Lucretia Baskin
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lucretiab.bsky.social
Lucretia Baskin
@lucretiab.bsky.social
1.1K followers 180 following 590 posts
Rare materials cataloger, contains multitudes.🐍🦇
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lucretiab.bsky.social
Screenshot of Editing the Gray Lady account showing changes in headline and abstract
November 6, 2025 at 4:06 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Operation “use up all the apples in the house before they rot” underway.
An apple cake cooling in the pan. There’s lots of visible apple. Chopped apples cooking in a big pot, on the way to applesauce.
October 27, 2025 at 11:53 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Boston Public Library holds the “pattern pike” used by John Brown to order arms for the raid. According to BPL records, it passed from Brown to John Hopper (son of Isaac), to William Lloyd Garrison, and thence to the library. Yes, it is SHARP.
Library archival storage box holding a short-handled metal pike on a wooden handle Close up of the blade of the pike in its archival box, with a leather sheath next to it.
October 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
I love community cookbooks. #newacq
Community cookbook with a wire spiral binding on the top edge. The title is “Holy Chow”, and it’s from Needham, Mass.
October 8, 2025 at 6:47 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Today’s paleography challenge. We figured it out, eventually. Massachusetts, 1711, on a broadside printed in Boston. Going through the library’s broadside boxes is really hammering home for me the patterns that happen again and again and again in this country.
A paragraph of very bad handwriting from 1711.
October 3, 2025 at 11:30 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Massive container ship
September 28, 2025 at 4:26 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
This was a new one for me. Wondering if it is mishap driven.
Captcha asking “select images with a tractor”
September 21, 2025 at 11:22 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Line go up
Graph showing norovirus spike Graph showing covid-19 spike
September 10, 2025 at 12:10 AM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Corset busks!
An array of whalebone and baleen corset busks, all with some kind of carved or scrimshaw decoration.
August 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Embroidered memorial for 1 adult and 3 infants under 10 months of age.
Back wall: Embroidered mourning picture, ca. 1800 Silk on silk Gift of Sarah B. Swain, 1910.37.1 Mourning embroideries commemorating deceased family members were popular in the early 19th century. This hand-stitched picture memorializes four children of Tristram and Rachael Swain: Obed, Margaret, Alisha, and Lydia Swain. Three died in infancy; another, named on the urn at the top, was a sailor and died at sea. Label for mourning picture. Same text as on other image.
August 29, 2025 at 9:00 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Nantucket museum, sperm whale skeleton.
Large open museum atrium, looking down from a floor above. A bunch of people are sitting in folding chairs at the right. At the left, suspended from the ceiling, is the skeleton of a 75-foot sperm whale (facing the head).
August 29, 2025 at 8:54 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Today’s waste paper vernacular binding is made of yellow tobacco packaging, circa 1860.

BPL call no. E449.S951 c.2
Front of waste paper binding. The paper is yellow, and printed with a label that is upside down and shows the US flag and text above and below that says “Union and the Constitution” Back of yellow waste paper binding, showing sideways label for tobacco: “ Empire State. E.C. Connell. Fine cut Cavendish. 413 River Street, Troy, N.Y.” View of whole opened waste paper binding, showing front and back together.
August 8, 2025 at 8:43 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Gorgeous not-green greens at the Copley Square farmers market today in Boston. They weren’t labeled, but I think this might be amaranth?
Pile of purple-leafed vegetables. Another view of the pile of purple-leafed vegetables, this time showing their pale-green stems. Some of the leaves are partly green, too.
August 8, 2025 at 5:12 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
What an unexpected treat to find out that an exhibition catalog I bought has DOUBLE fore edge decorations! I love these artists so much, and this is just a delectable little cherry on top. 📜📚
Book front cover, called “Little Beasts”. The cover shows 2/3s of a painting of a yellow blue and black swallowtail butterfly. Looking down at my hand holding the text block to show the fore edge of the book, which is gold. However! Flex the book one way, and critters appear on the fore edge! This side gives you a hairy caterpillar, a locust(?) in flight, and some red and green flowers. Flex it the other way, and you get plain brown and white butterflies and moths.
