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achronalart.bsky.social
Achronal Art
@achronalart.bsky.social
1.2K followers 300 following 6.6K posts
Alessandra Kelley - I make art. TTRPGs. She/her. Cis. White as Wonder Bread with mayo. Sophipygian. Postmodern Pre-Raphaelite.
Black lives matter. Trans rights are human rights. I only repost images with ALT text.
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achronalart.bsky.social
Shout out especially to this lady. She would fit right in at a modern Renaissance Faire and you would never guess she was a Pilgrim.
A closer detail of one figure, a woman in a buff long-sleeved pointed bodice and a bright-blue skirt only just below her knees with three gold stripes decorating it. Her stockings are bright red and she wears delicate brown shoes that look like modern Mary Janes, with a thin strap holding them on. Her face is mostly hidden by a wide-brimmed yellow hat that has three or four white ostrich feathers on it. Her collar is wide, white and trimmed with lace and sticks out as is the current fashion (not drooping on her shoulders). She's wearing a white apron, I think, but it is being blown to the side so her skirt and legs are fully visible. SHe wears a pack bundle and carries a walking stick, and is yanking a very reluctant dog (not visible in detail) by a rope tied to its collar.
December 6, 2025 at 7:17 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
In poking around 17th century paintings I discovered that the pop culture image of Pilgrims is inaccurate.

Shocking, I know.

🧵
1878 engraving of the Pilgrims leaving Delft on their way to America. On the shore a group of men, women and children on their knees looking humbly down or rolling their eyes up to the skies pray and beseech as a couple of anonymous sailors, their backs to us, push off a group of huddled people looking soberly back to them. It's black and white, so we can't tell if everyone is dressed in black, but they are certainly swathed in cloaks and things.
December 6, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
Notice the bright colors, the gaily feathered hats, the delicate little strap shoes.

The short skirts!

Honestly, this painting makes Pilgrim dress-up look WAY more fun than the stereotyped funereal black and white beloved of the Victorians.
December 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
And these are the Pilgrims. These guys!
A detail from Willaert's painting. There are women in brightly colored short skirts -- some calf length, one just under the knees -- with colored stripes on them showing their bright red and other colorful stockings, brightly colored short jackets and multicolored hats, some with ostrich feathers. The men are also wearing bright colors -- vivid red and blue, yellow and green, with blue and red ostrich feathers in their hats. A child in bright red, yellow, and blue holds a dead bird by the neck. A woman in a knee-length blue skirt and bright red stockings drags a rreluctant dog by a rope. There *is* a guy standing in the middle with a mostly black or grey outfit, but he is noticeably the only one. And even he has a pink-and-white ostrich feather in his hat.
December 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
That's where the Pilgrims come in. In 1620 one Adam Willaerts, Flemish artist, painted this, "The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers from Delfshaven on their Way to America."

Current events!
1620 Oil painting by Adam Willaerts. A pretty landscape with a blue bay and sky and green trees in the distance. A ship bedecked with cannons is anchored offshore (I dont't think it's the one the Pilgrims are heading for) and some smaller transport boats are rowing out. A motley group of people in colorful clothes is walking along the beach, descriptions to follow.
December 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
Artists then as now liked to look at stuff around them and paint what they see. And in the 17th century Netherlands they liked to paint the newly popular genre scenes, like people eating dinner or sweeping their courtyards... or embarking on a voyage.
December 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
See, the thing is, the Pilgrims embarked to America from the 17th century Netherlands.

And what was the 17th century Netherlands famous for?

Art!

Artists. Galleries. Dealers. Paintings and painters galore.
Circa. 1630 painting by Hans Jordaens III of an art gallery. In a high-ceilinged room (about 7 meters high, looks like) with high windows along one wall, paintings line the walls all the way to the ceiling and small sculptures cover tables. A group of men in Musketeer-era clothes examine landscapes, portraits and allegorical scenes.
December 6, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
Like, the Pilgrims didn't dress or look much like the pious 19th century fantasy above, and they *certainly* didn't like the pop culture images that have proliferated since the 19th century.
1908 chromolithograph Thanksgiving postcard showing two pop culture Pilgrims, a man and a woman, holding a platter of fruits above a centrally placed wild turkey. The platter appears to include a pumpkin, bananas, pineapples and grapes -- No, I don't understand it either. The male Pilgrim, on the left, is wearing a black coat with wide white cuffs and collar, tightly belted at the waist and flaring like a skirt to the knees, black bloomers that reach below the knees, black stockings and rumpled slumping brown boots with wide flaring cuffs. His hat is black, wide-brimmed with a somewhat tapering top and a white band, the classic "Pilgrim" hat. The female Pilgrim, on the right, is wearing a white bonnet like a baby's bonnet, her hair hanging out its back in two long braids. She wears a ground-length black skirt and a long-sleeved black bodice with wide white cuffs and collar like the man's. Her sleeves are a bit fancier.
December 6, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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fakehistoryhunter.net
Adventures in Woad: Woad Dyeing in the Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Worlds
exarc.net/issue-2025-3...
December 5, 2025 at 4:53 PM
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nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social
@fakehistoryhunter.net You may love this thread! And it has Dutch painting in it!
achronalart.bsky.social Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 21h
In poking around 17th century paintings I discovered that the pop culture image of Pilgrims is inaccurate.

