Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 5h

Flicking through my (unbound, stained) copy of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, I was excited to discover these. Can anyone tell me if they’re flowers or, perhaps, 4-leaf clovers? I’m guessing the former, as would be quite the collection of the latter! RPs appreciated! #18thC #botany #ArtHistory #WomensHistory

pressed flowers or leaves close to spine of p 37 of Hayley’s An Essay on Painting. All the same, 4-petalled (or leafed) variety

Close-up of 3 pressed 4-petalled flowers or leaves in my copy of Hayley’s An Essay on Painting, showing the shadow marks they’ve left on the paper

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 17h

1784. Jeremiah Meyer, miniature painter in enamels to King George III had an idea. He brought a popular opera back from Germany, thinking his friend William Hayley could make £££ translating it for the London stage.

What could possibly go wrong?
🤦🏻🤷🏻🤦🏻

Read bit.ly/KnausMeyer in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Engraving of Jeremiah Meyer.
William Pether, ca. 1738–1821, Jeremiah Meyer, Esqr. r. A., Miniature painter in Enamel to His Majesty, 1789, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.12362.

Meyer, his body turned slightly to the left, looks over his left shoulder, while – from the top – he holds what looks to be a large sketch pad, with a pencil or brush held gently in his right hand.

His face bears a concentrated expression as if he’s observing something closely. His features are large and heavy, his hair neatly dressed and curled outwards over his ears (his right lobe is visible). His hairline is slightly receding. He wears what looks like a simple, brown jacket over a cream or white cravat.

Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 1d

Things that should not be happening in one of the richest countries in the world. I'm ashamed.

Museum of Homelessness @ourmoh.bsky.social · 1d

With heavy hearts we release our findings of our annual investigation into the deaths of people experiencing homelessness in 2024.
Read more on our site here:

museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...

Our investigation finds that 1611 people experiencing homelessness died in 2024 - a 9% increase on the previous year. — Museum of Homelessness

We are devastated to share our latest research into the deaths of those who die. It has revealed the continued impact at the sharpest edge of the homelessness crisis, as the Labour Government has fail...

museumofhomelessness.org

Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 1d

Discover how developer Michael Kowalski & I made “HayleyWorld” for my PhD & why I decided to call this interactive biography a ‘"zoeography". bit.ly/MakingHW in bit.ly/HayleyEssays. Video intro here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4N.... #elit #romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Intro to Hayleyworld

This video is about HayleyWorld, the creative element of Lisa’s Digital Writing by Practice PhD.

www.youtube.com

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 2d

Love #Blake? Interested in #lifewriting? Read @jasonpaulwhittaker.bsky.social & @urthonaunbound.bsky.social’s “‘Be My Enemy for Friendship’s Sake’: Hayley and Blake’s Biographers” bit.ly/BME4FS in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

What did Blake gain by working with Hayley? What – for him – were the downsides?

Shadow of a finger pointing to the chapter title. Text reads ‘Be My Enemy for Friendship’s Sake’: Hayley and Blake’s Biographers
Jason Whittaker and Annise Rogers

Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 4d

In our intro to bit.ly/HayleyEssays, Mark Crosby & I explain William Hayley’s significance, discuss the book’s chapters & point to research still to be done (there’s LOADS!). So, if you’re an #18thC-st or a #Romanticist looking for a new project/research idea, check out bit.ly/HonestChronicler.

Book jacket. Text reads
Top left: Palgrave studies in life writing
Series editors: Clare Brant • Max Saunders
Centre: William Hayley
A Biographer’s Influence on Life Writing and Romantic Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century
Edited by
Lisa Gee • Mark Crosby
Bottom right:
Palgrave
macmillan

Image: Full length picture showing (l-r) George Romney (self portrait) peering impishly into the frame, William Hayley standing side on head turned to face the viewer. He’s tall, has an imperious expression under shortish grey hair, is wearing a long dark blue cape, grey trousers and his right hand holds a walking stick. John Flaxman(who comes up to Hayley’s shoulder looks at him while working on a large grey bust. In front of him, the height of Flaxman’s shoulder,. and facing away from us, is Tom Hayley, wearing a red waistcoat over a white/cream shirt, knee length britches, white socks or spats and brown shoes. His hair is brown and touches his shoulder

George Romney, 1734–1802, John Flaxman Modeling the Bust of William Hayley, 1795 to 1796, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.538.

Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 4d

Me too. Was aware of some of the UK Jewish history on the topic, but ignorant of US. Thanks for sharing @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social Off to get the book.

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 4d

I learnt a lot from this.
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

The origins of today’s conflict between American Jews over Israel

In the early years, American Jewish support for Israel was a fraught issue. The turning point was the six-day war of 1967, which solidified a strength of feeling that has only recently begun to fract...

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 5d

Aubergines & tomatoes have rocked this year!

4 aubergines & 3 tomatoes on a kitchen worktop in the sunshine

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 5d

Repeating myself (yet again) but the brilliant Mark Crosby & I have a book out, crammed with erudite, fascinating & readable contributions from an impressive range of scholars. If your research touches on long #18thC art, literature or socio-cultural history, please check out bit.ly/HayleyEssays TY!

Selfie of Lisa holding up William Hayley book so that the title, editor & other jacket text are visible, and concealing part of her face.Behind her are her slightly chaotic bookshelves and the tops of some plants

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 6d

Lots of Dante in R. F. Kuang's latest, Katabasis

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 7d

"Hayley taught Romney how to understand literature in a more sophisticated way…. He enjoyed showing off his knowledge … without making Romney feel inferior."

