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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 · 7d

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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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 1h

Goodnight from Seb Horner, trapped on the wrong side of the A3450 by knowledge that the Half-there Folk hold court in its underpass. Goodnight from Harriet Rain, waking in darkness and switching on bedside light to find apported swan feathers engulfing her bed. Goodnight from Hookland.

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John Reppion @johnreppion.bsky.social · 4d

#DailyGhost
4) DALLINGTON CHURCH
Northamptonshire, 1907. Two girls out for a walk enter the church. Inside, they are terrified to see the place full of kneeling people who seemed "to be made of a substance similar to bubbles". No explanation has ever been offered, and the apparition never reoccurred

Haunted East Anglia by Joan Forman (1974 / 1990)

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Folk Horror Revival 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social · 3h

I went searching for the cover artwork and found that @memizon.bsky.social posted it on Twitter a few years ago.

Front cover of 'Spookerisms: 25 weird and eerie happenings easily re-told as one's own experiences' by Elliott O'Donnell. Above the title and description on the cover is a bevy of traditional white sheet draped ghosts.

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MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 4d

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 5h

Accessorizing for #WorldOctopusDay
Octopus helmet, late 16th c. Japan
Opal and diamond octopus brooch, emerald eyes c. 1955
Silver and glass octopus chatelaine, 1887

Stibbert Museum, Florence, Italy
www.bonhams.com/auctions/265...
www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

Opal octopus with diamonds and emerald eyes

Hammered silver octopus chatelaine with red glass eyes.

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Welwyn Archaeological Society @welwynarchsoc.bsky.social · 15h

#31DaysOfGraves day 8: glass. I had problems finding a suitable image for this one. I know I have a photo of some stained glass in a mausoleum somewhere on my hard disk, but where? Oh well, this one of Lucy Gallop in West Norwood cemetery, London, shows her photograph behind glass.

A monochrome photograph of a woman in a circular frame. The glass protecting the photo is held in place by a copper alloy ring. The photo is surrounded by a wreath carved in grey stone which is also within an omega shaped piece of carved stone with a key-pattern in gold around the edge, The bottom of the photo shows the plinth of the monument also with a carved decoration.

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Friends of Warriston Cemetery @fowarristoncem.bsky.social · 9h

#31DaysOfGraves day 8 - glass. Arguably the most famous tomb despite its current state, the "Red Lady" (officially the Robertson mortuary chapel) was erected in 1865 for Mary Ann Robertson (1826–1858). The original red glass roof allowed red coloured daylight to flicker on the stone figure inside.

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Kate Strasdin @katestrasdin.bsky.social · 11h

It took a highly sophisticated Jacquard weave to create the incredibly detailed oranges that form the fabric of of this early 1890s dress. You can almost smell the citrusy peel. There so many details to observe here, the pattern matching, the cuff trim, the drama! #V&A #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

A view of the back of an1890s dress showing the bodice with clusters of oranges woven into the fabric. It has black lace on the sleeves and a high collar

A detail of the front of the bodice of the orange patterned 1890s dress showing black lace at the neckline and the detailed fruit

Sleeve detail of the 1890s orange patterned dress which has a yellow silk trellis work trim with black lace

Full length view of the front of the 1890s dress patterned with oranges and trimmed with black lace

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 8h

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead “The laws governing the depth of the band on the hat have become mathematically exact...
“For the widower the band of fine bombazine comes to within one-quarter of an inch from the top."
The Sad Man of Fashion thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2022/03/02/t...

Man in double-breasted velvet-collared coat wearing hat with very high mourning band.

Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 8h

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead
1905 mourning ensembles
1) "sleeve caps are an interesting addition to the full length or puff sleeves." The Delineator, October 1905
2) "The newest smart design for a widow’s mourning; round toque of folded crepe; veil of mousseline with crepe edge."

1905 mourning ensemble with hat and umbrella

1905 mourning dress with crape panels, hat and veil

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CathyLoweBerkshire @cathylowe.bsky.social · 1d

#31DaysofGraves 7 • angel

These tomb angels in St Mary's, Aldermaston, had a specialist role - safeguarding the tassels of the effigies' cushions.