Shocking, I know.

🧵
1878 engraving of the Pilgrims leaving Delft on their way to America. On the shore a group of men, women and children on their knees looking humbly down or rolling their eyes up to the skies pray and beseech as a couple of anonymous sailors, their backs to us, push off a group of huddled people looking soberly back to them. It's black and white, so we can't tell if everyone is dressed in black, but they are certainly swathed in cloaks and things.
December 6, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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outtamylaine.bsky.social
This is an eye-opening (and very every interesting) thread! 👇
achronalart.bsky.social Achronal Art @achronalart.bsky.social · 21h
In poking around 17th century paintings I discovered that the pop culture image of Pilgrims is inaccurate.

Shocking, I know.

🧵
1878 engraving of the Pilgrims leaving Delft on their way to America. On the shore a group of men, women and children on their knees looking humbly down or rolling their eyes up to the skies pray and beseech as a couple of anonymous sailors, their backs to us, push off a group of huddled people looking soberly back to them. It's black and white, so we can't tell if everyone is dressed in black, but they are certainly swathed in cloaks and things.
December 6, 2025 at 9:53 PM
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mihalyfy.bsky.social
Great article on finding female literacy in Ancient Egypt. ♀️📚

#Egyptology
#AncientBlueSky
arce.org/resource/loo...
arce.org
December 1, 2025 at 8:59 PM
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debborahdonnelly.bsky.social
Archaeologists rediscover a 2,500-year-old Egyptian ghost city
#Egypt #archaeology #Egyptology
www.earth.com/news/archaeo...
Archaeologists rediscover a 2,500-year-old Egyptian ghost city
The lost city of Imet rises from the Nile Delta, with 2,500-year-old mud houses that stood like skyscrapers in ancient Egypt.
www.earth.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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clio2.bsky.social
Also....yes, no buckled hats! Badge, maybe. Decorative band, maybe. No hat buckles in the 1600s!

(The only tall, buckled hat I've ever seen in a picture actually contemporary with the hat itself was on a drinker in a German Bierstube, or maybe it was a Kaffeehaus, 1800s.)
December 6, 2025 at 10:26 PM
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markpopham.bsky.social
christmas has gotten so far from its religious roots, wish we could celebrate our holidays like medieval christians (cross-dressing, being told by the bishop to stop cross-dressing, resolutely refusing to stop cross-dressing, threatening the bishop in defense of cross-dressing)
December 6, 2025 at 9:14 PM
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bombsfall.bsky.social
Columbo tires of the faults of humanity but he never tires of justice
October 19, 2025 at 6:45 AM
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achronalart.bsky.social
To be fair, this is how the artist depicted them.

From his observations of ships, we can guess he was pretty observant.

But there's always the chance he's unreliable.

I trust him better than the Victorians, tho. There's a good shot that even if not an eyewitness, he relied on eyewitness accounts.
December 6, 2025 at 8:10 PM
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sharoninflorida.bsky.social
WHAT? This is how they looked?
December 6, 2025 at 7:39 PM
achronalart.bsky.social
In poking around 17th century paintings I discovered that the pop culture image of Pilgrims is inaccurate.

Shocking, I know.

🧵
1878 engraving of the Pilgrims leaving Delft on their way to America. On the shore a group of men, women and children on their knees looking humbly down or rolling their eyes up to the skies pray and beseech as a couple of anonymous sailors, their backs to us, push off a group of huddled people looking soberly back to them. It's black and white, so we can't tell if everyone is dressed in black, but they are certainly swathed in cloaks and things.
December 6, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
Now with ALT text!

