Michael Pearce
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michaelpearce.bsky.social
Michael Pearce
@michaelpearce.bsky.social
History, Scotland. Probably writing about material culture, costume, household accounts, letters, and recipe books

Blog, remember them? https://vanishedcomforts.org/about/
Pinned
Clothes for Christian Stewart, a childhood companion of Lady Mary, from the accounts of Anne Gordon, Countess of Moray. May 1635
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Thrilled to see this beautiful volume now in print, and honoured to have contributed a chapter—where I explore the theatricality of some of Isaac Oliver’s miniatures.
tansey-miniatures.com/en/activitie...
November 28, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
It's Margaret Tudor's birthday today! 🎉🎂👸 If you would like to learn more about Margaret and her incredible archive of surviving correspondence, check out my recent @royalhistsoc.org Camden edition of her holograph letters!

www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489–1541) Volume 70 | Cambridge University Press & Assessment
www.cambridge.org
November 28, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
📢 CALL FOR PAPERS: Marginal Militaries: Navigating Historical Boundaries, Differences, and Experiences at the Military Periphery

Conference date: 22-23 October, 2026
Location: @forsvarshogskolan.bsky.social Stockholm, Sweden (hybrid participation tbc)
Cfp Deadline: 28 February, 2026
November 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
How delightfully quaint some of these old Devon village names are, their etymologies lost in the mists of time.
November 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.
November 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
A Hallmark Christmas movie we can all relate to 🤣
November 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
What makes historic collections difficult? And how do researchers work with “difficult” collections?

New CFP from Paper Trails here:

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026
🗃️
Call for Papers: Difficult Collections | UCL UCL Special Collections
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
They've discovered the first instance of Neolithic clickbait
November 27, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
How to keep mice and rats out of your cheese chamber:
Mix weasel brains with hog suet and scatter them around the room. Problem solved! You're welcome.
November 26, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Heavily darned child's stocking recovered during recent excavation of the historic rubbish tip on which much of Copenhagen's Amalienborg neighborhood is built. Up close & personal, with fascinating conversations with the responsible archaeologists at the city's Archaeological Workshop this afternoon
November 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
The @royalhistsoc.org is running a charitable donation campaign to fund the research of historians who lack support. The number of applications we're seeing is way up. I've been very lucky to have a career as a historian, I've donated, and I think this Christmas you should too. Pay it forward.
royalhistoricalsociety2.beaconforms.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
There is still time to register for tomorrow's seminar 'Race and the Scottish Enlightenment: A Colonial History'. The event will be hybrid, on 26 Nov from 3-4.30pm. Note that it is CET. Please email for a Zoom link: [email protected] #skystorians #Enlightenment #Scotland
Join @brucealexb.bsky.social and I as we launch our book Race and the Scottish Enlightenment: A Colonial History (Yale UP, 2025). The event will be hybrid, on Wed 26 Nov from 3-4.30pm CET. If you can’t join us in Uppsala, please email us for a Zoom link:
[email protected]
instructingnaturalhistory.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
💃 Explore the politics of dancing in the 18th century and the crucial role played by assembly rooms in Georgian Britain with our latest 'researcher in focus' podcast featuring @hillaryburlock.bsky.social creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... #AcademicSky #DanceSky
September 2, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Tonight Natalee Garrett will be speaking at the IHR Parliaments, Politics & People Seminar where she will be discussing her paper on 'Jane, Duchess of Gordon and the Romanticisation of Scottish Identity in London, c.1780-1812'.

Details of how to attend online can be found below:
‘A Tartan Belle’: Jane, Duchess of Gordon and the Romanticisation of Scottish Identity in London, c.1780-1812
Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.
www.history.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Book now for the ‘New Insights into C16th and C17th British Architecture’ conference-24 January in London. Delighted to be a part of this dynamic programme. I will be providing a fresh interpretation of the Stuart sequence: layout,decoration,accessibility. Join us!
www.newsinsightsconference.co.uk
www.newsinsightsconference.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
I started a Substack!

Regular essays & short introductions to all things Tudor & Shakespearean culture & entertainment + sharing findings from the archives and more!

Please do consider subscribing for #Shakespeare #earlymodern #theatre #heritage content.

open.substack.com/pub/shakespe...
On Shakespeare and Not Shakespeare
New writing about Shakespearean culture (and beyond), arising from new research projects...
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Call for papers!

We invite proposals for a special issue addressing historical animal geographies, co-edited by Karen M. Morin & Alice J. Hovorka.

Abstract deadline 15 Jan
Accepted submission deadline 15 Jun

Details here: sciencedirect.com/special-issue/327592/historical-animal-geographies
November 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
Here’s another fully funded 4-year PhD position at Leiden within the ERC project LangPro led by Dr Alisa van de Haar, and co-supervised by yours truly, on guilds and associations supporting early modern language professionals bit.ly/49rsLA3

Apply by 15 Feb. 2026; starting date 1 Aug. 2026
PhD position, project LangPro: 'Societies and Guilds in the Language Industry'
PhD position, project LangPro: 'Societies and Guilds in the Language Industry'
bit.ly
November 18, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Interesting household (food) account for Elisabeth of Valois, Queen of Spain, 9 August 1559 (as I suppose), on ebay: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28692927...
November 17, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
See my new blog post on "Multi-talented Women" featuring the current exhibition at #NMWA on women as artists, engravers, calligraphers, sculptors, embroiderers, lacemakers, etc. I place #EstherInglis within this coteree of talented Netherlandish women. estheringlis.com/2025/11/17/w...
Women of Many Talents
Calligrapher, limner, embroiderer, writer – those are all arts in which Esther Inglis engaged. She seems to have been unique in Britain at the time, so who were her cohorts? There must have b…
estheringlis.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Postscript attributed to James VI writing to George Douglas, 7 September 1581: My little monkey believe what the red beard (Lennox) will write to you on my behalf, 'Mon petit singe croyes ce que le rousseau t'escira de mon part', (TNA SP 53/11 f.30)
November 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
From Hatfields to Silk Steet and Cloth Fair - many streets in London take their names from the clothing traditions. But how did Piccadilly get its name? Find out in our Men’s Fashion podcast: tinyurl.com/4xtkxth4 #history #fashion #london #menswear #clothes
November 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
In an open letter shared with The Edinburgh Minute, architect Malcolm Fraser, known for his work on the Scottish Poetry Library, Scottish Storytelling Centre, DanceBase and Dovecot Studios, argues against plans to demolish Argyle House: www.edinburghminute.com/three-reason...
November 14, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Michael Pearce
CALL FOR PAPERS!

Thrilled to announce the third Communication and Exchange in the Early Modern 1500-1850 conference: ‘A Continent in Conversation.’ (Aberystwyth University, 11-12 June 2026).

Please do check out and share our #CfP! #Earlymodern #History
November 13, 2025 at 12:07 PM