John Overholt

Curator of Early Books & Manuscripts, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Opinions are my own. He/him/his

Public Key

npub1vv2hm9r9yxv53e3lhsdetyl6guz65qr4ltn6tmyzlruqn3csm5ms2x4qvx

NIP-05 Address

overholt_at_glammr.us@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxx9taj3jjrx2guclmcxu4j0aywpd2qp6l4ea9ajp037qfcugd6dclhx229

Author Public Key

npub1vv2hm9r9yxv53e3lhsdetyl6guz65qr4ltn6tmyzlruqn3csm5ms2x4qvx

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Last Notes

2024-09-08 14:27:39

Your money’s no good if you want to go drinking at a tavern in Elizabethan London—you’ll need to buy some tavern tokens. https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/early-modern-tavern-tokens/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/113/102/399/388/332/090/original/0ff33919a1eb25e7.jpeg

2024-08-04 13:33:54

Wheeeeee! https://clements.umich.edu/aaps-workshop-for-teachers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aaps-workshop-for-teachers
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/904/007/189/243/254/original/e2fe3300ccadd5ca.jpeg

2024-07-25 14:40:15

It's going to be a struggle to eat lunch with my jaw this dropped. https://www.stickley.com/collections/collectors-shop/products/mission-pet-bed
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/847/641/610/593/078/original/35d02845a6de06e1.png

2024-07-19 13:31:08

Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Have you tried turning it off and on again again?
Have you tried turning it off and on again again again?
...
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/813/396/526/175/097/original/617183e19c523a8f.png

2024-05-30 12:46:02

TEACH THE CONTROVERSY https://www.jamesarsenault.com/pages/books/8996/professor-orlando-ferguson/map-of-the-square-and-stationary-earth
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/530/099/640/056/718/original/e77a543d2b983ad5.webp

2024-05-18 02:28:29

I have a theory that the concept of something being “pre-distressed” is only appealing to you if your life is such that you’ve never actually had to use something until it was completely worn out.

2024-03-15 16:34:24

In celebration of Ramadan, a post from the Harvard Yenching Library on Muslims in China. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7590e1c7ec574aef9545388c6ee39671
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/112/100/657/537/897/754/original/6dc842e2531c207d.png

2024-01-11 17:59:12

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@npub1typ…c8hh The English on that horse site seems pretty suspect to me. Maybe it was written by Horse Ebooks.

2023-12-07 16:11:09

He died before I turned two but Lyndon Johnson talking to me from an inch away is still one of my greatest fears. #PersonalSpace https://todaysdocument.tumblr.com/post/736055928022024192/senator-richard-russell-and-president-lyndon-b
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/540/007/275/921/699/original/e7b3dde7b7ad6241.jpg

2023-12-05 00:17:02

23andMe was hacked, so if your information was compromised, make sure to change your genetic code ASAP. https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/4/23988050/23andme-hackers-accessed-user-data-confirmed

2023-11-28 12:52:19

To me, this backlash is of a piece with people who never want public libraries to weed a single book. Space is finite. It just is. Houghton is full and I send nearly everything I acquire to offsite storage without it being an act of cultural vandalism. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/nov/25/cultural-vandalism-row-as-kew-gardens-and-natural-history-museum-plan-to-move-collections-out-of-london

2023-10-22 14:41:29

The story of oil in human history, told in the style of the Bayeux tapestry. https://www.theblackgoldtapestry.com
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/279/189/802/903/639/original/e88d996d31ec0281.jpeg

2023-10-16 00:17:14

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@npub18wj…lvmv Another Brick in the Wall?

2023-10-07 16:24:19

My collegiate-themed hotel included a pencil, shrink wrapped for my protection, but not so much as a scrap of paper in the room.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/194/659/521/776/534/original/2a103321d12c9f02.jpeg

2023-10-01 13:06:50

The Quarterly Report of Metropolitan Fashions. Autumn, 1895, includes some bicycling attire you wouldn’t confuse with athlesiure. https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2023/09/late-19th-century-fall-fashions/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/159/909/022/177/540/original/1c86c5490c387d6c.jpeg

2023-10-01 12:05:11

Trinity College Dublin recently received a collection of more than 50 fore-edge paintings, and they are all viewable in a new online exhibition. Fore-edge paintings are one of my favorite things to show visitors—fanning out the text block to reveal a little scene feels like a magic trick. https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/bindings/
#Libraries #SpecialCollections
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/159/666/704/152/014/original/a00c03faaa582486.jpeg

2023-09-27 17:26:30

These kids today, with their Tik Toks and their “whom of which”es. (I have never heard this construction and I am having strong feelings about it.) cc @npub1hvz…mle9
https://news.mit.edu/2023/whom-which-trend-linguistics-0927

2023-09-27 14:56:14

Princeton Archives explains the historical evolution of U and V in the course of answering the question "Why Does My Princeton Diploma Spell 'University' as 'Vniuersitatis'" https://universityarchives.princeton.edu/2023/09/dear-mr-mudd-why-does-my-princeton-diploma-spell-university-as-vniuersitatis/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/137/688/775/273/324/original/f7e9b6bdf019c114.webp

2023-09-25 11:33:38

The “men will do anything other than go to therapy” meme but for corporations trying to “lure” employees to the office. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/24/business/office-design-changes-boston/

2023-09-24 15:02:53

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@npub1qz2…nlrg They’re probably going to ask you to leave if you do.