Alex Kidson & Morton Paley discuss Hayley x Romney x #Blake bit.ly/HayleyRomneyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #ArtHistory Pic info in ALT

Romney’s face, wearing small round spectacles, can be seen smirking (self-portait). He’s holding up an artist’s pallet with smears of orangey-red, yellow & blueish-white paint..George Romney 1734–1802, John Flaxman Modeling the Bust of William Hayley, 1795 to 1796, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.538.

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Reposted by Dr Lisa Gee

Dr Phoenix CS Andrews @thatdocphoenix.com · 7d

Moral leadership involves alienating bigots and shaming them so that the envelope of public acceptability is not weakened by their inclusion

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 8d

Frenemies? “The relationship is perhaps best understood as a drama in four acts …” Nicholas Shrimpton conducts a forensic reassessment of Williams #Blake & Hayley’s #friendship: bit.ly/RevisitHayleyBlake in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

Pic info in ALT

#romanticism #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th

Impressionistic pen sketch of house in background, with green bush front right and to right on hill, viewed through 2 trees front centre & left, with more greenery/?dead tree to left foreground.

William Blake, 1757–1827, The Entrance Front of Hayley's House at Eartham, 1801, Pen and black ink with watercolor and graphite on medium, smooth, beige wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.2396.

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 9d

Incidentally, bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor wasn’t @fbls.bsky.social’s first piece on Eliza Hayley. She wrote a fantastic essay on Hayley’s 1780 book: a #translation of 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙊𝙡𝙙-𝘼𝙜𝙚 by the Marchioness de Lambert. Read it at bit.ly/FBS-WTW #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #womenshistory

Title page of Eliza Ball Hayley’s first book. Text reads

ESSAYS
ON
FRIENDSHIP AND OLD-AGE
BY THE
MARCHIONESS DE LAMBERT
Que tout ce qu’elle dit est grace ;
Tout ce qu’elle pense, raison. LA MOTTE

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY A LADY
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER
TO
WILLIAM MELMOTH, ESQ.

LONDON
PRINTED FOR J.DODSLEY, PALL-MALL.
M. DCC.LXXX.

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 10d

This. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 10d

If you require migrants to meet higher standards than the average Brit, whether that is in terms their language requirements, voluntary service, which isn't remotely "voluntary" if it is compulsory, or anything else then you have a system which is by definition discriminatory. One which dehumanises.

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 10d

Actually, speaking for a me, some of us might be frustrated creative non-fiction writers... 😁

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 11d

@fbls.bsky.social observes how “Scholarly references to Hayley are … always in relation to her husband, hardly ever recognising her own intellectual merit.” A pity, as Hayley had plenty to say… bit.ly/ElizaHayleyAuthor

#lifewriting #18thC #c18th #womenshistory #womenswriting #reputation

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 12d

Claudia Thomas Kairoff, author of THE Anna Seward book-length critical study –bit.ly/CTKAS – discovered Romney’s 2nd portrait of the poet in her local library bit.ly/HayleySeward in bit.ly/HayleyEssays
#lifewriting #18thC #c18th #romanticism #portraits #arthistory #poetry #womenshistory

Book jacket of Anna Seward and the End of the Eighteenth Century by Claudia Thomas Kairoff

It shows the earlier Romney portrait of Seward, depicting a woman in a long, dark dress with gold trimmings and a blue silky sash leans her left elbow on a table covered in red fabric. Her eyes look to her right, and her face rests gently on her left hand, her index finger pointing upwards. Her hair is auburn and she wears a headdress with a laurel wreath. She holds a scroll of paper in her right hand, which rests on her dress. On the table are books and an urn. The background comprises a reddish swathe of fabric, which, to the sitter’s left reveals flattish scenery and a cloudy sky.

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 14d

“The bust [is] nevertheless of a size never likely to have been realized. (Doesn’t the pictured Hayley realize this incongruity?).” Morton D. Paley in bit.ly/HayleyRomneyPaintings in bit.ly/HayleyEssays

PS: probably the bust Flaxman made: collections.soane.org/object-br23 #18thC #c18th #arthistory

Bust of the poet and biographer William Hayley (1745-1820)

William Hayley (1745-1820) was a literary celebrity of his age. His poetical essay <i>Triumphs of Temper </i>(1781) went to 14 editions and in 1790 he refused the post of Poet Laureate. Hayley…

collections.soane.org

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Reposted by Dr Lisa Gee

Anna M. Thane @annamthane.bsky.social · 18d

Enjoy reading in September!
Here is an updated list of new #nonfiction #books about the #18thcentury scheduled for this month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/
#Regency #Napoleon #history #JaneAusten #read #18thc

A compilation of 44 covers of books about the 18th century. You find the whole list by following the link in the skeet

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 15d

"On his return from France in Autumn 1790 Hayley found himself full of “sanguine philanthropic hope’ for the outcome of the revolution…". Mark Crosby on William Hayley’s politics & his #Milton #biography bit.ly/MiltonHayley in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #18thC #c18th #politics #revolution

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Reposted by Dr Lisa Gee

Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · 15d

Anyone know if there are online images of John MacLean's "All Hail the Scottish Communist/Workers' Republic!" pamphlet (1920/22) online somewhere dependable enough to send my students?

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 16d

Done!

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Dr Lisa Gee @lis4g33.bsky.social · 16d

“A Systematically Immoral Man”: Recovering 5 women from William Hayley, life-writer & : bit.ly/systematicallyimmoral in bit.ly/HayleyEssays #lifewriting #biography #18thC #c18th #romance #marriage #divorce #romanticism #19thc #wollstonecraft #womenshistory #reading #toxicmasculinity

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