Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 24d

After walking some of the Linnéstiggar, Linnaeus' two houses, his garden and his orangery, I recognize a trend. He is always praised and never critically assessed, even when it concerns his travels to Sápmi such as this drum that was likely confiscated from its original Sámi owner.

Stay tuned.

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 24d

Linnaeus day 3! Yesterday I did not want to wait in line for the Linnaeus house in the city center, so I came back today. Nice to see so many objects from Linnaeus' original inventory, as well as some nice portraits and other works of art.

1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 25d

Linnaeus day 2. Today is Kulturnatten in Uppsala so there is a lot of music, theatre, art and food throughout the city. The Linnaeus garden offered besides the regular exhibition a very nice tour (in English) and a theatre show starring Linnaeus himself (200% Swedish).

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 26d

Doen! Reis naar Hamburg en neem daar rond 22.00 de SJ nachttrein, dan sta je om 10.00 in de ochtend op Stockholm centraal en kun je nog dezelfde dag alles ontdekken. Als je haast hebt kun je rond 17.30 weer de nachttrein terug nemen zodat je om 12.00 weer in Nederland bent.

2

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 26d

I could not make any pictures of the interior, but it is fascinating. The government acquired the estate directly from Linnaeus' daughter so it is in original state. Especially the drawn wallpaper depicting flowers in the study and bedroom are wonderful traces.

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · 26d

Today I literally stepped into the footsteps of Carolus Linnaeus through the Danmarksvandring, the reconstructed path Linnaeus took with his students from Uppsala to his outer house Hammarby. Some concrete traces remain, such as trees he planted, his 'lecture horse' and of course the house itself.

A path through the forest with birch trees and mossy stones. In the left foreground is a wooden pole with blue paint and a picture of a white bust with the text 'linnéstig' and an arrow pointing to the right.

Landscape picture with a large, old tree in the left foreground and an information sign to the right. On the horizon a church is visible

Garden with grassy beds and a two storey house with walls of red painted wood and white large windows. To the right is a one storey house painted in red with a peat roof. The sky is grey.

Interior with brown walls and a wooden floor. In the wall is a large window and in the room are some green benches and a green closet. In the middle is a kind of lecture chair in brown wood.

1 1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Aug 20

Thematical open stacks are the best! Some collections allow you to 'browse the shelve' digitally, which is not as fun but does allow you to bring a bag of the right size... (I looked up some of 'your' neighbors in Utrecht for you!)

1 1 2

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Aug 19

Two years ago I visited the old center of Kiruna. It was a strange experience to walk through a city that was half empty. Just around the corner were the mines that are causing the slow but sure collapse of Kiruna. Today, the church is slowly but surely moved to a safer location.

photograph of a red building and a red tower on a hill, seen from below on a street leading towards the buildings. There are a few red cars in front of the building. The street is flanked by lanterns, grass and trees. The sky is mostly blue with some white clouds.

Picture of a frontispiece of a red building. The frontispiece is rectangular and the wood is engraved with an illustration. In the top is God in the sky, to the left a seated man talking to a group of people under a tree. in the middle two people walking in the water, and to the right a group of people near a cave. Besides the frontispiece is a golden statue.

Photograph of five golden statues on the roof of a building. The sky is clouded.

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Jul 12

Greatly enjoyed the Unearthed exhibition last Thursday in the @britishlibrary.bsky.social. It was such a perfect ending to my visit to England for the @people-plants-2025.bsky.social conference. I was not aware of the exhibition until the last moment, so luckily I could squeeze in a visit!

1 3

Reposted by Sanne Steen

Plants and People 2025 conference @people-plants-2025.bsky.social · Jul 8

And moving to the final paper of this panel, ‘Gardening as Knowledge Practice: Historical Handbooks for Kitchen Gardens’ by Sanne Steen 🪏🪴📚 #plantsandpeople

3 8

Reposted by Sanne Steen

Plants and People 2025 conference @people-plants-2025.bsky.social · May 14

Registration is now OPEN for our conference 'Plants and People'! Please sign up for attendance and workshops through our website: sites.google.com/view/plants-...

