Born Free Press

📝 A free-range collection of stories and snippets about history, science, art, and culture ✨ Subscribe for delivery to your inbox fornightly 💌

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 44 of the newsletter is out now 💌

I take a look at the influence of medievalism on the Suffragettes & how Chaucer may have inspired Emily Davison's infamous Derby actions 110yrs ago this week.

https://t.co/dmBnlzkoA0

#Medievalism #Suffragettes
h/t @DrJaninaRamirez

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

When I say next week, what I really mean is this week. This Friday. (It's a public holiday here in the UK today, so it still feels like the weekend 💫)

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

I was on holiday ✈️ when Issue 43 of the newsletter went out... 💌

While I took a pause, I shared some of my favourite takes on the punctuational pause – the semi-colon: https://t.co/ehnWwIhoUW

Normal storytelling service resumes next week.

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 42 of the newsletter is out now 💌

It's another instalment from the 1923 diary (held at
@GtDiaryProject
@BishopsgateInst) of 17-year-old Londoner, Lily* – and sadly, she's having a tough time of it.

https://t.co/sfZ4EmdHQJ

#History #SocialHistory #London #1920s

[Amy Freeborn @amyfreeborn]

Happy #MayDay. I once heard Ronald Hutton describe maypole dancing in the Puritan era (permanent maypoles were ordered cut down from 1644) as "like raves of the 1990s". Mobile maypoles were set up & Puritan police given false tipoffs to draw them away from the real dances.

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 41 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I tell the story of @LowellObs's founding astronomer who - in an effort to see beyond our world - inadvertently turned the lens on himself.

https://t.co/cygdauXMX9

#History #Space #Astronomy

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 40 of the newsletter is out now💌

In it I interview @theciderologist about the forgotten success & status of English cider in the 17thC.

Did you know English cidermakers beat French winemakers to the 'champagne' fizz?!

https://t.co/Gc85hmTwfq

#Cider #History #Champagne

[Gary Hornseth @GaryHornseth]

For #NationalPencilDay, here is a picture I took a few years back of a jar of pencil stubs collected by Wisconsin author and newspaper editor Waldemar Ager (1869-1941).

On display at the @Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, Iowa.

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 39 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I share the first in a series of social history snippets of 1920s London, as described in the diary of a young woman that's held at @GtDiaryProject @BishopsgateInst

https://t.co/NGkVaYok9f

#History #SocialHistory #London #1920s

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

If no one wanted to put them in exhibitions, she put her #art into the world any way she could… Sometimes she would “throw objects into the Thames at night”. What audience was there for these works? “There was no audience at all. An audience of one.” https://t.co/1b7VQLD7bX

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 38 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I investigate the potential link between a unique native Australian animal and a classical Greek character, and find there is indeed a link there!

https://t.co/9LyowrB1DP

#History #Science #GreekMyth #Theogony #Echidna

[Isabelle Baldwin 🌎🎞 @BelleNoelPhoto]

Portraits famous photographers have taken of their partners (a thread):

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 37 of the newsletter is out now 💌

Read how a professor has found striking links between Ferula drudeana, a rare plant growing in Turkey, and silphion, a renowned plant from ancient history, thought to be extinct.

https://t.co/NvCOUGyQf3

#Science #History #Silphion

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Roget wanted to classify & organize words in the English language. Roget’s Thesaurus is not just a book of words, it’s like a library of words… the words are not arranged alphabetically, like a Dictionary, but “according to the ideas which they express.” https://t.co/gjiB5RaEos

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

H/t to @FryRsquared & @laurenlaverne for the tip-off.

And if you want to learn more about Sir William Henry Perkin's discovery of a new purple, try 'Mauve' by Simon Garfield: https://t.co/N5HGfCGwed

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 36 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I look at the history of the colour purple, and how an accidental discovery democratised its use in fashion and had other important scientific implications.

https://t.co/xew8rC81UJ

#History #Science #Purple #Mauve

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 35 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I dig into the history of a certain witchy-vibes photograph I love, and try to find out what it's really about.

https://t.co/e8TzCc4y9m

@Vassar #witches #dancing #Shakespeare

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Issue 34 of the newsletter is out now 💌

In it I speak to @shirilevari about her research into the sound of swearing.

I thought I knew what one of the key elements of a strong swear word was. I was wrong.

https://t.co/XhQ52RrJS2

#science #language #swearing #profanity

[Born Free Press @BornFreePress]

Stationery addicts / pencil fans unite ✏️✊✏️

Why the pencil is perfect (Caroline Weaver | Small Thing Big Idea) https://t.co/SwXMK1JylX via @TEDTalks

#StationeryAddict

[timothy @timothyachumba]

🔺🟡🟦