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@glammr-us.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxx9taj3jjrx2guclmcxu4j0aywpd2qp6l4ea9ajp037qfcugd6dcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsf49jvj

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1vv2hm9r9yxv53e3lhsdetyl6guz65qr4ltn6tmyzlruqn3csm5ms2x4qvx

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Last Notes

2026-10-29 00:40:51 UTC

I begrudgingly updated from iOS 25-something to 27 and I’m very freaked out by the new clock.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/521/412/714/556/133/original/97cdb8dea38bdbfe.jpeg

2026-10-28 01:55:58 UTC

Important news from my health care provider.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/516/045/762/593/934/original/587d323816414415.jpeg

2026-10-27 21:30:58 UTC

I’m so out of touch I’ve never even seen the movie where Captain America says “I understood that reference.”

2026-10-27 18:51:27 UTC

Does the idea of a newsboy shouting "Extra, extra, read all about it!" have enough enduring cultural relevance that people will recognize it if I refer to it in an exhibition label about street vendors' cries?

2026-10-27 12:28:59 UTC

My favorite poem, Against Entropy by John M. Ford, was written as a comment on Patrick Nielsen Hayden's blog Electrolight in 2003. https://www.nielsenhayden.com/electrolite/de_vermis/
The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good;
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.
[...]

2026-10-23 17:40:54 UTC

“If you don’t use AI you’re going to get left behind.”
Gosh, I sure hope so. I see where you’re going and it sucks.

2026-10-21 14:32:22 UTC

"A gift to Queen Elizabeth from Abbas Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, Obaysch made such a splash upon his arrival in England in the spring of 1850 that ripples of hippomania were felt across the pond." https://www.jamesarsenault.com/pages/books/10569/louis-st-mars/the-hippopotamus-polka
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/479/380/355/087/370/original/a673cce995ff8672.webp

2026-10-20 14:19:54 UTC

While all these title pages are dated 1599, the printings span a period of 40 years. The author was imprisoned in the Tower and the book suppressed, so printers met the demand by regularly producing new “1599” editions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hayward_(historian)
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/473/672/564/826/046/original/ef3f82c36e31734a.jpeg
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2026-10-19 13:42:48 UTC

It’s my first time seeing this 1482 edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmography with stunning hand-coloring. I think it’s the prettiest blue I’ve ever seen in a book illustration. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990025422690203941/catalog
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/467/864/339/850/252/original/99671a37a7d9ee60.jpeg
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2026-10-16 14:32:52 UTC

The People's Bookshelf in the National Library of Latvia showcases 8,000 books from around the world, each with a message from the donor about why that book is special to them. https://tautasgramatuplaukts.lv/en/ via @nprofile…ts4j
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/451/070/654/536/641/original/5e6bcf455ab815b7.jpg

2026-10-14 18:23:54 UTC

When the cataloger of our fabulous new miniature books collection comes by and asks, “Do you want to see something pretty?” you say yes.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/440/658/074/408/776/original/9d20f3f17b4be27a.jpeg

2026-10-13 12:42:27 UTC

Apparently there's an AI company that offered an free one-year trial to anyone with a .edu address, and now that the year is ending is writing them all to say that if they want to continue access to write to the library and get them to pay for it (either implying, or people are misreading, that the library was paying and is now cutting them off.)
Nice to see that the "first one's free" approach drug dealers are known for is still a vibrant economic model.

2026-10-13 12:00:09 UTC

There’s a little kid I’ve seems a couple times now (with his mom) drive off the subway in a tiny black electric car and toward the elevator and I’ve never been more envious of anyone.

