Category Archives: Material Culture

New Digital Humanities Techniques Open Locked Letters

Posted on March 2, 2021 by briansandberg

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

Digital Humanities Confronts Cubism

Posted on January 29, 2021 by briansandberg

Digital Humanities methods are increasingly used in humanities research, teaching, and presentation through a myriad of techniques. Digital tools and methods offer possibilities of analyzing texts, images, objects, and artifacts in different ways and from multiple perspectives. Although these methods … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History, Cultural History, Digital Humanities, European History, French History, History in the Media, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Paris History, Political Culture, Urban History | Leave a comment

A Violin and the Mechanisms of Peace and Reconciliation

Posted on January 25, 2021 by briansandberg

A violin constructed by Giuseppe Guarneri, an eighteenth-century violin maker from Cremona known as del Gesù (of Jesus), has become the center of a controversy over the legacies of Nazi coercion and looting of artworks belonging to Jewish victims of … Continue reading →

Posted in Archival Research, Art History, Atrocities, Contemporary Art, Cultural History, European History, European Union, History in the Media, History of Race and Racism, History of Violence, Human Rights, Manuscript Studies, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Activism and Protest Culture | 1 Comment

Seminar on Latin Sources in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon

Posted on January 15, 2021 by briansandberg

Graduate students interested in medieval history, and particularly those wanting to learn how to use Latin sources in medieval archives, may be interested in an upcoming Mediterranean Summer Skills Seminar: Introduction to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (documents … Continue reading →

Posted in Archival Research, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, Graduate Work in History, History of the Western World, Lectures and Seminars, Manuscript Studies, Material Culture, Medieval History, Mediterranean World, Religious History | Leave a comment

Instant History: Archiving Political Slogans and Symbols

Posted on January 10, 2021 by briansandberg

Historians and museum curators are already hard at work preserving the history of the Storming of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on 6 January 2021. “A sign that reads, ‘Off with their heads — stop the steal’ and a small … Continue reading →

Posted in Archival Research, Civil Conflict, Comparative Revolutions, Cultural History, Current Research, History in the Media, History of Violence, Information Management, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Northern Illinois University, Political Activism and Protest Culture, Political Culture, Revolts and Revolutions, United States History and Society | Leave a comment

Islamic Art History Resource

Posted on October 25, 2020 by briansandberg

A new online resource for Islamic art history has just been launched online. Northern Illinois University students in my HIST 110 History of the Western World I course are studying the expansion of Islam at this point in the semester … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History, Court Studies, Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, Globalization, History of Medicine, History of Science, History of the Book, Maritime History, Material Culture, Mediterranean World, Museums and Historical Memory, Religious History, Religious Politics, Religious Violence, Renaissance Art and History, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

New Research on Vikings

Posted on September 21, 2020 by briansandberg

DNA studies are revealing new information on complicated ethnic backgrounds of Viking warriors and traders in medieval Europe. A research team led by a professor at the University of Copenhagen has analyzed the genomes of 443 bodies buried in Viking … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural History, European History, History of Medicine, History of Science, History of the Western World, History of Violence, Maritime History, Material Culture, Medieval History, Museums and Historical Memory, War and Society, War, Culture, and Society, World History | Leave a comment

Art of Renaissance Warfare

Posted on August 28, 2020 by briansandberg

The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library (Chicago) will host a virtual conversation with Jonathan Tavares (The Art Institute of Chicago) and Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Newberry Library) on The Art of Renaissance Warfare, to be held on Zoom. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History, Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, European Wars of Religion, Globalization, History of Science, History of Violence, Italian History, Lectures and Seminars, Material Culture, Mediterranean World, Museums and Historical Memory, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, War and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World, World History | Leave a comment

Renaissance Invention Exhibition

Posted on August 28, 2020 by briansandberg

A new exhibition on Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s Nova Reperta opens today (Friday 28 August 2020) at the Newberry Library. The exhibition will run from 28 August to 25 November 2020 in the Trienens Galleries at the Newberry Library in Chicago. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History, Atlantic World, Cartographic History, Cultural History, Digital Humanities, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, European Wars of Religion, Globalization, Intellectual History, Maritime History, Material Culture, Mediterranean World, Museums and Historical Memory, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, World History | Leave a comment

Titian Portrait on View

Posted on February 18, 2019 by briansandberg

A Renaissance masterpiece, Portrait of a Lady in White, is currently on view at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.  The portrait by Tiziano Vecelli (known as Titian) is on loan from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History, Court Studies, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Italian History, Material Culture, Museums and Historical Memory, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Renaissance Art and History, Social History | Leave a comment