Category Archives: Cultural History

Teaching Renaissance Studies Online

High school teachers have been confronting the difficulties of teaching History and Social Sciences online over the past year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These subjects are incredibly complicated, requiring the use of images and maps to teach teenage students … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, History of the Western World, Renaissance Art and History, The Past Alive: Teaching History, World History | Leave a comment

500th Anniversary of the Diet of Worms of 1521

Five hundred years ago this month, a monk and radical religious reformer confronted the powerful Holy Roman Emperor at the Imperial Diet held in the city of Worms in April 1521. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor at the … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Conflict, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, European Wars of Religion, History in the Media, History of the Book, Intellectual History, Museums and Historical Memory, Reformation History, Religious History, Religious Politics, Renaissance Art and History | Leave a comment

Rescuing Sacred Music of the Renaissance

Renaissance music is being studied in new ways at the Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy. A news magazine piece on “Rescuing Sacred Music of the Renaissance” from CBS Sunday Morning features Music and the Medici, a research program of … Continue reading

Posted in Archival Research, Art History, Court Studies, Cultural History, Current Research, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, History in the Media, History of the Book, Italian History, Manuscript Studies, Material Culture, Mediterranean World, Museums and Historical Memory, Music History, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, World History | Leave a comment

Irish in Illinois

I would like to celebrate the publication of The Irish in Illinois a new book by my friends and colleagues, Sean Farrell and Mathieu W. Billings. Sean Farrell works on sectarian violence in Irish history and teaches with me as … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural History, European History, Illinois History and Society, Northern Illinois University, Social History, United States History and Society | Leave a comment

Depicting an Early Modern Emperor

Early modern empires continue to have echoes in the contemporary world. A recent New York Times online feature focuses on Shah Jahan, a seventeenth-century Mughal Emperor who is known today for commissioning the Taj Mahal. The interactive webpage examines a … Continue reading

Posted in Art History, Court Studies, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, History in the Media, Manuscript Studies, Museums and Historical Memory, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Renaissance Art and History, Warfare in the Early Modern World, World History | Leave a comment

Renaissance Teaching Award for High School Teachers

The Renaissance Society of America is offering a new award for innovative teaching of Renaissance studies during the Covid-19 pandemic. The award aims to recognize high school teachers and educators who teach Renaissance studies to high school students. History teachers … Continue reading

Posted in Art History, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, Graduate Work in History, Humanities Education, Museums and Historical Memory, Northern Illinois University, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, The Past Alive: Teaching History | Leave a comment

2021: The Year of Napoleon

This year is being billed as the “Year of Napoleon” by the French government and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux. Major museum exhibitions and commemorations are planned across France. Professor Marlene L. Daut (University of Virginia) writes: “After a year … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic World, Civil Conflict, Comparative Revolutions, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, French History, French Revolution and Napoleon, Globalization, History of Race and Racism, History of Violence, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Culture, Revolts and Revolutions, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World | 1 Comment

NIU Undergraduate Researcher Publishes Research

I want to highlight the accomplishments of one of our undergraduate students in the Department of History at Northern Illinois University, whose research experiences reminded me of my own experiences conducting research as an undergraduate History Major at the University … Continue reading

Posted in Academic Publishing, Civil Conflict, Cultural History, History in the Media, History of Violence, Illinois History and Society, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Northern Illinois University, Undergraduate Work in History, United States History and Society, War and Society, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Italian Renaissance Armor Restored to the Louvre

Two magnificent pieces of Italian Renaissance armor have been restored to the Musée du Louvre in Paris, after being recovered by French police. The prestige armor had originally been donated to the Museée du Louvre by the Rothschild family in … Continue reading

Posted in Art History, Court Studies, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, History in the Media, History of Violence, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Paris History, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

New Digital Humanities Techniques Open Locked Letters

Early modern writers sometimes employed letterlocking in order to close letters securely using complex practices of folding, cutting, inserting tabs, and sewing. The New York Times reports: “In an era before sealed envelopes, this technique, now called letterlocking, was as … Continue reading

Posted in Archival Research, Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, History in the Media, Information Management, Manuscript Studies, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Culture | Leave a comment