Factory Gothic / Bridget Marshall
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factorygothic.bsky.social
Factory Gothic / Bridget Marshall
@factorygothic.bsky.social
Sharing 19th-century Gothic industrial research
Dr. Bridget Marshall (she/her), Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Book: http://tinyurl.com/h79c3epk
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Very exciting mail today: actual physical copy of my new edition of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Factory Girl (1863), via Wales University Press: www.uwp.co.uk/book/mary-el.... Available in the US in June: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... It includes all the original illustrations!
Can't believe it's already my last day in Belfast! Spent it in one of my favorite research spots -- Linen Hall Museum -- and then also (finally) went to Belfast City Hall to see their excellent exhibit on the history of the building and the city, and took a tour of the building. Recommend both!
February 5, 2026 at 3:33 PM
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Apply today for the Historic Children’s Voices K-12 Teacher Institute

Monday, August 10 - Friday, August 14, 2026

americanantiquarian.org/k-12-teacher-institute-2026
January 26, 2026 at 7:09 PM
I like to think that this establishment billing itself as "practical hatters" is distinguishing itself from all the "mad hatters." (from Adair's 1860-1 Belfast Directory)
February 4, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Gave a little talk today for a colleague's class on historic images of mills & factories and was surprised again by the fact that this image is from 1881. It's a watercolor by Joseph Pennell depicting Bethlehem Steel Works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a place I called home for a few years.
February 3, 2026 at 1:08 PM
"The Factory Girl" as she appeared in The Sunday School Hive & Juvenile Companion 1 June 1878: "factory girls, although labouring under many disadvantages, compare favourably with any other of the working classes of young women for thrift, for intelligence, and for religion."
February 2, 2026 at 12:02 PM
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On request, the deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to 13 February, so you have two more weeks to get yours in!

hullgothic.wordpress.com/cfp/
January 30, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Just found a new factory girl serial: "Salome Price, the Gipsy Factory Girl" by R. T. Casson in Illustrated Chips from 6 Oct 1894. Salome opens by triumphing in a knife fight with a man who has "bought" her as his wife, and runs off to Preston to earn her living as a weaver.
January 30, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Staying inside today due to threatening weather. Currently prepping my talk for tomorrow about two nineteenth-century industrial Gothic places: Cottonopolis (Lowell) and Linenopolis (Belfast). Wed 28 Jan at 4.15, Wolfson Room, Seamus Heaney Centre. If you're at Queens, you're very welcome to join!
January 27, 2026 at 12:09 PM
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Did everyone else know about researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/ already? Searches 7 million records at 1,400 archival institutions all in ONE PLACE
ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid connects you with archives around the world to find historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.
researchworks.oclc.org
January 26, 2026 at 5:22 PM
A beautiful story from a church graveyard well worth a read. Thank you @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social for sharing and for your great care with these remains.
A few days ago, I stood in the graveyard of an 1100 year old church, getting damper and damper in the drizzling rain.

A woman walked into the graveyard, waved, said hello, and, as we had previously arranged, handed me a paper bag full of human bones.

The life of a churchwarden is a strange one...
January 23, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Found a new (to me) "factory girl" poem in the Irish newspaper archives -- printed in the Derry Journal 11 Dec. 1895 but attributed to the Illinois Trades Unionist which I guess I'll now have to track down.
January 23, 2026 at 12:06 PM
This bar insisting that it is indeed open during construction with multiple signs saying "business as usual" and "open as normal" really should consider re-creating Dante's "I assure you; we're open!" sign.
January 23, 2026 at 10:38 AM
Thackeray in #Belfast in 1842: He sketched a girl working in a mill: "They work in huge long chambers, lighted by numbers of windows, hot with steam, buzzing and humming with hundreds of thousands of whirling wheels." "There is something frightful in the vastness as in the minuteness of this power"
January 22, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Home from a day at Special Collections & now turning to fun reading: "The Queen of Clithorly Mill: A Tale of Lancashire" from Bow Bells of Wednesday July 17th 1867. It's a serial featuring factory girl Alice Gowerland who has gotten herself into trouble with a fellow thanks to her friend Judith.
January 20, 2026 at 3:53 PM
I love that the "Big Fish" statue in Belfast has a sign that reads: "In the interests of safety climbing onto the big fish is prohibited." The gentle tone (it's not "keep off big fish!") suggests that the sign writer understands our deep yearning to climb on big fish.
January 19, 2026 at 11:08 AM
Enjoyed a terrific 2-hour walking tour of #Belfast street art. HIGHLY recommend! Sharing just two of my favorites: "Deep Love" by ADW and "Pretty Little Thieves" by Friz, but there are so many more! Book the tour here:
www.seedheadarts.com/street-art/w...
See map: www.seedheadarts.com/street-art/map
January 18, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Carrickfergus Castle showing up rather nicely today. Take need of the many warnings.
January 17, 2026 at 10:13 AM
Belfast City Hall looking gorgeous in the early morning dark and damp. Heading out on the tour bus to Giants Causeway.
January 17, 2026 at 8:26 AM
Friday afternoon seems a good time for this important reminder about "Leaving work before Stopping Time," as outlined in this handwritten book of notes for the No 2 Room of an unknown linen mill in 1883. "Workers are not to be seen, grouped in the long pass of the room, before the engine stops."
January 16, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Are you also spending a chilly day in the archive? Why not grab a "Smart Shoulder Cape" as demonstrated in the London Journal Ladies Supplement of July 1, 1890? Practical and fashionable!
January 16, 2026 at 10:10 AM
Starting my morning working behind this door at Queen's library. Sadly it doesn't seem to have granted passage to Narnia, but it's a nice room nonetheless with a view of the Botanical Gardens. Figuring out what to request from Special Collections and I'll head there later. Fingers crossed.
January 16, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Reading pamphlets at Linen Hall library today. First up: "An Address to Millworkers" from 1873 by a doctor with criticisms of the workers' diet ("tea and bread three times a day") as well as a warning that they avoid "pernicious literature -- another cause of ill-health and premature decay."
January 15, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Today in QUB Special Collections: Mary, the Factory Girl, published in Belfast, 1838. Poor Mary is Catholic. Her mother sells her to an acting troupe, but she is saved from assured hellfire via school and religion, and of course God's grace. She works in a factory, gets consumption, and dies.
January 14, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Had a marvelous first day at Queens University in Belfast. I'll be dropping into Special Collections at the library tomorrow. Will share any exciting finds. This city and this campus are beautiful. I'm here for a month, so hit me up if you're local or have local recs!
January 13, 2026 at 7:52 PM
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"Julianna" a Lowell mill girl knew what was up, in 1845 @kassiejo.bsky.social - mill girl alert
January 7, 2026 at 4:17 PM