ODNB
(Ol’ Dirty National Bastard)
(Ol’ Dirty National Bastard)
December 17, 2024 at 10:47 AM
ODNB
(Ol’ Dirty National Bastard)
(Ol’ Dirty National Bastard)
20th Anniversary of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - 'To celebrate the ODNB turning 20, we’re sharing thirty influential lives from the British Isles spanning nearly two millennia.' #skystsorians 🗃️
www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/842...
www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/842...
20th Anniversary of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
To celebrate the ODNB turning 20, we’re sharing thirty influential lives from the British Isles spanning nearly two millennia.
www.oxforddnb.com
December 12, 2024 at 5:42 PM
20th Anniversary of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - 'To celebrate the ODNB turning 20, we’re sharing thirty influential lives from the British Isles spanning nearly two millennia.' #skystsorians 🗃️
www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/842...
www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/842...
Being a more successful conman than he was a spy, he was done for fraud, rather than espionage, and got out in three years. He was immediately deported, so he “insinuated himself into German nationalist circles in Berlin” (ODNB)
Well, obviously
Well, obviously
October 6, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Being a more successful conman than he was a spy, he was done for fraud, rather than espionage, and got out in three years. He was immediately deported, so he “insinuated himself into German nationalist circles in Berlin” (ODNB)
Well, obviously
Well, obviously
Two years later, his “meagre living as a low-level agent for Japanese and German intelligence agencies in Shanghai” (ODNB) had dried up, so he wrote to Hitler. This was not a good idea. In the letter, he told the Fuhrer to stop exterminating the Jews...
October 6, 2026 at 10:10 AM
Two years later, his “meagre living as a low-level agent for Japanese and German intelligence agencies in Shanghai” (ODNB) had dried up, so he wrote to Hitler. This was not a good idea. In the letter, he told the Fuhrer to stop exterminating the Jews...
Today, and not for the first time, I saw a citation of an ODNB entry I’d forgotten I’d written.
You know you’ve been an academic for too long when you need to look up your own book to see what you once thought about a particular topic
January 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Today, and not for the first time, I saw a citation of an ODNB entry I’d forgotten I’d written.
"Horace Walpole described him as a bore"
Utterly damning info on antiquary Richard Gough from the ODNB
Utterly damning info on antiquary Richard Gough from the ODNB
June 4, 2026 at 6:53 PM
"Horace Walpole described him as a bore"
Utterly damning info on antiquary Richard Gough from the ODNB
Utterly damning info on antiquary Richard Gough from the ODNB
Yes, *double* bigamist. Her ODNB entry is genuinely hilarious reading.
30 years ago today, we lost Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey, better known as celebrity cook Fanny Cradock, but less well known for being a dangerous driver, double bigamist, child abandoner, and amphetamine user…
Odd this day
Alas! It is 29 years since the world was deprived of one of its more colourful culinary characters: Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey — better…
mulberryhall.medium.com
December 27, 2024 at 11:27 AM
Yes, *double* bigamist. Her ODNB entry is genuinely hilarious reading.
New in the #ODNB: Louis Celeste Lecesne, Haitian-Jamaican merchant, activist and deportation victim. doi.org/10.1093/odnb...
@oxfordacademic.bsky.social
@oxfordacademic.bsky.social
www.oxforddnb.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:45 PM
New in the #ODNB: Louis Celeste Lecesne, Haitian-Jamaican merchant, activist and deportation victim. doi.org/10.1093/odnb...
@oxfordacademic.bsky.social
@oxfordacademic.bsky.social
⭐ Our Curator of Art Collections has contributed three new biographies on women artists for this month's #ODNB update.
Read her Introduction and new entries in the link below! 👇
#ODNB #WomenInArt
Read her Introduction and new entries in the link below! 👇
#ODNB #WomenInArt
🌟 This month’s ODNB update celebrates women artists in Britain across 3 centuries!
Discover 9 new biographies, including Isabella Beetham, Laura Alma-Tadema, Anna Airy, and Averil Burleigh.
Explore their stories ➡️ oxford.ly/4mnkfVG
#ODNB #WomenInArt
Discover 9 new biographies, including Isabella Beetham, Laura Alma-Tadema, Anna Airy, and Averil Burleigh.
Explore their stories ➡️ oxford.ly/4mnkfVG
#ODNB #WomenInArt
September 18, 2025 at 2:52 PM
⭐ Our Curator of Art Collections has contributed three new biographies on women artists for this month's #ODNB update.
Read her Introduction and new entries in the link below! 👇
#ODNB #WomenInArt
Read her Introduction and new entries in the link below! 👇
#ODNB #WomenInArt
"Look at the flustered academics!"
"I got mine into an ODNB entry" (*sniggers*)
"I got mine into an ODNB entry" (*sniggers*)
March 11, 2026 at 9:49 AM
"Look at the flustered academics!"
"I got mine into an ODNB entry" (*sniggers*)
"I got mine into an ODNB entry" (*sniggers*)
Reminder that if you have a public library card, there’s a decent chance that the number will give you online access to ODNB.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was twenty yesterday. This month's online update is a break from the norm, as the present general editor, Sir David Cannadine, looks at how the dictionary has evolved over twenty years of online publication #skystorians www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/844...
What’s New: September 2024
Welcome to the 114th update of the Oxford DNB, which marks the twentieth anniversary of the Dictionary’s first publication in September 2004.
www.oxforddnb.com
September 24, 2024 at 11:30 AM
Reminder that if you have a public library card, there’s a decent chance that the number will give you online access to ODNB.
Today's #ODNB life is the extraordinary Lady Eleanor Davies, who is linked to the Diggers.