2026-10-12 01:42:45 UTC

I’m learning so much from the latest episode of Off Menu, not least that the UK has a tube cheese called Primula. https://youtu.be/gKB_IAnOBqg
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/425/396/822/916/951/original/3588774eae3e0381.jpeg

2026-10-10 02:18:02 UTC

The new Martin Mull documentary is really fantastic, even though so many of those featured in it, including the subject, have since died. https://www.netflix.com/title/81922437

2026-10-09 17:08:02 UTC

It does not inspire my confidence in your skill as an antiquarian bookseller if your transcription of an 18th century document reveals you don’t know what a long S is.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/412/048/352/810/525/original/d66be94c3b5a63e4.jpeg

2026-10-06 18:03:22 UTC

One of my colleagues made this comparison and now I want to see Richard Scarry's Boschytown.
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2026-10-06 12:10:13 UTC

Unintentionally rich typo: “credit card feels”.

2026-10-04 23:38:59 UTC

Ask MetaFilter: What was eating at restaurants like in the 70s-90s? How was it different from today? https://ask.metafilter.com/390875/What-was-eating-at-restaurants-like-in-the-70s-90s

2026-10-04 13:54:49 UTC

My clothes aren’t getting as clean, but they sure do smell great.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/382/977/014/024/683/original/22605aa46a83ed7d.jpeg

2026-10-02 00:01:03 UTC

The YouTube algorithm keeps pushing me toward more extreme content.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/368/373/865/710/548/original/8577d188ed22384c.jpeg

2026-09-28 16:22:30 UTC

A tour-de-force "backless binding" without a spine that according to the bookseller was a showcase of the binder's skill and actually kind of a pain to read. https://www.olsonrarebooks.com/books/p/backless-bindings
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2026-09-28 12:47:54 UTC

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2026-09-25 21:59:01 UTC

Putting on my brand new blue velvet tuxedo jacket for the annual Samuel Johnson birthday dinner.
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2026-09-24 01:39:18 UTC

JUST BE COLD THATS ALL I EVER WANTED FROM YOU
#nevent1q…kngw

2026-09-23 22:10:50 UTC

Concerned by the havoc wreaked on their lands by increasing volcanic activity, the English feudal barons compelled King John to sign Magma Carta.

2026-09-20 16:55:36 UTC

A series of ten paintings mapping major works of literature. https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2026/09/worth-a-thousand-words-the-literary-map-painting-collection/
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/304/415/519/186/788/original/cb1449230aadd82c.jpeg

2026-09-09 13:10:23 UTC

Did You Know: If people are allowed to stop working for the library, but no people are allowed to start working for the library, over time it becomes more difficult to do the library things. You might think libraries are just books, but the books can't get around on their own and rely on their human helpers.

2026-09-04 16:44:19 UTC

A 1667 proclamation posted by the Lord Mayor of London ordering constables to apprehend anyone pulling down the proclamations posted by the Lord Mayor of London.
I may have discovered a potential flaw in the plan.
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2026-08-31 14:28:33 UTC

- reply

Today in helpfully labeled cases with cool things inside, a dos-à-dos binding is two volumes bound together, back to back (like a do-si-do in square dancing).
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2026-08-30 01:57:22 UTC

My message to the Fediverse. https://youtu.be/gDc2iF_8wDw
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2026-08-23 14:34:29 UTC

I am from Mntehmon, and you are going to have to show me that AI produces gibberish. https://gizmodo.com/which-ai-chatbot-did-this-school-use-to-make-such-a-ridiculous-map-2000800045
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2026-08-20 18:17:31 UTC

Sir John Fenwick was beheaded in 1697 for plotting the overthrow and assassination of William III. The Crown seized his estate after the execution, including a horse. William died in 1702 after being thrown from that same horse, an amazing trick if you can pull it off.
The horse is said to have stumbled over a molehill, leading William's Jacobite enemies to begin toasting "To the little gentleman in black velvet." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Fenwick,_3rd_Baronet

2026-08-19 18:32:02 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk None to be seen--it's a subject I know little about, but the bookseller's description specifies "This was printed before the use of Sanscrit, Urdu, or Nastaliq type"

2026-08-19 17:34:15 UTC

An early dictionary of Hindustani and English. Because most copies were sent to India for use by the British East India copy, it's rare today. #NewAcquisition
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2026-08-19 12:42:03 UTC

