Abby Beckett
@abbybeckett.bsky.social
Current PhD student at McGill University
History of Medicine
Working on corpse medicine 1550-1700
History of Medicine
Working on corpse medicine 1550-1700
Reposted by Abby Beckett
In today’s post, Avery Monette (@averymonette.bsky.social) discusses the Nazi occupation of Winnipeg.
The Day Manitoba Fell to Nazi Germany
Avery Monette In the early morning hours of Thursday, February 19, 1942, residents of Winnipeg and the surrounding towns were shaken from their sleep by the sound of air raid sirens. German Luftwaf…
activehistory.ca
November 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
In today’s post, Avery Monette (@averymonette.bsky.social) discusses the Nazi occupation of Winnipeg.
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Canadian professors: Do you have grad students who need a conference under their belt? Grad students: want to share your work in a friendly and collegial environment? Submit an abstract and join us in February!
Are you a graduate student? Check out the 2026 McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference Call for Papers! Abstracts are due November 28!
November 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Canadian professors: Do you have grad students who need a conference under their belt? Grad students: want to share your work in a friendly and collegial environment? Submit an abstract and join us in February!
Reposted by Abby Beckett
We have a new, excellent post up by @donnie-m.bsky.social on Estonia as a space of economic experimentation in the late Soviet period www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/a-labor...
A Laboratory of Economic Reform: Estonian Experiments with Agro-Industrial Associations in the Era of Late Socialism
Donald MorardIn 1965, the French Communist journal Démocratie Nouvelle, in its special issue on the “young, advanced republic” of Estonia, described the occupied Baltic country as a “laboratory” for t...
www.peripheralhistories.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 4:59 PM
We have a new, excellent post up by @donnie-m.bsky.social on Estonia as a space of economic experimentation in the late Soviet period www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/a-labor...
Are you a graduate student? Check out the 2026 McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference Call for Papers! Abstracts are due November 28!
November 4, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Are you a graduate student? Check out the 2026 McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference Call for Papers! Abstracts are due November 28!
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Pedro de Camprobín, Death and the Gentleman, c. 1670 (Hospital de la Caridad, Seville). In this unique painting, Death seems to be in the guise of a prostitute, who were often veiled in 17th-century Seville 🎃💀 #earlymodern
October 28, 2024 at 4:37 AM
Pedro de Camprobín, Death and the Gentleman, c. 1670 (Hospital de la Caridad, Seville). In this unique painting, Death seems to be in the guise of a prostitute, who were often veiled in 17th-century Seville 🎃💀 #earlymodern
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Nobody with a conscience would greenlight this monumental waste of energy. Delusional, sociopathic behaviour.
OpenAI’s planned data centers will use more power than New York City & San Diego use at their peak consumption, combined. More power than the entire nations of Switzerland & Portugal combined. And San Altman’s buddies in this administration have been cutting all of our energy infrastructure upgrades
Sam Altman’s AI empire will devour as much power as New York City and San Diego combined. Experts say it’s ‘scary’ | Fortune
Andrew Chien told Fortune he’s been a computer scientist for 40 years but we’re close to “some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.”
fortune.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Nobody with a conscience would greenlight this monumental waste of energy. Delusional, sociopathic behaviour.
Reposted by Abby Beckett
In today’s post, Abigail Beckett (@abbybeckett.bsky.social) explores the Indigenous and colonial history behind Jean de Brebeuf’s Feast Day, celebrated on September 26th.
Jean de Brebeuf: Colonial Tensions and Spiritual Healing c. 1649-1660
This case study of Jean de Brébeuf emphasizes the intricacies of colonial tensions and complicates colonial narratives and ideas of civilization hierarchies. Indigenous cannibalism was used as a me…
activehistory.ca
September 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
In today’s post, Abigail Beckett (@abbybeckett.bsky.social) explores the Indigenous and colonial history behind Jean de Brebeuf’s Feast Day, celebrated on September 26th.
2/3 comps exams done…thank god my puppy is taking on the exhaustion for me
September 11, 2025 at 11:18 AM
2/3 comps exams done…thank god my puppy is taking on the exhaustion for me
Reposted by Abby Beckett
As a witchy person who loves creepy ornaments, please don't buy bones as curios/ritual. The risk of buying disturbed excavated remains from poor people/people of colour is high.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
‘It’s gruesome’: fears of grave-robbing amid rise in sale of human remains
Social media is helping drive trade in skulls, bones and skin products as UK legal void risks new era of ‘body snatching’
www.theguardian.com
August 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
As a witchy person who loves creepy ornaments, please don't buy bones as curios/ritual. The risk of buying disturbed excavated remains from poor people/people of colour is high.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Paracelsus would love My Chemical Romance
August 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Paracelsus would love My Chemical Romance
Reposted by Abby Beckett
The Instruments of Human Sustenance/ Humani Victus Instrumenta: Cooking after 1569
In the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Met Museum) A riot of kitchen paraphenalia here...
In the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Met Museum) A riot of kitchen paraphenalia here...
June 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM
The Instruments of Human Sustenance/ Humani Victus Instrumenta: Cooking after 1569
In the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Met Museum) A riot of kitchen paraphenalia here...
In the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Met Museum) A riot of kitchen paraphenalia here...
Very early modern corpse medicine coded
This is more of a "local lore relic," but there's a Yukon bar called the Sourdough Saloon that serves a shot containing the preserved toe of a locally infamous 1920s-era bootlegger (allegedly). There's one rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe"
Would You Drink This Mummified-Toe Cocktail?