What a life, including using non-violent direct action tactics in Lichfield Cathedral with distinctly modern echoes
#WomensHistory
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
What a life, including using non-violent direct action tactics in Lichfield Cathedral with distinctly modern echoes
#WomensHistory
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
www.oxforddnb.com
August 13, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Today's #ODNB life is the extraordinary Lady Eleanor Davies, who is linked to the Diggers.
What a life, including using non-violent direct action tactics in Lichfield Cathedral with distinctly modern echoes
#WomensHistory
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
What a life, including using non-violent direct action tactics in Lichfield Cathedral with distinctly modern echoes
#WomensHistory
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
NB - it seems that biographical info' of those traders is mainly lifted from the ODNB (possibly History of Parliament?). Fair enough.
For something that will be used as a resource for people who aren't historians of slavery, the opacity over sources (and lack or precision on places) is a shame.
For something that will be used as a resource for people who aren't historians of slavery, the opacity over sources (and lack or precision on places) is a shame.
September 14, 2026 at 8:31 AM
NB - it seems that biographical info' of those traders is mainly lifted from the ODNB (possibly History of Parliament?). Fair enough.
For something that will be used as a resource for people who aren't historians of slavery, the opacity over sources (and lack or precision on places) is a shame.
For something that will be used as a resource for people who aren't historians of slavery, the opacity over sources (and lack or precision on places) is a shame.
Always kind of amazing to me who Doesn't end up in the ODNB. Inventor, clerk of the Signet, knighted, name-checked in Walton's Compleat Angler, rented his London house to visiting ambassadors, but not in the ODNB. huh
September 3, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Always kind of amazing to me who Doesn't end up in the ODNB. Inventor, clerk of the Signet, knighted, name-checked in Walton's Compleat Angler, rented his London house to visiting ambassadors, but not in the ODNB. huh
A plethora of new ODNB entries on early modern women stationers! Entries from Heidi Craig, Andrea Silva, Kirk Melnikoff, @mgyarn.bsky.social, Andreas P. Bassett, @tarallyons.bsky.social and @georginaemw.bsky.social, me, and of course from @valeriewayne.bsky.social who cooked up the whole cluster.
August 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
A plethora of new ODNB entries on early modern women stationers! Entries from Heidi Craig, Andrea Silva, Kirk Melnikoff, @mgyarn.bsky.social, Andreas P. Bassett, @tarallyons.bsky.social and @georginaemw.bsky.social, me, and of course from @valeriewayne.bsky.social who cooked up the whole cluster.
Miles Davis - "Calypso Frelimo" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODNb... John Stubblefield #BOTD on soprano saxophone #Jazzsky
Calypso Frelimo
YouTube video by Miles Davis - Topic
www.youtube.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:34 AM
Miles Davis - "Calypso Frelimo" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODNb... John Stubblefield #BOTD on soprano saxophone #Jazzsky
After an apparently unremarkable schooling, he became a student at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Dramatic Art but – in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) – “left Hungary before completing his course after being accused of stealing a gold watch”
Lincoln, Ignatius Timotheus Trebitsch [formerly Ignácz Trebitsch; name in religion Chao Kung] (1879–1943), political adventurer
"Lincoln, Ignatius Timotheus Trebitsch [formerly Ignácz Trebitsch; name in religion Chao Kung] (1879–1943), political adventurer" published on by Oxford University Press.
doi.org
October 6, 2026 at 9:56 AM
After an apparently unremarkable schooling, he became a student at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Dramatic Art but – in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) – “left Hungary before completing his course after being accused of stealing a gold watch”
Today's free life at the ODNB: Elizabeth Canning, a story that I read as telling about 18th-century prejudice against gypsies (then known as "Egyptians")
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
www.oxforddnb.com
September 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Today's free life at the ODNB: Elizabeth Canning, a story that I read as telling about 18th-century prejudice against gypsies (then known as "Egyptians")
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1...
The defence argued that she was entirely genuine, so “could not have acted fraudulently”. Unfortunately, she was tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which “ensured that by conspiring even to attempt conjuration she would be found guilty” (Malcom Gaskill in ODNB again)
March 31, 2026 at 9:53 AM
The defence argued that she was entirely genuine, so “could not have acted fraudulently”. Unfortunately, she was tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which “ensured that by conspiring even to attempt conjuration she would be found guilty” (Malcom Gaskill in ODNB again)
Having the ODNB ask me to write an entry for them was definitely not on my bingo cards.
August 17, 2026 at 9:02 AM
Having the ODNB ask me to write an entry for them was definitely not on my bingo cards.
New Kid in Town (Live) (1999 Remaster)
YouTube video by The Eagles - Topic
music.youtube.com
March 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM
After an apparently unremarkable schooling, he became a student at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Dramatic Art but – in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) – “left Hungary before completing his course after being accused of stealing a gold watch”
October 6, 2025 at 8:23 AM
After an apparently unremarkable schooling, he became a student at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Dramatic Art but – in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) – “left Hungary before completing his course after being accused of stealing a gold watch”
A little remainder that today is not John Donne's birth date despite what a quick online search might seem to say. His precise birthday is not known. (ODNB/NPG)
January 22, 2026 at 3:39 PM
A little remainder that today is not John Donne's birth date despite what a quick online search might seem to say. His precise birthday is not known. (ODNB/NPG)
As you've no doubt guessed, there's a major historical question here. Is the Latin "pestis" to be understood as "plague"? In her ODNB entry, as I mentioned, Getz doesn't mention plague. Rather, re: poison she says: "such stories were common explanations for sudden death from any unknown cause."
September 19, 2026 at 8:52 PM
As you've no doubt guessed, there's a major historical question here. Is the Latin "pestis" to be understood as "plague"? In her ODNB entry, as I mentioned, Getz doesn't mention plague. Rather, re: poison she says: "such stories were common explanations for sudden death from any unknown cause."