Apparently there's quite a bit about the Chevalier d'Eon in the British Library, not inappropriately, as they are buried just around the corner in Old St Pancras Churchyard, though presumably that final resting place was disturbed like most of the other graves when the railway line was pushed through.
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This addresses an issue that I am ( Read more... )

Overlooked No More: Eve Adams, Writer Who Gave Lesbians a Voice: 'Her 1925 book, “Lesbian Love,” is one of the earliest examples of American lesbian literature. She also ran Eve’s Hangout, a literary haunt in Manhattan': Her “Lesbian Love,” a collection of short stories and illustrations, was published in February 1925. Written under the pseudonym ( Read more... )

Oy, oo are you calling common? Stop using 'Common Wombat': The name Common Wombat was given anecdotally to this one, of three sub-species of wombats, found in Australia - referring to the Bare Nosed Wombat.
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It is clear that the Common Wombat is not so common anymore. we should not be using this word to describe them, as it gives the impression ( Read more... )

Meanwhile: on perhaps same old, same old themes:
Okay, I dissent a little from the 'forgotten' in the title here when one discovers in the text that there are several biographies of her and she was involved with a number of famous names and presumably figures in theirs, but 'erased' in the history of this particular tarot desk, yeah: Meet the ( Read more... )

'Why are there no women great artists?' - okay, we know, do we not, my dearios, that there are great women artists? - but there might be more. One of the reasons why there are not as many as there might be could be that they felt they had Other Priorities (not necessarily Being A Muse). I was already apprised of the not necessarily softer side of ( Read more... )

National Portrait Gallery to feature more women in its collection: Curators will increase representation of female artists and sitters and seek overlooked stories: yay, I guess? Having been to various exhibitions there on particular groups of women (e.g the Bluestocking circle) and particular artists (Cindy Sherman) either being or making art. A ( Read more... )

Augusta Fells Savage, a talented sculptor who had faced obstacles due to her sex and race at every turn: [L]ittle of Savage's work survives today. Because she couldn't afford bronze, she often had to make her sculptures out of plaster; most of these have crumbled over time. Other works, like The Harp, were destroyed because they could not be moved ( Read more... )

In the midst of everything, this is lovely: Turkey embarks on cultural mission to preserve its fairytales: Mammoth task to collate magical folklore of Anatolian plateau involves thousands of stories: '“In folk tales, the heroes are mostly outsiders who suffer the violence of powerful autocrats; for politicians, their defiant tone is dangerous.”'
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‘Naked and starving’: letters tell how English paupers fought for rights 200 years ago: [P]reviously unpublished letters of penniless and disabled paupers living in the early 19th century reveal the sophisticated and powerful rhetoric they used to secure regular welfare payments from parish authorities, despite being barely able to read and write.
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I know people are bored in lockdown, but this is ridiculous: Thames safety warning after film-maker has to be rescued from river. RNLI highlights dangers of jumping into river after apparent online video stunt. I suppose this was in that brief hiatus period, but still. At least I suppose the Thames is no longer a seething stew of Orrible Disease ( Read more... )