2023-09-24 13:37:00

In the reading room at Duke’s Rubenstein Library, there’s one desk you can’t work at—Virginia Woolf’s. https://blogs.library.duke.edu/preservation/2023/09/22/woolfs-new-home/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/120/391/602/679/750/original/a6cc6a4df7300fe1.jpeg

2023-09-16 13:42:30

Audubon’s Birds of America (3-year-old for scale) https://grosvenorroom.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/an-unusual-feathered-friend-visits-buffalo/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/075/114/728/399/284/original/5a3dc0c99dd1d1c7.jpeg

2023-09-15 20:55:25

The right doesn’t attack libraries because it doesn’t understand their power and value, but because it understands the collectivist power and liberatory value of libraries perfectly, and fears it.

2023-09-15 12:37:35

Princeton is digitizing its LGBTQIA+ Periodical and Ephemera Collection, with about 50 issues available so far. https://library.princeton.edu/news/general/2023-07-31/lgbtqia-periodical-and-ephemera-collection-now-digitized
#SpecialCollections #Digitization #Libraries
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/069/193/244/050/763/original/3533f6e9c7ad0d81.jpeg

2023-09-03 13:34:59

The oldest printed book in the Huntington Library isn’t its Gutenberg Bible, but a Chinese Buddhist text nearly four centuries older. https://huntington.org/videos-and-recorded-programs/thousand-years-books-printed-1085
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/111/001/475/123/522/960/original/9e6e53ab4c6417fe.jpeg

2023-08-31 13:16:38

A look at the wonderful Harvard Map Collection exhibition on maps of imaginary realms, and the welcome news that its run has been extended to November 3. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/08/getting-lost-in-fictional-maps-narnia-middle-earth-westeros-twin-peaks-oz-zelda/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Gazette%2020230831%20(1)

2023-08-24 13:58:45

Virtually explore artifacts retrieved from the wreck of the Civil War ironclad the USS Monitor: https://noaasanctuaries.tumblr.com/post/726494964375273472/uss-monitor-virtual-artifact-collection
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/944/942/592/147/091/original/11e6c574dd0b4c4b.mp4

2023-08-23 19:26:16

When an email starts "We want all of our customers to know that securing and safeguarding your personal information is one of our most important responsibilities and one that we take very seriously." the next sentence is not likely to be "And we're doing a great job of it."

2023-08-20 14:26:49

Much like the purpose of Newspeak was to make thoughtcrime impossible, the purpose of university dismantlement is to deny access to the language to describe a better world. https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/08/west-virginia-university-cuts-programs.html

2023-08-19 15:56:49

Please note: movers may only enter your house if invited.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/917/098/206/693/142/original/3f80b15901965efc.jpeg

2023-08-16 19:23:54

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@npub13vv…0sze Credit for the quick turnaround on the answer anyway, but that is surprising.

2023-08-16 12:16:50

The most desirable seat on the bus to me is the empty window seat next to a man in the aisle seat refusing to slide over so he can have a row to himself. I will climb you like a jungle gym, sir.

2023-08-15 22:30:50

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation
A reminder that the PowerPoint “slide” is a skeuomorph. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/11/1077232/corporate-presentations-history/

2023-08-15 15:57:22

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@npub13vv…0sze I subscribe to the RSS of every special collections blog I can get my hands on, because that's the only reasonable way for me to keep up with them. Not that everybody's going to have one anymore but it really baffles me when they have blogs but no RSS feeds that I can find (looking at you, NYHS https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs).

2023-08-13 13:38:12

An illustrated Persian manuscript on the history of mahouts, or elephant keepers. https://rylandscollections.com/2023/08/12/elephants-and-mahouts-in-persianate-south-asia/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/882/579/181/645/293/original/8f13778902ab4f8b.jpeg

2023-08-09 21:22:27

@npub19kr…8m4r I subscribe to your blog via RSS, and I got the post that way, if that’s useful.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/861/755/518/401/482/original/900c4a73e49e5b67.jpeg

2023-08-08 17:15:56

Coming back from a wonderful tour and conversation with @npub12eh…seea and Boston Public Library Special Collections colleagues. Their new renovation looks both fabulous and functional and we all got out our cameras when we got to this brilliant project to rehouse the incunabula collection. Does what it says on the tin! #libraries
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/855/123/837/405/764/original/791fcb67abace2af.jpeg

2023-08-07 14:19:31

The scary woke agenda of the ALA is that LGBTQ kids should have the right to read books that validate them instead of shaming them. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-library-association-president-marxist-lesbian-rcna98254

2023-08-06 13:45:21

Optometrist George Mayerle’s 1907 multicultural eye chart is a fabulous piece of graphic design in its own right. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2023/08/03/mayerles-lithographed-international-test-chart-1907/
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/842/971/225/263/743/original/f9ef9caafb99c9b7.jpeg

2023-08-01 22:13:34

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 I’m not sure what connection NYT is trying to draw between the Georgia inquiry and Trump’s left shoulder.

2023-07-07 18:37:28

Stop me if this sounds familiar--a 1787 speech warning German parents against their children reading dangerous literature from the "surging tide of books which, from [book] fair to [book] fair, inundate our country like the Flood."
#NewAcquisition #newacq #libraries
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/110/674/242/881/377/392/original/125b7d1295eb491e.jpg

2023-07-06 21:56:06

I feel like I have seen 50 posts going “Everybody says that favorites are worthless on Mastodon because there’s no algorithm but you should do it for positive feedback to the poster”* and zero posts actually advocating that favorites are worthless.
*it is true that you should do this.

2023-07-04 01:56:27

It’s probably not possible on Mastodon but I miss seeing when my retweets got retweeted.