The notorious "Sourtoe Cocktail" — a shot of alcohol containing a dehydrated human toe — is a bizarre tradition at the Downtown Hotel's Sourdough Saloon, in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
www.livescience.com
May 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Very early modern corpse medicine coded
Reposted by Abby Beckett
This is more of a "local lore relic," but there's a Yukon bar called the Sourdough Saloon that serves a shot containing the preserved toe of a locally infamous 1920s-era bootlegger (allegedly). There's one rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe"
Would You Drink This Mummified-Toe Cocktail?
The notorious "Sourtoe Cocktail" — a shot of alcohol containing a dehydrated human toe — is a bizarre tradition at the Downtown Hotel's Sourdough Saloon, in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
www.livescience.com
May 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM
This is more of a "local lore relic," but there's a Yukon bar called the Sourdough Saloon that serves a shot containing the preserved toe of a locally infamous 1920s-era bootlegger (allegedly). There's one rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe"
Reposted by Abby Beckett
“Hicks found no record of the person whose remains the skull-cup was made from…carbon dating showed the skull is about 225 years old. Its size and circumstantial evidence suggest it came from the Caribbean and possibly belonged to an enslaved woman, he added.” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Oxford academics drank from cup made from human skull, book reveals
Decades-long use of chalice at Worcester College highlights violent colonial history of looted human remains, says Prof Dan Hicks
www.theguardian.com
April 22, 2025 at 11:06 AM
“Hicks found no record of the person whose remains the skull-cup was made from…carbon dating showed the skull is about 225 years old. Its size and circumstantial evidence suggest it came from the Caribbean and possibly belonged to an enslaved woman, he added.” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
If anyone feels inclined to share: I’m looking for instances of saintly relic consumption (eaten or drank)!
April 12, 2025 at 12:24 AM
If anyone feels inclined to share: I’m looking for instances of saintly relic consumption (eaten or drank)!
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Pioneering entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian was born #OTD in 1647.
In 1699 Merian set off on the first-ever purely scientific expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname, where she documented intricate plant-insect interactions with beautiful artwork and clarity.
(📸BHL)
In 1699 Merian set off on the first-ever purely scientific expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname, where she documented intricate plant-insect interactions with beautiful artwork and clarity.
(📸BHL)
April 2, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Pioneering entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian was born #OTD in 1647.
In 1699 Merian set off on the first-ever purely scientific expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname, where she documented intricate plant-insect interactions with beautiful artwork and clarity.
(📸BHL)
In 1699 Merian set off on the first-ever purely scientific expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname, where she documented intricate plant-insect interactions with beautiful artwork and clarity.
(📸BHL)
March 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Busy all week preparing for my #histmed lecture next Wed in Montreal. Big thoughts about the science I'm interrogating (& critiquing), the medical & biological research I continually rely on, but also the humanistic principles that guide my work as a historian. And the death of my own discipline:
March 7, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Busy all week preparing for my #histmed lecture next Wed in Montreal. Big thoughts about the science I'm interrogating (& critiquing), the medical & biological research I continually rely on, but also the humanistic principles that guide my work as a historian. And the death of my own discipline:
Reposted by Abby Beckett
It’s 2025: you’re low on coin. You spent your day consuming elixirs taking notes on the praxis, techne and episteme of the writers from centuries ago. Your guild underpays you. Your master doesn’t understand the current prices of living. You own no land, the inn where you stay is beyond your means.
February 14, 2025 at 12:36 AM
It’s 2025: you’re low on coin. You spent your day consuming elixirs taking notes on the praxis, techne and episteme of the writers from centuries ago. Your guild underpays you. Your master doesn’t understand the current prices of living. You own no land, the inn where you stay is beyond your means.
Reposted by Abby Beckett
I am so, so tired. And I know you are, too.
Here's “Death blowing bubbles,” 18th century. The bubbles symbolize life's fragility. This plaster work appears on the ceiling of Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg, Germany. After the monastery’s dissolution, it became a hospital.
Here's “Death blowing bubbles,” 18th century. The bubbles symbolize life's fragility. This plaster work appears on the ceiling of Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg, Germany. After the monastery’s dissolution, it became a hospital.
February 13, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I am so, so tired. And I know you are, too.
Here's “Death blowing bubbles,” 18th century. The bubbles symbolize life's fragility. This plaster work appears on the ceiling of Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg, Germany. After the monastery’s dissolution, it became a hospital.
Here's “Death blowing bubbles,” 18th century. The bubbles symbolize life's fragility. This plaster work appears on the ceiling of Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg, Germany. After the monastery’s dissolution, it became a hospital.
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Contrary to popular belief, comps are in fact not the “best times of your phd”
February 11, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Contrary to popular belief, comps are in fact not the “best times of your phd”
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Trade card of Richard Middleton, coffin maker and undertaker - 19th century.
January 27, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Trade card of Richard Middleton, coffin maker and undertaker - 19th century.
Reposted by Abby Beckett
Rachel Anderson explores an untapped archive of petitions for poor assistance following plague outbreaks in England during the early 17th century in her article “The Lancashire Plague Petitions,” using tools of micro-history to emphasize the importance of community and external assistance. 🗃️
The Lancashire Plague Petitions: Life after the Plague in Early Modern England
Abstract. Historians typically explore the resilience of past societies in terms of large-scale outcomes like population levels. In contrast, this paper ex
academic.oup.com
December 20, 2024 at 2:18 PM
Rachel Anderson explores an untapped archive of petitions for poor assistance following plague outbreaks in England during the early 17th century in her article “The Lancashire Plague Petitions,” using tools of micro-history to emphasize the importance of community and external assistance. 🗃️