Longtime followers may remember my delight/horror with the Great OCLC Summary Disaster, in which a another library's batch merge gone horribly wrong put plot summaries (often for hilariously unrelated children's books) onto everybody else's records. That was in 2018 and we're still picking the shrapnel out of the online catalog.
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2026-08-17 19:46:04 UTC

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@nprofile…fwps I'm not sure how the Bloomberg part works, but I know the videos are on the Harvard YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/5nCDRUdwXZE
https://youtu.be/6Hov3Eu6v_8
https://youtu.be/HGb55NTN57E
https://youtu.be/aNowPtxWeoY

2026-08-17 19:33:58 UTC

It’s a bit unwieldy, but I think I’m going to keep this souvenir of my just-completed War of Words exhibition. It’s a message I hope lots of people took in.
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/112/519/647/761/981/original/61eacd94593809a5.jpeg

2026-08-17 13:39:21 UTC

The 17th century bibliographer and librarian Louis Jacob de Saint Charles died by falling off his library ladder, one of the few occupational hazards of the profession.

2026-08-15 21:37:54 UTC

If this endangers the Letter People my wrath will be swift. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Letter_People
#nevent1q…q5yz

2026-08-14 18:43:05 UTC

Gosh, I wonder what sort of complaints this gentleman might have about the Dictionary of American Biography? https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066335483
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2026-08-14 18:21:48 UTC

My favorite thing in the most recent edition of @nprofile…4w8z 's always great Linkfest newsletter is this blog post about "photologs," a 1970's version of Street View, and particularly this image which captures the profusion of car colors on San Diego's streets, in sharp contrast to the monochromatic options today. https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-photologs-from-the-1970s/
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/095/243/616/008/075/original/aca4a094ea115859.jpg

2026-08-12 22:30:50 UTC

I spy somebody’s fetish. https://campuspress.yale.edu/lewiswalpole/sadlers-wells-aquatic-theatre/
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/084/903/589/651/165/original/eadf926abe09e036.jpeg

2026-08-10 18:02:14 UTC

"A scarce piece of bright and vivid point of sale signage advertising Dr. Young's Ideal Rectal Dilators. The devices were marketed by a Dr. Frank E. Young (1853-1917) and sold out of Chicago beginning in the 1890's. Sales continued under the name well past his death, into the early 1940's when U.S. regulators confiscated and destroyed a shipment of 67 sets, claiming potential for misuse." https://www.mhartzoldbooks.net/shop/point-of-sale-sign-for-youngs-mechanical-dilators
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/117/072/518/930/917/573/original/67ccdeeb12569c4d.jpg

2026-08-06 15:44:49 UTC

Gizmodo asks “Will We Ever Solve the Problem of Losing Data?”
I love this answer: “I know of one data storage form that can be permanent: a library. Or rather, a world full of libraries. Libraries aren’t perfect storage devices (nothing is), but they are fiercely committed to self-repair. A good library is a collection of people, technologies, and practices that pass an obligation—to remember the things we must remember—from the last generation to the next.”
https://gizmodo.com/will-we-ever-solve-the-problem-of-losing-data-2000792386 #libraries

2026-08-05 22:48:45 UTC

There’s a newly launched drive to unionize Harvard’s professional librarians and when the organizers asked us what issues we might want them to address, I said I wanted protection against being required to incorporate AI hallucinations in my work, a profound violation of my professional ethics. https://aftermath.site/ai-resistance-tips-workforce-llm-workers/

2026-08-05 13:38:20 UTC

The exhibitions I curate couldn’t happen without the work my colleague Susi Barbarossa does to make sure rare and fragile materials are safely displayed. In this post she takes us behind the scenes of constructing a cradle to show a book with a large foldout map of the Siege of Yorktown. https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/news/2026/07/unusual-support
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2026-08-02 16:27:06 UTC

Can’t get a ticket to the World Series? No problem, you can follow the action on George Coleman’s electrical scoreboard. https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2026/07/the-nearest-thing-to-a-ballgame/
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2026-08-02 16:18:14 UTC