Thanks to @sshmedicine.bsky.social @camhistory.bsky.social & the Material Culture Forum for their generous assistance.

Plants and People

Conference Details

sites.google.com

12 13

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Apr 13

Vanochtend heb ik al wandelend met een groepje Hilversummers het Winterkoninkje leren herkennen. Met het typische staartje omhoog. In de middag reisde ik naar Museum de Lakenhal in Leiden voor de tentoonstelling "Floris Verster, Thuis in het groen". En wat herken ik daar? Juist, ja! Trrrrr!

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Apr 8

Today I striked against the budget cuts in Dutch higher education. What an amazing experience to be among so many Rotterdam colleagues with one message: stop the cuts! Afterwards I went to the Erasmus statue to talk to people about Erasmus, activism and enactivism.

Large group of people behind a red banner with the text "Kabinet sloopt hoger onderwijs". People are carrying red and green flags. They are shouting and have their fists raised.
Picture by Daan Stam (Erasmus Magazine)

Picture of me dressed in a red dress with a cap,pointing towards a green statue of a man reading a book, on a large pedestal. The statue is of Erasmus

1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Mar 29

I was nominated as Best PhD colleague for Erasmus Graduate School for Social Sciences and the Humanities. Feeling very honoured!

1 2

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Mar 17

While I am employed in Rotterdam, I am currently a fellow at the Allard Pierson, working with the UvA special collections. Therefore, I decided to join part of today's strike in Amsterdam. I am inspired for "our" strike in Rotterdam on 8 April! Let's continue the relay strike against budget cuts!

Large crowd of people with banners and flats in a square surrounded by high buildings. The sky is blue and people are standing in the sun, many wearing green caps.

2

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Mar 12

"Onze tuin" is een tuinier boek uit het begin van de twintigste eeuw. Dit boek geeft allerlei praktische informatie over het aanleggen en onderhouden van een sier- en moestuin. Met handige afbeeldingen en tabellen kan vrijwel iedereen hiermee uit de voeten. #boekenweek

3

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Mar 5

This eighteenth-century design for a large garden for leisure and food production shows that the romantic, landscape-style started to be applied in gardens but were not deemed suitable for vegetable gardens, which instead had to be easy to oversee.

1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Mar 4

How many gardening tools to you have? Or even recognize?
Illustration from Den Neerstigen Bieën-houder.

Print showing many garding tools with a number.

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 27

I'm chronologically working my way through Dutch gardening books. This week I entered the second half of the eighteenth century and life became much easier, because authors are now taking up Linnaeus' naming of plants, which we still generally use today, such as this tulp tree or Liriodendrum.

Photo of a eighteenth-century book with yellowish paper and black letters with the lemma "Tulp-Boom", with Latin names amongst which Linnaeus' "Liriodendrum".

Photo of a yellowish and orange flower amongst green, smooth leaves. It is a picture of a tulp-tree.

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 24

Combining research of historical garden books with actual gardening is fun. Yesterday, I harvested a massive parsnip and today I'm reading a seventeenth-century description of the white carrot.

Page from Dutch printed book from the seventeenth century, heading: Pastinaake

A hand holding a large parsnip with a bit of leave attached

1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 20

Eighteenth-century recognition of climate change: nature, strengthened by the arts, has helped us producing sweeter fruits in the Netherlands. If only they knew what was to come...

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 14

As every gardener, I am always looking out for natural remedies against snails eating my plants. The seventeenth century is not always the best place to learn environmentally friendly solutions, but inviting birds to eat your snails seems just right!

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 13

Except if your library is open to others, especially students.

1 1

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 12

Just found a personalized design for my future garden, bearing my initials.

Pen drawing of a design for a garden with two shapes like an S, mirrored to each other. Also some seventeenth-century inscriptions in the same pen, such as: "hier is den inganck" and "2 voet breet den padt"

Sanne Steen @sanne-steen.bsky.social · Feb 11

Cool! How do you assess whether stains are excessive enough to indicate hands-on use of the manual by artists? Do you have a baseline measurement of stains in other genres? I'm currently studying gardening manuals but have yet to come across a soil stain...

1 1