John Kuhn
@johnmkuhn.bsky.social
English prof. 17th century stuff. Prairie son. Working on a cultural and material history of the birchbark canoe in the early modern Americas.
Pinned
Towards a history of the hammock: An Indigenous technology in the Atlantic world - postmedieval
When Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere beginning in the fifteenth century, they learned that Indigenous groups across the Caribbean and South America valued few technologies as much as the h...
link.springer.com
if you would like to read about early modern hammocks, it's publication day for the article the brilliant @marcynorton.bsky.social and I wrote about them! (open access)
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
I used to feel guilty about my rice cooker because a friend is a big crusader against "kitchen uni-taskers," but then I learned from like five friends that their Asian mothers use them lol
I lost my faith in humanity when I found out there are people out there who don't know how to cook rice.
November 18, 2025 at 11:40 PM
I used to feel guilty about my rice cooker because a friend is a big crusader against "kitchen uni-taskers," but then I learned from like five friends that their Asian mothers use them lol
returning to this to say that it has haunted me for several weeks and am thinking of getting a giant print of it.
'Alone and warming his five wits, the white owl in the belfry sits.' Tennyson was a great fan of William Webbe who painted this exquisite picture in 1856. Though Webbe is included in Percy Bate's early study of the Pre Raphaelite movement, he remains a mysterious figure.
November 18, 2025 at 11:34 PM
returning to this to say that it has haunted me for several weeks and am thinking of getting a giant print of it.
sometimes I feel like my job has become 80% asking for resources from gatekeepers and gatekeeping resources from askers and 20%.....teaching and research
November 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
sometimes I feel like my job has become 80% asking for resources from gatekeepers and gatekeeping resources from askers and 20%.....teaching and research
lots of 17th c theatrical textiles used this and it would be a great project for a PhD student to write and think more about that!
#Turkeywork (also Norwich-work) is a hand-knotted and cut wool pile furnishing textile popular from the C16 - mid C18 in England. Elizabethan Turkeywork was commercially produced in 1583 in Norwich but also in Windsor and York.
Original designs imitated Middle Eastern imported carpets.
Original designs imitated Middle Eastern imported carpets.
November 18, 2025 at 6:36 PM
lots of 17th c theatrical textiles used this and it would be a great project for a PhD student to write and think more about that!
Reposted by John Kuhn
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
December 31, 2024 at 2:41 PM
In 1582, a papal bull introduced the Gregorian calendar, still used today by most of the world. Because it’s 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, countries introducing it simply skipped a third of October, and if you scroll back far enough in the iPhone calendar app you can see it change
Reposted by John Kuhn
Good to see the kids’ section of our local bookstore still carries the classics.
November 17, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Good to see the kids’ section of our local bookstore still carries the classics.
Reposted by John Kuhn
I've fallen down the rabbit hole of small town life in the USA in the 1880s-1930s [as research for the book currently called "The Money of the Poor"]. And even though I *knew* it, there's still something awful about the census form that lists a woman's age as 24, who's had 7 children, 5 living
November 18, 2025 at 3:37 PM
I've fallen down the rabbit hole of small town life in the USA in the 1880s-1930s [as research for the book currently called "The Money of the Poor"]. And even though I *knew* it, there's still something awful about the census form that lists a woman's age as 24, who's had 7 children, 5 living
Reposted by John Kuhn
For those who say art history is an esoteric discipline, here's a painting that's looking very relevant if you're tracking the AI bubble right now: Jan Brueghel the Younger, "Allegory of Tulipomania," 1640s. Tag yourself on the right
November 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
For those who say art history is an esoteric discipline, here's a painting that's looking very relevant if you're tracking the AI bubble right now: Jan Brueghel the Younger, "Allegory of Tulipomania," 1640s. Tag yourself on the right
Reposted by John Kuhn
Standing outside of a downtown office building right now holding a sign that says "will write your three-sentence email for $200"
November 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Standing outside of a downtown office building right now holding a sign that says "will write your three-sentence email for $200"
Reposted by John Kuhn
This section of Gerald of Wales' The Conquest of Ireland in which he praises his own family is essentially the Theme from Shaft.
November 18, 2025 at 11:55 AM
This section of Gerald of Wales' The Conquest of Ireland in which he praises his own family is essentially the Theme from Shaft.
Reposted by John Kuhn
A cheery alpaca, drawn in Brazil by Dutch artist Frans Post. He was born in Haarlem on this day in 1612.
November 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM
A cheery alpaca, drawn in Brazil by Dutch artist Frans Post. He was born in Haarlem on this day in 1612.