From 1897 to 1920, Columbia’s engineering students could study the working locomotive engine conveniently located in the basement of their building. https://blogs.library.columbia.edu/rbml/2026/07/29/the-locomotive-laboratory/
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2026-07-31 13:40:16 UTC

Interview with Dale Grimes, who holds a number of roles at the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library, including "Junior Morale Officer, Chair of Impromptu Play Sessions, Director of Hallway Patrol, and, more recently, Senior Nap Strategist." https://libraries.utulsa.edu/blogs/mcfarlinmemo/staff-spotlight-mr-dale-grimes
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2026-07-30 11:55:59 UTC

From the website of the company that’s destroying books to feed them into the ravenous AI maw.
“A physical book is a delivery mechanism for information. Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an AI model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose. What remains is paper, ink, and binding material. The book is not destroyed. Its value has migrated. The paper returns to the material cycle; the knowledge enters the intellectual one.” https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9

2026-07-29 14:55:24 UTC

Trigger warning for any conservators out there. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990018770280203941/catalog
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2026-07-28 17:27:26 UTC

You know, I think this link might be up to no good.
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2026-07-28 12:06:29 UTC

Sure, they’re convenient, but not very environmentally friendly.
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2026-07-22 14:46:19 UTC

Email from the Dean describing laying a bunch of people off as "entering the next phase of our administrative transition".

2026-07-21 17:16:43 UTC

A misunderstood order from Lord Sleeve to Lord Sweater led to disaster at the Battle of Ski Mask. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade
(All three are in fact the specific sources of the eponyms.)
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2026-07-20 13:19:43 UTC

I was just doing some long-range planning and I am alarmed to report that despite the seeming impossibility next year is 2027.

2026-07-19 14:42:11 UTC

I am once again the angry goose yelling “Found by who?!” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/23/lost-memoir-of-hiroshima-survivor-found-after-decades-in-us-archive

2026-07-15 14:23:30 UTC

I walked out into one of our public galleries and it smelled strongly of someone’s perfume, but there was no one around. I can only imagine what it must be like to stand next to that person if it lingers that much after they’ve gone.

2026-07-15 12:42:58 UTC

"Only edition, very rare, of this treatise on the history and technique of foot-kissing the Pope. Two copies in the USA, Concordia and Chicago. No copy located as ever having been sold. A black tulip for foot or Pope fetishists." https://www.johnwindle.com/pages/books/125176/johann-heinrich-mayer-nothwanger-johann-friedrich/exercitatione-historico-theologica-osculumpedum-pontificis-romani-das-fuszlig-kuszligen-des
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/924/044/913/102/850/original/71ef7d7d86bdd67c.webp

2026-07-14 22:59:23 UTC

Do you guys put *all* your kings in parking lots?
#nevent1q…v9ec

2026-07-14 01:35:26 UTC

You know how whenever Paul Rudd goes on a Conan O’Brien show he pretends he’s going to show a clip from his latest movie but it’s always the same scene from “Mac and Me”? I think if it were me I’d use the “Send Me an Angel” BMX dance scene from RAD. https://youtu.be/VPVJzi7Ta9w?si=kE_R-3srEzrZrnB5

2026-07-12 01:10:53 UTC

“A spokesperson added: ‘The hedgehogs were created in good faith by the individual and have been used to raise money for a local charity.’
Some appear to have been made from Nicholson Baker’s 1994 erotic novel The Fermata, with at least one containing sexually explicit passages.” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/06/parents-children-paper-hedgehogs-pages-explicit-novel
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2026-07-10 19:52:28 UTC

OK, bookseller, you had me at “unpublished account of 17th century nun’s heretical sex cult”. #NewAcquisition
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2026-07-09 12:18:37 UTC

“We know our customers are going to absolutely love this new feature so we made sure they can’t shut it off by mistake, or at all,” said a spokesperson.

2026-07-09 00:09:59 UTC

It would have taken me a lot of guesses to get to the correct answer for this trivia question: The largest Walmart in the U.S. is located in which state capital?

