh.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

#OnThisDay in 1738, John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont noted in his diary that 'The Princess of Wales was brought to bed of a boy, which the same night received private baptism, there being doubt if he would live'. This baby was the future George III, one of Britain's longest reigning monarchs.

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Joanne Begiato @jbhist.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Our edited collection is published Open Access by @bloomsburyhist.bsky.social on 6 February! We have wonderful chapters exploring inherited objects and stories! We loved putting it together @katieebarclay.bsky.social @tanyaevans.bsky.social @ashleybarnwell.bsky.social @lauracking.bsky.social

Cover of the edited collection Inheriting the Family.

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Dr. Nataliia Voloshkova @voloshkova.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

📢📢📢 My article 'Writing Travelogues in the Early 19th Century: Story Behind Mary Holderness's Travel Account of Journeying From Riga to Crimea Via Kyiv' is out!!! You can read it here uhr.ucu.edu.ua/index.php/ch... #openaccess #travel #travelwriting

uhr.ucu.edu.ua

Перегляд Писання тревелогів на початку ХІХ століття: за кулісами нотаток Мері Голдернесс про подорож з Риги до Криму через Київ

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John Stone @john-stone.bsky.social · 22/11/2023

"The call for papers is now open for the next ISECS International Seminar for Early Career Scholars, "Diasporic Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century" (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, 8-12 July 2024). The deadline for applications is 31 January 2024." oraprdnt.uqtr.uquebec.ca/pls/public/doc…

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Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg @stabihh.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

‚Manuscript Albums and their Cultural Contexts‘. Ed. by Janine Droese & Janina Karolewski. #OpenAccess The first contribution to the comparative study of manuscript albums, focusing on their materiality & analysing the practices of all those involved in making and using them. doi.org/10.1515/9783...

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Lisa Smith @historybeagle.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

Two big databases... 1. Dined, a db of who dined at Holland House 1788-1806. dined.qmul.ac.uk 2. 3000 dishes on a Georgian table, 1788-1813 zenodo.org/records/8070.... There is also a link to the article there that gives some teaching and research ideas! (Biased about this one for obvious reasons.)

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Mark R. Stoneman @markstoneman.com · 06/11/2023

#OpenAccess: Women in the History of Science: A sourcebook, edited by Hannah Wills, Sadie Harrison, Erika Jones, Rebecca Martin, and Farrah Lawrence-Mackey www.uclpress.co.uk/products/211143 🗃️ #HistSci #HistKnow

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Dr Rita J. Dashwood @rjdashwood.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

Call for speakers! I’m organising an online series of talks, “Women, Property and Economics,” which will bring together early career and established academics, and heritage professionals, working on this topic across 18th and 19th century studies.

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Dr Rita J. Dashwood @rjdashwood.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

Please share! 🙂

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Dr Eva Johanna Holmberg @evajohannaholmberg.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

This forthcoming publication might be of interest to scholars of #earlymodern #news (it has Hannu Salmi (my former prof) as contributor, but also other familiar names): www.cambridge.org/core/element...

cambridge.org

Communicating the News in Early Modern Europe

Cambridge Core - Printing and Publishing History - Communicating the News in Early Modern Europe

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Kristina Decker @kristinadecker.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

The Women’s History Association of Ireland is now on Bluesky! 🗃️ @whaireland.bsky.social

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Dr Rachel Bynoth @rachelbynoth.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

Come and join us in Oxford for the next in person BSECS conference 3-5th January. Abstracts for panels and papers during by 30th October 2033. Please share #skystorians www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

bsecs.org.uk

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Dr Corrina Readioff @fierengraw.bsky.social · 04/10/2023

My new book on epigraphs is accompanied by a free downloadable bibliography of 1,622 books published 1750-1850 that feature pre-chapter epigraphs, & it's available here under the 'Resources' tab here: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-epigrap...

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