Christine Jacobson
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cejacobson.bsky.social
Christine Jacobson
@cejacobson.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.2K following 710 posts
Associate Curator of Modern Books & Manuscripts @ Houghton Library, Harvard University

newsletter on cultural heritage x fashion: luxelibris.substack.com

writing, projects, frivolity, etc: linktr.ee/cejacobson
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cejacobson.bsky.social
how incredible is this? typewriter as piece of type! 📜
ad for the Oliver Typewriter. Copy reads "A DISTINCT TYPE. The OLIVER has certain superior features and unique improvements exclusively its own." Accompanying an image of a piece of type with the nicks on the left, "OLIVER" down the side and in place of a letter face at the top sits an Oliver typewriter.
July 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
hey #SHARP2025 good news, I have started work on my slides for my presentation that starts in *checks notes* 48 hours
slide deck that reads, "Thanks for Typing Surfacing Women's Type Labor in the Archives" on the left and on the right a lithograph poster of a woman in a golden edwardian dress sits working at a typewriter on a table with books and a vase of flowers
July 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
took my daughter to Harvard Square to meet (a historic reenactor playing) Elizabeth Glover, the woman who established the 1st printing press in the colonies.

was a little surprised to see her in Edwardian attire handing out balloons but very little is known about Glover so who am I to judge! 📜
A woman in a pinstripe jacket and skirt and Panama hat holds a large pink balloon under a white canopy
June 21, 2025 at 8:07 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
found joy and courage from this image of Vivienne Eliot (first and ill-treated wife of TS) I came across in the stacks this week; sharing in case it helps buoy others.

just look at that defiant pose! and the unapologetic femininity she brought to her workspace. this was a dame.
black and white photograph of a woman (white, dark hair with bangs pulled back into a bun in a long dark dress and dark shoes) stands with her hands on her hips behind a desk with a corona typewriter and next to a beautiful hutch holding displaying fine china, a silver samova, and a vase of flowers
June 20, 2025 at 1:59 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
requested again a book I ILLed last year and to my surprise a few of my brass page tacks were not only left by me (whoops) but also left in place by the ILL and Yale librarians! Lucky break for me; I was looking for this exact passage 📜
June 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
oooh what a lovely example. I keep meaning to dig into this too since they found these quilt squares with ms and printed paper backing at the Dickinson museum:

emilydickinsonmuseum.catalogaccess.com/objects/7657
June 4, 2025 at 11:37 AM
cejacobson.bsky.social
tomorrow evening I’ll be giving a talk on my Barbara Pym collection for the Ticknor Society. If you’re a bookish person in the New England area I really recommend joining the Ticknor society. It’s great for intergenerational community, behind-the-scenes field trips, and more.