2026-07-08 20:12:03 UTC

Impressive commitment to having gold stamped spine labels on your books, no matter how thin.
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2026-07-08 12:36:40 UTC

An 1788 funeral notice printed on the back of a recycled playing card. If it was the three of clubs instead of diamonds I might well believe Penn & Teller had mastered time travel for their greatest trick. https://www.kibbeyrarebooks.com/product-page/playing-card-three-of-diamonds-madame-de-lannoy-nee-fisco-donne-part
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2026-07-07 22:29:12 UTC

@nprofile…6zxp Tough to pick the most perfect sentence in the newest Today in Tabs, but I have a particular fondness for “If you start by ignoring everything that we already know, the best you can ever hope for is to accidentally rediscover the already-known.” https://www.todayintabs.com/p/over-leveraged

2026-07-07 21:51:32 UTC

This auction item and its description are quite something. “Now how would you like to own an actual piece of Cooper's getaway cash? Held and counted by the ghost skyjacker himself? In the infamous hostage sitch that inspired all the copycats? Currency that parachuted down with him and somehow slipped out of his grasp. From one of the greatest heists and unsolved mysteries in human history.” https://goldin.co/item/nov-24-1971-d-b-cooper-notorious-skyjacker-ransom-banknote-fragment-honjfsb
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2026-07-06 23:49:10 UTC

My retirement account breathes a sigh of relief that this video did not yet exist when we renovated our basement. So many hidden doors! https://youtu.be/pcm3fHp_ZXA?si=OXXZLRMX3KN1uJzt

2026-07-01 16:05:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pfuj People have found playing the clarinet too hard, so going forward we’re giving everyone, including Benny Goodman, a kazoo.

2026-07-01 12:51:17 UTC

Bookseller offering a naval history item: "Given your institution's interest in naval history and maritime collections..." Sir, you may have this crisp $20 bill I'm holding if you can name one thing in our collection about naval history and didn't just send the same email to every big special collections library you could think of. (It's not like we have *nothing* but nobody's coming to us for that.)

2026-06-30 20:16:34 UTC

Big news! Cc @nprofile…aewd
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2026-06-30 15:58:28 UTC

Doing a pre-college class this afternoon on fairy tales and creative writing. This one was lots of fun to select for.
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2026-06-30 11:32:15 UTC

It is incredibly important that libraries not lose the trust they have earned as a place that is safe from this, where the history we preserve stays history and not hallucination.
#nevent1q…scxc

2026-06-29 12:26:22 UTC

Coming soon from Starbucks.
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2026-06-28 15:57:04 UTC

Remembering the Revolution, a new online gallery from the American Antiquarian Society. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/library/remembering-the-revolution
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2026-06-26 14:07:30 UTC

Like hell I will.
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2026-06-24 15:17:18 UTC

That amateur Hemingway needed six words.
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2026-06-23 22:20:25 UTC

A new bit of weasel-wording to watch out for: an Odyssey audiobook not read by, but “in the voice of” Michael Caine. https://www.avclub.com/the-odyssey-ai-audiobook

2026-06-22 21:35:48 UTC

@nprofile…nrlp I am working on a exhibition about depictions of workers and labor, and a colleague just showed me this artist’s book about traditional trades of Singapore with embossed illustrations. The lighter the paper the more the trade is fading away.
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2026-06-21 18:08:05 UTC

Whew, searing hot take in the Boston Globe.
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2026-06-19 18:00:22 UTC

My neighborhood liquor store, across the street from a university, has some breathtakingly bad ideas in the discount section.
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2026-06-19 01:19:28 UTC

Mike Neilson has the job at the British Museum of making perfect replicas of objects when they have to be off display, and he has exactly the mustache you would expect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyWh7jvH7Q0

