Our next seminar promises to be a cracker. 20 March, 17:15, Dan Sperrin (Cambridge) 'Swift and the Secret World'. In person at QMUL Mile End Campus Graduate Centre 222 and online via zoom (register here: qmul-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/868600……) 🧐 🧐 🧐 🧐

Catherine Knollys, née Carey, Chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin. (Yale Center for British Art) She died in 1569

This #frockingfabulous 17th century frog purse is too adorable! It's believed these tiny fellows were used as a pomander, to carry lovely scents when on the go. #Fashionhistory via the Museum of London.

Wait, what's that? An animal history conference, with papers on egrets, urban pigs, tasmanian devils AND polar bears? And only £5 to register? I'm excited... 🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️#animalhistory ANIMAL HISTORY GROUP Summer Conference 2024 animalhistorygroup.org/events/summer-…

Taking us beyond the human, Stephanie Howard-Smith’s essay, '‘Take physic, Pomp’: Writing Dog Doctors in Eighteenth-Century Britain', demonstrates the importance of veterinary information and (often sexist) mythology about the owners as well as the medics. 8/16

Looks to me to be the most detailed depiction of the so-called Melitan lapdog (Melitaeus catellus) found yet!

We all love Hatch, but what did he look like? We extracted DNA from his teeth and looked at the genes that code for different fur colours, and found that he had light-dark brown fur, probably a pattern known as brindle, brown with dark streaks.

This may be the first Orpheus Charming the Animals scene I’ve found with a #pangolin in attendance… Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch, 1620-1691) Orpheus Charming the Animals, c.1640 Oil on canvas, 113 x 167cm (44 1/2 x 65 3/4in.) On display at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston “The ancient Roman poet Ovid

Happy #InternationalCatDay! Please enjoy Dido the cat, painted by her owner sometime in the early 19th century so we could still admire her over a century later 😍

Dogs! The exhibit also features several famous #dogs of Japan: Jiro, who worked in Antarctica during the 1950s, and the famous Hachi, who waited for his master (Dr Hidesaburo Ueno) long after Dr Ueno's death. And my thread ends here!

Next June, BECC will be twenty, and we're throwing a party! Ok, we're holding a conference. Maybe with a party. Definitely cake... Please save the date: 26-27 June 2025.

We are delighted to welcome @R_A_Barr on the 15th October to give our first QMCECS seminar of the semester. She will be speaking on 'Eliza Haywood's She Comedies'. 17:15 start, online and in person, all welcome! Full details can be found here: qmul.ac.uk/sed/english/re…

#Dogs are the theme for this week's #OnlineArtExchange so we are posting these #drawings of Tibetan mastiffs, sketched by Rajman Singh and in the collections of Brian Houghton Hodgson. More about these dogs in this paper co-authored by Ann our #Librarian: euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.33…

This is tomorrow! We look forward to welcoming you online and in-person for what promises to be a cracking talk.

Two more weeks to send a proposal for our big 20th anniversary conference, taking place 26-27 June 2025. If you've got a take on the eighteenth century, we'd love to hear from you!

Did you know, that in Dec 1915, Bath Assembly Rooms would have been full of birds? Crystal Palace was unavailable, owing to wartime necessities, so the Rooms became the venue for Bath Fanciers' Association Poultry Show. More than 1,000 birds occupied the principal rooms😳.

Some exciting news… YAP! A Short History of Small Dogs is officially on the way!