Reposted by John Kuhn
Robert Hass, after Kobayashi Issa
November 17, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Robert Hass, after Kobayashi Issa
add it to the list!!!!!
fully prepared to blame Ezra Pound for this as well
November 18, 2025 at 2:42 AM
add it to the list!!!!!
Reposted by John Kuhn
astigmatic gang RISE UP
October 5, 2024 at 5:55 PM
astigmatic gang RISE UP
Yes man is indeed born unto trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward, but did you know that you can buy a hot rotisserie chicken at Price Chopper for eight(8!) American dollars?!
November 17, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Yes man is indeed born unto trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward, but did you know that you can buy a hot rotisserie chicken at Price Chopper for eight(8!) American dollars?!
Reposted by John Kuhn
On Thursday, November 20th at noon, I'll be talking to Melissa Kiewiet, the director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance, about Manhattan's last Dutch farmhouse and her efforts to learn more about the enslaved who lived and labored there. To register, visit www.nyhistory.org/programs/man...
Live from New Amsterdam: Manhattan’s Last Farmhouse | The New York Historical
Explore the history of the Dyckman Farmhouse, built in 1784
www.nyhistory.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
On Thursday, November 20th at noon, I'll be talking to Melissa Kiewiet, the director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance, about Manhattan's last Dutch farmhouse and her efforts to learn more about the enslaved who lived and labored there. To register, visit www.nyhistory.org/programs/man...
Reposted by John Kuhn
Fun fact: the US sells more higher ed to China than soybeans
Trump's campaign to kill an industry where America runs a massive trade surplus is succeeding
New foreign student enrollment in the US fell 17% this fall www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
November 17, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Fun fact: the US sells more higher ed to China than soybeans
my Shakespeare's Medieval Kings class next semester has filled to the brim. And where's the NYT thinkpiece about that?!?! Gen Z: they just can't get enough of Shakespeare's medieval kings! Parents: is your Zoomer child secretly addicted to Tudor historical drama?!
November 17, 2025 at 1:55 PM
my Shakespeare's Medieval Kings class next semester has filled to the brim. And where's the NYT thinkpiece about that?!?! Gen Z: they just can't get enough of Shakespeare's medieval kings! Parents: is your Zoomer child secretly addicted to Tudor historical drama?!
Reposted by John Kuhn
Everyone’s favourite - the ‘Wolf and Twins’ mosaic from Roman Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum) depicting the legend of Romulus and Remus. Dating to the 4th century AD, the mosaic is now part of the collections at Leeds City Museum. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain
November 17, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Everyone’s favourite - the ‘Wolf and Twins’ mosaic from Roman Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum) depicting the legend of Romulus and Remus. Dating to the 4th century AD, the mosaic is now part of the collections at Leeds City Museum. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain
I am chairing a poet hire for reasons that we will not go into, and had to read 185 20-page poetry samples sent in by applicants. The Surgeon General should put a warning on that stuff!!!! I have poetry poisoning!!!!!!
November 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I am chairing a poet hire for reasons that we will not go into, and had to read 185 20-page poetry samples sent in by applicants. The Surgeon General should put a warning on that stuff!!!! I have poetry poisoning!!!!!!
I love “schedule send” and, coincidentally, if you ever get an email from me at exactly 8:00 AM, it was written after I woke up at 3:27 AM because of nightmares about all my teeth falling out
November 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I love “schedule send” and, coincidentally, if you ever get an email from me at exactly 8:00 AM, it was written after I woke up at 3:27 AM because of nightmares about all my teeth falling out
Reposted by John Kuhn
(spending 9 billion dollars to make a robot say "i have always loved you") hard times create strong men
November 16, 2025 at 9:35 PM
(spending 9 billion dollars to make a robot say "i have always loved you") hard times create strong men
HD, from "The Flowering of the Rod": a beautiful little meditation on humans always longing for what they don't have (also the source of her eventual tombstone engraving, I believe: "oh give me burning blue")
November 17, 2025 at 5:26 AM
HD, from "The Flowering of the Rod": a beautiful little meditation on humans always longing for what they don't have (also the source of her eventual tombstone engraving, I believe: "oh give me burning blue")
so far I love Plur1bus because it is both a defense of the right to be unhappy and also an assault on "optimization" culture of various kinds
November 17, 2025 at 5:15 AM
so far I love Plur1bus because it is both a defense of the right to be unhappy and also an assault on "optimization" culture of various kinds
Reposted by John Kuhn
Folks, I did it. I made the Cooks Illustrated competing pear crisps, and then I made my friends judge them blind.
November 17, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Folks, I did it. I made the Cooks Illustrated competing pear crisps, and then I made my friends judge them blind.