ticknor.org
May 27, 2025 at 12:50 AM
cejacobson.bsky.social
garden plot update: brown-eyed susans, lavender, thyme, roses, and to my surprise, the peony bush survived the winter. finally got new rosemary, dahlia bulbs, nasturtiums, and zinnia in the ground and added lemon balm, linaria, calendula, milkweed, cosmos, lavender lady, and Mexican sunflowers
a small peony bush with a single red bloom in the center Single rose bud in the cusp of blooming A small garden plot mostly bare with a few potted roses on the left
May 25, 2025 at 6:57 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
back at it 😎
Advertisement for Remington Typewriter “The Four Rs! The four Ra mean the same—plus an education” Cover of book Story of the Typewriter 1873-1923 with illustration of a woman in white hovering over an urban city skyline holding a typewriter Drop cap illustration of letter “O” with black silhouette of a woman typing and a man standing behind her dictating Frontispiece from The Story of the Typewriter with the inventor sitting in the foreground and a parade of “liberated” women in the background
April 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
please come to Houghton Library on May 1st and hear about botanical paper mosaics! queer scrapbook interior collages! Emily Dickinson's stationery! craft-based pedagogy in collaboration with archives! from the great @drbibliomane.bsky.social @amyeelkins.bsky.social Jen Bervin, & Mande Zecca ✨🪡📜
flyer for event that reads "Houghton Library and the Harvard English Department present SURFACING CRAFT IN THE ARCHIVE | Deidre Lynch, Mande Zecca, Amy Elkins, and Jen Bervin | Thursday May 1, 5:30-7:30PM Edison and Newman Room Houghton Library Harvard Library
April 15, 2025 at 7:34 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
my daughter patiently waiting for me while I Ieft Henry a little cairn
a stroller stands in the middle of a gravel path behind an expanse of patchy grass a small cairn of four rocks stacked on top of one anther in front of a grave marker
April 14, 2025 at 11:45 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
today was my last day of parental leave so I did what any mother would do and took my daughter to see the graves of William and Henry James
Gravestone of William and Alice James in a family plot on a sunny day Gravestone of Henry James at the family plot
April 14, 2025 at 11:44 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
Our copies of THE HOME-MAKER are here! @mollybrrown.bsky.social and I had so much fun unboxing them and seeing our foreword and afterward in the new handsome QLB edition. Out on April 7th!
A baby sits in a Bjorn rocker with a copy of the home-maker resting in her lap Molly and Christine clink pink glasses of sparkling rose behind a table where their boxes of The Home Maker lay unpacked.
March 23, 2025 at 4:29 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
introduced Margaret to Lyle Lyle Crocodile recently and she was entranced
an infant in a pea green onesie holds Lyle Lyle Crocodile on her lap. The book is the size of the baby.
March 12, 2025 at 1:37 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
a little mirth goes a long way in grim times
cover of Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
March 3, 2025 at 4:34 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
a century later, one of the great working girl narratives with a relevant as ever screwball premise will be reprinted with a new foreword and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher is out from QLB books April 7!
quiteliterallybooks.com/product/the-...
Image of the cover of the Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
March 1, 2025 at 11:56 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
me, telling all the women in my postpartum group about vocational awe
black and white photograph of Vladimir Lenin in a town square in Moscow giving a speech to hundreds of people
February 10, 2025 at 6:36 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
everything is terrible but I organized a meetup for my fourth trimester mom group at the Harvard Art Museum and it was the first social outing with our babies for the majority of us.
A group of eight women with small babies sit around three metal tables in a light-filled courtyard a baby in a stroller rests in front of a sculpture of porcelain plates
January 14, 2025 at 7:12 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
the thrust of your article typified in this SATC scene:
December 16, 2024 at 6:34 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
matching cup and saucers are good for more than just tea and coffee
a cup full of milk and a saucer holds two cookies
November 21, 2024 at 9:27 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
I am shamelessly trying to make my baby announcement look like it was typeset though it will be letterpress printed from a polymer plate, hence my search for such a resource.

some strong contenders so far (courtesy of the Plantin press h/t @bibliowingate.bsky.social!)
woodcut of baby that strongly resembles full grown man in what appears to be a brussels sprout but is likely meant to evoke the womb regal woman dressed in finery holds small baby also dressed in finery surrounded by columns and vases and general elaborate ornament woodcut illustration of baby in "are you not entertained?" pose descending from heaven surrounded by clouds and cherubs woodcut illustration of baby head coming, somehow distressingly, out of flower petals
November 14, 2024 at 3:04 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
I am so glad people are leaving X in droves—there’s no question this place is nicer, but it’s still missing some of the je ne sais quoi of posts like these. is bsky working on this
Left post from John Philips says “In awe of how my wife will arrive in a new city and immediately seek out local ointments, textiles, a bolt of fine cloth etc. It's like travelling with a merchant from 16th century Antwerp” right post says, “calenderheads, peep february 2026. you don’t see em laid out like this often anymore. something to look forward to” above a screenshot of the month of February which begins on Sunday, the 1st and ends on Saturday, the 28th creating a perfect grid of four symmetrical weeks
November 12, 2024 at 1:59 AM
cejacobson.bsky.social
over the span of 11 days in 1886, Theodore Roosevelt chased three thieves who’d stolen his boat down the Little Missouri River, apprehended them and his boat, and brought them back to town. along the way, he read Anna Karenina.

I’m reading it during my last pregnant days (essentially the same feat)
copy of novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy translated by Rosalind Bartlett rests on a rust colored pillow
November 10, 2024 at 12:58 AM
cejacobson.bsky.social
while I love this photo of feature writer Alexandra Dennett in the Uzbek National Archives in Tashkent, it obfuscates how colorful her dispatch is! here is a sneak peek 📜 :
left: woman in black and white print set boarding the subway in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. right: back of a woman in a black hijab and blue and pink printed floral set waits for the subway in Tashkent
November 5, 2024 at 4:44 PM
cejacobson.bsky.social
inbox zero // out of office until April 2025 engaged 😈
November 2, 2024 at 12:01 AM