Inlay

Cultural historian and writer. Author of Palace of Palms, a Times and New Statesman Book of the Year. https://kateteltscher.com/

Just stumbled on this extraordinary tragicomic image. Dancing on the grave of a giant redwood, 4 July 1853. 'Upon this stump ... thirty-two persons were engaged in dancing four sets of cotillions at one time', J. M. Hutchings, Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California, 1862.

Enjoying account of a 1784 Royal Society meeting by French geologist, Faujas de Saint-Fond. Members were 'pretty much enlivened' after a dinner with vast quantities of drink. Joseph Banks presided in a 'colossal' ugly chair at a table covered by a huge red velvet cushion ('one cannot tell why').

Only a few more days to catch the Garden Museum's wonderful Seeds of Exchange exhibition about botanical art and the plant trade in 18th-century Canton (Guangzhou) and London (closes 10 May). Check out this delightful 1790s painting of a florist on his smoking break.

“In his view, the medal is not a forgery. A forgery implies that there is a genuine medal. As the genuine philology medal does not exist, his medal cannot be a forgery".

The research guide on Environmental History that I wrote for The National Archives, UK is now live! Includes research advice and resources on colonial environments, pollution, agriculture, and animal histories. Available here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yo... #envhist #envhum

Preserved for 200 years, these watercolour illustrations used by Darwin’s mentor, John Henslow, have been featured for the first time in today’s Guardian. And they will soon be used again as teaching materials in the Garden’s new Certificate in Botany course. Find out more: https://shorturl.at/SxCej

Puzzle Binding! Tricky! These are almost as rare as hen's teeth, and we just... Had One??? And, it includes HOW Many Books? (Five from Germany c. 1601 and a blank one at last count...) #Vexierbuch #DosADos @newberrylibrary.bsky.social (Case C 823 .966)

Steve McQueen’s new project on the plants of Grenada: ‘I wanted to see what the Arawaks, the Caribs, the Europeans, the Africans, the migrant Chinese and Indian workers would have seen within the one constant thing which would have brought attention to their gaze, a thing of beauty’

'Every single bramley apple ever eaten can be traced back to the tree, which was planted from a pip by a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, in the early 19th century.' www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Appeal launched to buy Nottinghamshire cottage, where tree was planted in 19th century, and turn it into heritage centre

Authorities investigate Florent Montaclair over award given to himself and others including Noam Chomsky At a ceremony at the French national assembly attended by Nobel prize winners, former government ministers, MPs, decorated scientists and academics, all attention was on a previously unknown literature professor. Florent Montaclair, then 46, a balding, bespectacled figure in an ill-fitting suit and rosé-coloured shirt, was receiving the 2016 Gold Medal of Philology - the study of linguistics – from an international society of the same name. Continue reading...

The artist and film-maker spent a summer on the island making poetic images of the local flora – and exploring their connections to Grenada’s historical trauma