Grace Ioppolo, FSA

Professor Emerita, University of Reading; Director: Shakespeare, drama, manuscripts expert.🇺🇸 Rep: @doujohyou @pew_literary

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

A young 18th-century student practiced penmanship by copying out names in an indenture (now @UkNatArchives) on the verso. The student eventually wrote, “Blockhead” a few times and finally wrote, “I am a Blockhead” in a neat, calligraphic hand!

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

China’s famous Terracotta Army figures were likely built by artisans who included women and children: https://t.co/4046TQOiHS

[Variety @Variety]

Tom Skerritt, who starred in the TV series “Picket Fences” and appeared in movies ranging from “MASH” to “Alien,” “Top Gun,” “A River Runs Through It” and “Ted,” has died of natural causes at 93.

https://t.co/13H8QfVBlc

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

James Acaster, all the time:
#CelebrityTraitors

[Library of Congress @librarycongress]

Spooky season special: The Library is home to the sole surviving nitrate print of the first film adaptation of "Frankenstein," produced in 1910 by the Edison Manufacturing Company!

Watch the full film and learn how it came to the Library.
⬇️
https://t.co/emVa1aY1YT

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

“To thine own self be true” (Hamlet).

Hooray to Ross Kemp for quoting #Shakespeare after being murdered in plain sight:

#CelebrityTraitors

[Matt Cartoons @MattCartoonist]

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph

Buy a print of my cartoons at https://t.co/ADuWHWom7N

Original artwork from https://t.co/Wcrx6Vu6YW

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

The brilliance of Emily Dickinson: https://t.co/VL9KhsJJTm via @NYTimes

[Westminster Abbey @wabbey]

Today we look at his dramatic memorial to Elizabeth Nightingale. Elizabeth predeceased her husband following a premature birth caused by the shock of a violent flash of lightning. The memorial depicts a skeleton of Death emerging from his prison to aim his dart at the dying figure of Elizabeth above. She is held up by her husband, who, in horror, tries to ward off the stroke of death.

#31DaysofGraves #Mourning

[The Public Domain Review @PublicDomainRev]

Edgar Allan Poe was big into code cracking. He once challenged readers of a Philadelphia paper to stump him with coded messages, deciphering dozens before having to “swear off” cryptograms forever. More on how code factors into his stories here: https://t.co/e89WJ8eEW8

[Westminster Abbey @wabbey]

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born #onthisday in 1772. A pioneer of the Romantic movement, Coleridge is best-known for his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He was active in Britain in the years following the French Revolution as a pamphleteer and lay preacher, inspiring a new generation of writers and gaining the patronage of progressive members of the rising middle class. He frequently wrote with William Wordsworth, who is also memorialised in Poets’ Corner.

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

Bayeux Tapestry tickets for next year go on sale at 10am GMT today:

https://t.co/mgwqi1OsrT

[Fascinating History @Fascinate_Hist]

In 1920, a grieving craftsman built a secret into his wife’s mausoleum that only appears once a year.

Inside a quiet Brussels cemetery stands a statue of a woman reaching out into total darkness.

But every summer solstice at exactly midday, a beam of sunlight punctures the roof and forms a perfect glowing heart.

For 15 fleeting minutes, the light lands exactly in her empty hand - proving that the strongest love can outlive death.

[Sheep Daily 🐑 @sheepdaily_twt]

˙ᵕ˙

[Kevin Wilbraham @KPW1453]

One of the Bronze Age boats discovered at Must Farm quarry near Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire. Affectionately called ‘Alan’ by the excavation team, the boat is currently on display at Flag Fen Archaeology Park. 📸 My own #Woodensday #BronzeAge #FlagFen

[Grace Ioppolo, FSA @ProfShakespeare]

Love, love me do.

Liverpool will unveil a Beatles museum in 2028: https://t.co/mO2qdmiLcB

[Library of Congress @librarycongress]

The Library's Liljenquist collection of Civil War photographs contains several images, like these, of veterans who fought for the Union posing with family members (likely their grandsons) who served in World War I.

More of the Liljenquist collection. ⬇️ https://t.co/l94U2HYZGG

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

English Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn De Morgan, Night and Sleep (1878) #womensart

[CatherineRosamundLowe @CathyRLowe]

#MememtoMoriMonday

The three living & three dead, in the "Office of the Dead".

This legend was one of the most influential poetic & pictorial traditions of the Middle Ages. Its moralistic message was: repent, for wealth & power count for nothing in the end.

Stowe MS 17.

[The OED @OED]

OED #WordOfTheDay: scungies, n.

Men's or boys' close-fitting swimming briefs.

View the entry: https://t.co/Tn17bgpvWw

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Feline fine.