Sir George Forster & wife, made c 1530. Alabaster & of the highest quality. @portaspeciosa.bsky.social @chartresfi.bsky.social

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LizD @bibby4.bsky.social · 14h

#31DaysOfGraves Day 8 Glass:
Bit of a cheat because it's not quite glass. The newly restored Ancrum hogback with its protective cover. Ancrum, The Scottish Borders.
Photo credit; my sister.

An ancient grey stone with worn carving that is shaped like the roof of a house. The stone is enclosed in a transparent box for protection.

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Anna Fairley Nielsson @annaandthedead.bsky.social · 14h

#31DaysOfGraves Day 8 - Glass: Sun coming through the stained glass window of the Cory-Wright mausoleum at Highgate Cemetery #London

A large circular stained glass window reflects orange light on to the inside wall of a mausoleum. The text around the window reads "the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms"

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 8h

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead
1905 patent sketch of the front of a man's burial suit.
1905 cutaway burial suit illustration from the National Styles catalogue from National Casket Company.
patents.google.com/patent/US789...
Smithsonian Institute

patent sketch of front of man's burial suit 1905

Illustration of cutaway suit designed for burial

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 8h

#WyrdWednesday The voyage of the Ice Viking, or, Entombed in an Iceberg for Centuries
Drifting for ten centuries through the uncharted seas north of the Arctic Circle, the body of a Viking king a thousand years old has been returned at last to civilization.
hauntedohiobooks.com/death/12708/

Green colored statue of Leif Erickson with axe, chain mail, helmet and sword

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 8h

#31daysofhalloween #spookybook #booktober #ghosts
Ghosts in the Great War and True Tales of Haunted Houses Thrilling Personal Experiences of “Daily News” Readers,
S. Louis Giraud

Red book in front of multicolored floral curtain

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 9h

#31daysofgraves #8 Glass Two examples of glass grave markers--the first, a temporary marker, painted with name and age; the second, c. 1950s, of photosensitive glass.
Former eBay listing [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55165681/barbara-jean-thompson]
glasscollection.cmog.org/objects/5067...

black glass plaque with scalloped edges, silver letters

black glass plaque with white lettering and cross and floral border

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Kresen Kernow @kresenkernow.bsky.social · 10h

Monster is the theme for this month’s Explore Your Archives, whether it’s folklore, maps or pantomime, we’ll be exploring our collections for wonderous documents for this spooky-inspired theme!

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 9h

"Try" is the operative word. Not much sleep there!

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Suzanne Karr Schmidt @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

Drop something SKELETAL

We've got something spooky brewing at the Newberry....
www.newberry.org/calendar/for...

Frans Masereel Danse Macabre, Newberry, 1941.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 22h

The owls are not what they seem....

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Lisa Grimm Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialise @lisagrimm.com · 1d

Afternoon re-share of today's #spookybook. For the #SpeirGorm crowd, this book includes a weird ghostly hat story at Killakee House.

Lisa Grimm Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialise @lisagrimm.com · 1d

#31DaysOfHalloween Day 7: A trio of Sheila St Clair volumes. Staying local again.

Psychic Phenomena in Ireland
Sheila St. Clair

Mysterious IRELAND
Sheila St. Clair

The Step on the Stair
Sheila St. Clair

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Dr. Robyn S. Lacy ⚰️ @graveyardarch.bsky.social · 1d

Day 7, Angel: This is the grave of George Fleet J, who died in Trinity at age 15, 1873. His grave is decorated by a detailed flying angel blowing a trumpet, with a banner behind her reading 'Behold He Cometh'. George is buried at the Methodist graveyard in Trinity, NL.
#31DaysofGraves 🏺

A marble gravestone with an angel flying and playing a trumpet. The description is pretty much in the skeet actually!

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Liza Adamczewski aka the accidental ecologist @lizaadamczewski.bsky.social · 1d

A ringed plover and her chick to lift my mood and that of anyone else who’s feeling a little low this week.

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Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

While I admire the artistry and history of the pieces, I'm with you. We had a shadow-boxed wreath in my grandparents' attic that reminded me of a giant, quivering tarantula.