July 8, 2025 at 10:15 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Absolute treat of a day
View of a lake from a kayak. The sky has few clouds, there are lots of pine trees on shore in the distance, and the front of a yellow kayak is visible at the foot of the photo. Another view from a kayak, this time of a little cove in the same lake. Half the cove is in shade, the other half in bright sun. The trees hang over the water on both sides. Picture of a heron hanging out on a dead fallen tree on the lake shore. It’s in a shady spot, with reeds around it. On shore are dense trees.
June 30, 2025 at 3:43 AM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Fireflies is magic 🪲💡😍😍😍
June 29, 2025 at 1:08 AM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Can’t wait to see what the moderation AI does with the fake nipples on prosthetics. Or these.
An array of 12 fake nipples, in 3 sizes and 4 colors
June 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Every time I get my little Am. Cancer Soc. catalog full of mastectomy supplies, I REALLY wish someone would disrupt the shit out of the silicone prosthetics market. Pick from “blush” or “tawny”, if they even come in more than 1 color. At least the nicer bras are getting slightly more size-inclusive?
Part of a catalog page showing breast prosthetics and text descriptions with prices. The prosthetics are mostly pale pink or beige, except for 2, which are darker. The prices range from $185 to $370. Each.
June 16, 2025 at 9:55 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
I can’t remember—was it you or @jasonwdean.com or someone else who posted about this book by Mandy Barker? I got my copy recently, and it’s great.
Title page of book. Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections Mandy Barker M. Barker: GOST Cyanotype image that looks like algae but is in fact pieces of plastic clothing fished out of a marine environment. Cyanotype image that looks like algae but is in fact pieces of plastic clothing fished out of a marine environment. Cyanotype image that looks like algae but is in fact pieces of plastic clothing fished out of a marine environment.
June 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
I *think* this might be plaster but I’m not sure? The chasing just stops & there’s white crusty stuff above & below that one linT. (These are Mass. Anti-Slavery Soc., possibly from the Liberator prntg office, given to BPL by Garrison’s family in 1899.) @jeffmakala.bsky.social
Closeup image of printing plate with lines of text showing finishing marks and some white crusty stuff as well. Closeup image of printing plate in partial raking light, with lines of text showing finishing marks and some white crusty stuff as well.
May 1, 2025 at 7:22 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Q re: 19th c printing tech but not sure who to ask: is there a way to identify if plates are stereotyped vs electrotyped? The description for these says electrotypes. They’re Boston c.1840, affixed to woodblocks, & some have metal slug repairs. @jbd1.bsky.social @ehhawley.bsky.social @glennf.com
Close-up view of two metal printing plates affixed to wooden blocks. Detail of printing plate showing 2 lines of replaced text and 2 pins added to reinforced the structure Close up of back of text change on printing plate, showing metal slugs
May 1, 2025 at 5:08 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Shoulda hired the John Stevens Shop… this is how you cut letters.
Alphabet stone carved on slate by John Howard Benson, of the John Stevens Shop A long piece of green slate, carved with letters that spell “TRAIANVS”, based on Roman lettering.
May 1, 2025 at 1:07 AM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Some tasty treats from Boston Public Library Rare Books community cookbooks open house today!
Community cookbook with green cover, “Out in the kitchen” The front cover of The Woman Suffrage Cook Book Title page opening of American Cookery, published in Walpole NH in 1812 Title page opening of Well Seasoned Sisters Cookbook
April 29, 2025 at 7:25 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Oopsie.
April 29, 2025 at 2:18 PM
lucretiab.bsky.social
Hope springs eternal? Or just the frogs? Vernal ponds are wonders.
April 21, 2025 at 12:20 AM