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Chris Woodyard

@chriswoodyard.bsky.social

1.6K followers 200 following 1.4K posts

Author A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death, The Victorian Book of the Dead, 10 books on ghosts in Ohio and elsewhere. Death, mourning, costume, ghosts, Forteana. Podcast: Boggart and Banshee https://thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com: Blog

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 10d

New episode! Possessed Possessions: Haunted, Cursed, and Hoodoo Furniture
Simon tests haunted chairs and shuns cursed seats. Chris tells of bouncing beds from brothels and a murderer's trunk. Can furniture weirdly influence us or do spirits possess possessions?
www.buzzsprout.com/1859647/epis...

Chicken headed creature with claws and wings follows a running child hiding its face down the hall.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 3h

My cartoon for the books page in this week’s @theguardian.com

Title: Where writers really get their ideas.

A writer, holding a note in his outstretched hand approaches a cart in the park. The front of the cart reads 'Fresh ideas' and a colourful umbrella shades the server who is reaching deep into the body of the cart (much as an ice-cream vendor might) and saying:
"I'm all out of mind-blowing concepts and heart-rending narratives, but I've got an acerbic observation, an unexpected outcome and a couple of amusing notions."

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 4h

Yes, I think there were 4 volumes in the series and the paper is awful in all of them! Mine's fragile, but still holding together (not unlike many of us!)

Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 4h

#31daysofhalloween #spookybook #booktober #ghosts
The Ghost Wore Black, Chris Woodyard
Some of my favorite stories: The girl who married a ghost, banshees in Indiana, the Angel of Death at the Louisville asylum, MIB, a scuttling cornstalk monster, and Kentucky's fiery devils. Available worldwide.

Cover of The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past, by Chris Woodyard, skeletal woman in a black veil edged with lace

Table of contents for book The Ghost Wore Black, Chris Woodyard

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 5h

Also for a #Caturday, that falls on #NationalChessDay, the Brighton Cats, engrossed in a game.

Harry Pointer, c. 1870

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Nina Antonia @ninaantonia13.bsky.social · 5h

#31daysofhalloween Masonic Youth or From Here to Fraternity?

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Melissa Edmundson @melissae.bsky.social · 7h

Elizabeth Gaskell’s "The Old Nurse's Story," one of the finest Victorian ghost stories ever written, originally appeared in the Extra Christmas Number of Household Words in 1852. #BookWormSat

Black and white portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell.

Front cover to the Penguin edition of Elizabeth Gaskell’s collected Gothic Tales.

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XingWu🐉ChineseFolklore @xingwu.bsky.social · 6h

Emperor Huizong of the Song (1082–1135) may have faltered as a ruler, but his artistry was unmatched. In his paintings, cats often stalk butterflies, a scene both tender and symbolic.
The word for cat (māo) echoes mào (耄), meaning old age, while butterfly (dié) sounds like dié (耋), 1/2

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 5h

#NationalChessDay
Döden spelar schack / Man Playing Chess with Death, fresco by Albertus Pictor, c. 1480-1490
Täby Church, Uppland, Sweden
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ta...
Death playing chess with Antonius Block in "The Seventh Seal". "No one escapes me."
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead

Man in green tunic and black hat and shoes playing chess with a cadaverous Death.

black and white still from film showing black hooded, white-faced man playing chess with blond man in chain mail.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 6h

It's a fancy-dress #Caturday.
The lady may be taking her life in her hands trying to put a laurel wreath on a cat who is already peeved at the spotted bow-tie inflicted on it.
The Black Cat, October 1895
Boston Public Library

Woman in fancy dress puts a laurel wreath on a cat wearing a red and white polka-dotted bow tie. They are both sitting on a crescent moon. Cover of The Black Cat magazine October 1895

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 6h

#31daysofgraves #11 Military
The grave of Private Henry Aley, Company E, 94th Ohio Infantry, Aley Cemetery, Beavercreek, Ohio
He enlisted 10 Jul 1862 He died, as so many soldiers did, of disease, 17 Nov 1862 Louisville, Kentucky.
"Our Brother's Grave. 21y 2m 28d"
www.findagrave.com/memorial/941...

grey tombstone showing a soldier figure in a niche.

grey tombstone showing a soldier figure in a niche. a flag is planted at the base

grey tombstone showing a soldier figure in a niche. A flag is held in a laurel leaf plaque framing a star.

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Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery (KAVS) @listerlanecem.bsky.social · 1d

#31DaysOfGraves Day 10: Urn
Urns aplenty at Lister Lane Cemetery.