2026-06-18 19:01:21 UTC

I got a purchase request from a faculty member for a fairly pricy book, and was able to determine that we had it, transferred in the past from the main library but never updated in the online catalog. It’s in a multi-work volume including the first scientific treatise on lemmings, establishing that, while they may show up in suddenly in large numbers, they do not spontaneously fall from the sky as previously believed.
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2026-06-16 21:22:32 UTC

Anthropeum is a game where you attempt to guess the place and time of production of 10 random items from the Met. It’s a fun challenge and a great use of open collections. This was kind of a gimme, though, it’s obviously the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. https://anthropeum.com
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2026-06-16 14:01:16 UTC

I just read a really interesting article (paywalled) on why this passage in a 1627 Book of Common Prayer caused a theological/typographical controversy. A panel of Church of England ministers formally decreed that the Communion phrases "This is my body, this is my blood" could never again be printed in "Great Letters" (i.e. all caps) because it nudged too close to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. All caps has a powerful history! https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00033286261442982
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2026-06-14 15:34:59 UTC

@nprofile…6p0k Flong sighting: https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2026/06/cartoonists-at-work/

2026-06-14 15:11:55 UTC

“Sometimes the only thing that can be done is to freeze a film in the hopes that a scientific solution to the problem will emerge… When we froze her films at least 15 years ago, they were literally fused together in an unfortunate form known by lab people and archivists as ‘a hockey puck’”. https://uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/film-conservation-work-reveals-cairo-streets-circa-1932/
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2026-06-06 03:38:10 UTC

I met somebody new tonight who asked me what I do, and “Rare book librarian at Harvard” always seems like a bit of a conversation killer. Nobody’s mad at it, but they often don’t seem to know what to do with that information.

2026-06-05 12:04:18 UTC

I love a good fore-edge title. (When this book was new it would have been shelved with this side out and the spine at the back.)
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2026-06-04 17:39:16 UTC

In fair Houghton where we lay our scene
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2026-06-03 19:09:17 UTC

Now that War of Words is up I’m plunging into Picturing Work a spring exhibition (thankfully in collaboration with a couple of colleagues) on the tradition of books of trades. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990046674730203941/catalog
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2026-06-01 17:56:48 UTC

Harvard Library has lots of subscription materials you have to have affiliation to view, but our online catalog has always been freely available for anyone to look at. We just been notified that because it's getting hammered by bots and scrapers, starting next week non-signed-in users will only be able to see the first 250 results from a search. It's a pretty marginal restriction, but I hate that we've had to move in the direction of making the catalog less open to keep it functional.

2026-06-01 13:37:16 UTC

I am left with a lot of questions about this map of North America reconfigured into a single nation of new large states and what I understand to be a train-based legislature. https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/geofiction-the-union-empire-of-north-america-the-_ca79c76e51
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2026-05-31 15:44:43 UTC

WHAT WILL YOU DO IN THE LONG, COLD, DARK, SHIVERY EVENINGS, WHEN YOUR HEALTH AND CONVENIENCE COMPEL YOU TO STAY INDOORS?
WHY!!! HAVE A PHONOGRAPH, OF COURSE.
https://smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/2026/05/26/digitizing-the-albert-h-small-american-trade-catalogs-collection/
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2026-05-29 22:55:53 UTC

For a future exhibition on stories of shipwrecks and desert isles, I thought I might include some science fictional examples. Can you suggest some golden age SF that would fit the bill? (We probably won’t have something recent like The Martian.) Bonus points if it’s illustrated on the cover of a pulp magazine, we have a really good collection of those.

2026-05-29 22:24:04 UTC

Nothing but respect for *my* machine for conveying intelligence. https://campuspress.yale.edu/lewiswalpole/the-telegraphe-or-machine-for-conveying-intelligence/
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2026-05-28 18:59:00 UTC

“Can I just say f**k AI, f**k AI, f**k AI?” the comedian, actor, and rotating host of The Daily Show asked in his keynote speech during the Class Day celebration on Wednesday. The crowd at Tercentenary Theatre, made up of the graduating Class of 2026 and their friends and families, answered him with a roar of approval. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/commencement/class-day-ronny-chieng-harvard