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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 · 9d

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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Reposted by Chris Woodyard

Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 9h

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 · 1d

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 · 10h

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 · 14h

#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 · 14h

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 · 16h

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 · 12h

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 · 14h

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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 · 18h

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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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 18h

For #ForteanFriday that falls on #WorldEggDay, "A Corpse On Eggs"
The mystery of an infant corpse found on a layer of eggs in a Parisian chimney.
hauntedohiobooks.com/news/a-corps...

Picture of a dozen eggs, some white, some speckled or dirtied.

Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 18h

#PhantomsFriday
The Phantom Guests, Georgie Hobson
www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/...

Dark sepia painting of phantoms in 18th century clothes descending a staircase.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 18h

#31daysofhalloween #spookybook #booktober #ghosts
The Vermont Ghost Experience by Joseph A. Citro and Robert Waldo Brunelle Jr.

Book cover of The Vermont Ghost Experience showing two men in fezses at a seance table. A skull-head screams with delight.

Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 18h

#31daysofgraves #10 urn
Mega-urn Knights of Pythias monument
Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield, Ohio
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead

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

Goodnight from Alfie Haines, picking up impossible transmissions and wearily reflecting that his home county might not be the best one to be a radio ham in. Goodnight from the ghost of Mercy Lovell, still chasing after the rough kisses of Samuel Midmore. Goodnight from Hookland.

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Skionar @skionar.bsky.social · 1d

Goodnight

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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 1d

Splendid triptych for the cathedral in Moulins, 1498, by Jean Hey. Also known (because of this work) as the Master of Moulins. Today is his day.

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Louvain Rees ⚰️ @hellohistoria.bsky.social · 1d

Sin-eating & Singing | A Welsh Funeral ⚰️

"The night before ye Burying all the neighbours & friends of ye Deceased come & watch his Body & to say their prayers."

hellohistoria.substack.com/p/sin-eating...

#Wales #History #FolkloreThursday

Sin-eating & Singing | A Welsh Funeral.

From Ty Corff to Sin-eating, I'll be exploring death, burial and mourning customs/ traditions relating to Wales.

hellohistoria.substack.com

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Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · 1d

If you're still filling in your spooky calendar, join me at Viktor Wynd Museum’s The Last Tuesday Society (8:00 pm London time) for ghosty children on Sunday 26th October.

If you can’t attend the talk in real time, ticket holders will have two weeks to view the video!

Dr Jen Baker @jendeavour.bsky.social · Aug 6

Join me online with the Viktor Wynd museum on 26th October, 8pm (GMT) for a talk on "Spectral Embodiments: Manifesting and Visualising the Ghost Child" 👻🖤

LOADS of other amazing talks available throughout the year too; check out The Last Tuesday Society!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manifestin...

Manifesting and Visualising the Ghost Child - Dr Jen Baker - Zoom

This talk examines the transformation of the ghost-child figure from oral folklore and legends to their literary incarnations in culture

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

There's so much circulating in pop culture about painful corsets, that I always like to put in a good word for them.

Reposted by Chris Woodyard

Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 1d

Gabriel is talking to the bed, & Mary is very confused, in this Annunciation by Jean Hey, aka the Master of Moulins. It's his day today.

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

The tangled dead, root-pulled from above and below, feel scratches upon long vanished, phantom flesh. Their fancy houses have become cells where they wait on visitors who never come. Necropolis bounded and more than half-forgotten, many of them ache for hell. – #CLNolan

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

I always jump to the defense of 19th-century corsetry. 😊This is, of course, a fashion illustration, which exaggerates the silhouette. A properly-fitted corset was not painful. Tight-lacing was not the norm and was widely criticized by doctors and dress reformers.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in mourning, possibly for her husband, who died in 1894, although this is not deepest mourning.
1894 mourning dress, with crape trim on skirt, cuffs, and revers.
www.gazette-drouot.com/lots/2121459...
The Delineator, April, 1894

Woman in dark dress standing with hands on a chair. Brooch and jabot at her neck, largish sleeves.

Mourning dress illustration with crape trimmings on skirt and bodice, which has large sleeves.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead L’Absoute / The Burial Service, Felix Vallotton, 1894
www.britishmuseum.org/research/col...

Mourners, seen from behind, seen standing up from their chairs at funeral service.