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Eine rosa Rose @einerosarose.bsky.social · 1d

#31DaysofGraves
Tag 10: Urne / Urn
Grabmalmuseum.
Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Hamburg.

Blick auf ein altes, verwittertes Grabmal. Auf einer Säule steht eine große, steinerne Urne. Im Hintergrund sind Bäume.

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Welwyn Archaeological Society @welwynarchsoc.bsky.social · 1d

#31DaysOfGraves Day 10: urn

I took this photo one foggy morning in the Calton Hill cemetery, Edinburgh. For those that care, Pentax K-3iii, SMC Pentax-F 50mm f/1.7 lens.

#scotland #taphophilia #cemetery #graveyard #monument

Black and white photograph of a tall burial monument. A tall urn with two handles stands on a tall plinth with a square cross-section. In the background is a leafless winter tree and multiple other monuments including some obelisks. It is a little bit foggy.

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🩷🕊 Sara Flacci @saraflacci.bsky.social · 2d

Hand of God

Facade of the Colson-Verstraete family chapel at Campo Santo in Ghent
#31DaysOfGraves 9 • hand
#Cemetery #Cemeteries

B/W detail of the architectural decoration above the chapel door. The large hand, descending from a cloud, holds five praying figures in its palm. Oral sources indicate that these are five children who, due to illness, all died in quick succession.

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Gosh! Comics @goshcomics.bsky.social · 6h

@tomgauld.bsky.social was in the shop a couple of days ago to launch his brand new collection of science cartoons, Physics For Cats! He even painted our window, creating this wonderful display for the new book!

Order exclusive edition: buff.ly/TYR0IVQ

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 21h

Wait I found it! @fotc.au @ohfolkthat.bsky.social
This one is an Alexander Smith stone dated 1889, at the old UC Cemetery in Brigus, NL!

A five piece complex monument, dated to 1889. It has a complex flower design on the middle section above the inscription.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 2d

Day 9, Hand: We have a classic hand pointing to the heavens with a broken rose motif behind it, signifying a life cut short, with a crown above. This is the grave of Susanna Soward, at the Old Cemetery in Battle Harbour, Labrador.
#31DaysofGraves #cemetery #labrador #battleharbour

A marble gravestone which has been repaired across the centre of the stone. It is dedicated to Susanna Soward, who died in 1885.

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 23h

Day 10, Urn: Today I've picked this gorgeous example of an urn on the grave of Caleb Smith at the Old House Cove Burial Ground, in Twillingate. This gravestone dates to 1819, a fairly early stone for NL! There are at least 2 other stones in Twillingate of this same design.
#31DaysofGraves

A limestone gravestone with 3 ridges on the top. The central image is a large urn, in the Greek style, with a cloth draped over it, suspended on either side by a carved stone ring. The inscription is partly weathered away, but you can read 'In Memory Of Caleb Smith...February 1819...Aged 7[?] Years'

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CathyLoweBerkshire @cathylowe.bsky.social · 1d

#31DaysOfGraves - Urn

There are many grand urn-festooned monuments within our churches, but this al fresco variety in the churchyard at Brill delights in its simplicity. Flames issue from the top!

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CathyLoweBerkshire @cathylowe.bsky.social · 1d

This decorous 1740 monument in St Mary's Turville is a fine sight in this Chilterns church - no effigies and two handsome urns; dignified and not overbearing.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 1d

The story deepens! We now know the person who brought a #Roman tombstone to New Orleans was a US soldier stationed in Italy during WW2; I like to think that Sextus Congenius Verus - the tombstone 'owner', & a military man himself - would have understood...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Roman grave marker found in New Orleans yard left there by US soldier’s granddaughter

Erin Scott O’Brien says grandfather Charles Paddock brought back artifact with him from second world war

www.theguardian.com

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Ceri Houlbrook @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social · 1d

Ronald Hutton called it 'The best overall view of the subject... It not only covers the traditional remit of folklore but extends it into many less conventional areas'. And you can't argue with Ronald Hutton 😁 You can buy #Folklore in bookshops & here manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180377/

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The Fake History Hunter @fakehistoryhunter.net · 1d

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 1d

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

Photo of a vertical driftwood sculpture inlaid with rainbow coloured stained glass, the sculpture is sited on a wet looking shoreline by the sea under a sky with silver clouds and pale blue light

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1d

Legend is female Druids of the county did not disappear during Roman occupation, but instead melded with the forests to become its Green Ladies, its Moss Maidens. A historian will tell you this is nonsense. A folklorist will merely tell you stories hold impossible truths. - #CLNolan #FolkloreFriday

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