derek guy: "It's funny to think that my preference for urban living in areas with dense, mixed-used, walkable neighborhoods, multi-family housing, small businesses, and diversity probably stems from Sesame Street. Like an early education in Jane Jacob's urbanist theories."
Screen shots of the Sesame Street set: Two images. Left, a Newsstand, its sign lit up with old fashioned light bulbs above a bright green, but slightly gungy wooden frame and counter with neoclassical lines around a niche in a brick wall wth limestone trim. Bright colored postcards and children’s drawings are held by clips along the sides of the opening. Racks at the sides hold magazines we can’t quite make out and generic brightly colored chewing gum packages. In front of the counter are more racks of brightly colored (but not real brands) snacks and stacks of newspapers. If we squint we can see the headlines “Shocking” and “Dial G for Grouch”. Right, Subway entrance. In an arched entry in a brick building with limestone trim, double doors of slightly faded blue green paint with a lot of cracks in it have brass push plates and kick plates, well tarnished and grubby. Through the glass we can see tiled walls, a railing and painted stripe that implies stairs that go down to the left, and a transit map of Manhattan. Above the doors the half circle of the remaining arch is filled with stained glass that says “A B 1 2 Subway”. Globe lamps on green verdigris copper cornucopia mounts flank the doors. Screen shots of the Sesame Street set: Two images. Left, a window in a Brownstone apartment building. It is painted glossy dark green over many layers of old paint so that knobbly old bits of painted over paint chips can be seen under it. The top half is covered by accordion blinds and the bottom half is flanked by curtains with a midcentury 1950s style print of ringed planets and atoms on a light blue background. There is a wooden window box filled with bright yellow flowers, and through the curtains we can just see green walls and a painting of a red Muppet in what might be a bowling shirt. Right, an outdoor park with multicolored pavement, flowers, table and chairs. Screen shot of the Sesame Street set: Background scenery. We see a simplified version of the Brooklyn Bridge against a clear blue sky, flanked in the "distance” by old fashioned apartment buildings and green trees. The buildings are brick and brownstone with pretty molded details on the windows and rooflines and old fashioned fire escapes. I think they are 3-dimensional models in forced perspective, kind of like some museum dioramas, to make the space look deeper. In front of them is a full sized brick apartment building on the left with lace curtains in the window and ivy growing up it, a low stone wall with a wrought iron fence we can see through with more ivy, a slightly less low brick wall on the right with a security door in it with a metal grating over the window, and three street lamps on pretty blue poles. Screen shot of the Sesame Street set: Laundromat, around the corner from the newsstand. In a yellow brick building an open space with large industrial washing machines and dryers visible, also laundry baskets, tables with checked tablecloths, and signs in English, Chinese, and possibly some other languages. There’s what I think is a hat stand covered with raincoats and rainhats in bright colors. The interior is painted robins-egg blue with blue wave-shaped decorations on the wall. The sign “Laundromat” above the door is made out of letters with different colors and shapes as though they all came from different signs, tilting in different directions. Just to the right of the laundromat is a door with lace curtains in the window, implying the entrance to apartments above.
August 2, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
It freaked me out because they turned on a DIME from the 1960s-2000s narrative "Oh no global birth rate too high overpopulation we'll all starve make room Soylent Green must make sure nonwhite nations do not have babies" to "Oh no global birth rate dropping must make white girls pump out babies NOW"
Cover of a 1967 paperback printing of Harry Harrison's science fiction novel "Make Room! Make Room!" which ominously intones "An SF novel about New York City, Year: 1999 -- population 35,000,000" Cover image is a dark, abstract painting of crammed-together tiny human figures, two skeletal ones held together by webs thrashing in the foreground among flames. This is the novel the film "Soylent Green" was based on.
October 6, 2023 at 2:45 PM
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achronalart.bsky.social
At least THIS cover has the grace to be a satire!

"Bored of the Rings" 1969 edition, by the Harvard Lampoon

(Bonus! The art is by Michael K. Frith, the original art director of "Sesame Street", as well as designer of many Muppet projects, including my beloved Fraggle Rock!)
Cover of the 1969 edition of "Bored of the Rings" by the Harvard Lampoon, satirizing Barbara Remington's famous covers of the hastily-published 1960s trade paperbacks. This, by Muppet designer Michael K. Frith, shows a gigantic green hookah on the left and some nonsensical flowers on the right. A dark anthropomorphic lady pig dressed in black riding another grinning pig chases an old man in a pickelhaub and a busty platinum blonde riding black sheep, a tiny Fraggle-like fellow being pulled along hanging on to one of the sheep by its tail. A glowing hand rises out of a lake holding a glowing toothbrush. There may also be dead birds. It is all very silly.
September 8, 2024 at 1:00 AM
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okgokid.bsky.social
If you ever find yourself in Galveston, Tx there's a thing called Dickens on The Strand. I love it.

www.galvestonhistory.org/events/dicke...
Dickens on The Strand - December 5-7, 2025 | #GalvestonHistory
The annual Galveston tradition returns with Dickens on The Strand, celebrating the architecture, sights, and sounds of Victorian holidays.
www.galvestonhistory.org
November 16, 2025 at 11:13 PM
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i45now.bsky.social
Watch the replay of the 52nd Dickens on the Strand Queen's Procession through the streets of Historic Downtown Galveston.

i45NOW's streamcast is sponsored by Visit Galveston, Galveston Arts Center, South Land Title, and the Galveston Historical Foundation.
i45.disciplemedia.com/posts/5937?s...
Watch the replay of the 52nd Dickens on...
the Strand Queen's Procession through the streets of Historic Downtown Galveston. i45NOW's streamcast is sponsored by Visit Galveston, Galveston Arts Center, South Land Title, and the Galveston Histo...
i45.disciplemedia.com
December 8, 2024 at 4:55 AM
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houstonpublicmedia.bsky.social
Starting on Friday evening, walking through downtown Galveston will feel as though time has slipped back to the Victorian Era for the 52nd annual Dickens on The Strand. The event will span from Friday to Sunday evening with vendors, stage performers and parades.
Galveston gears up for 52nd Dickens on The Strand, a weekend in Victorian London
The event will span from Friday to Sunday evening including vendors, stage performers, street performers and parades all paying homage to the Victorian era as an effort to preserve Galveston's history.
www.houstonpublicmedia.org
December 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM