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finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Finch Collins
@finchinthestacks.bsky.social
1.9K followers 710 following 920 posts
PGR at the Uni of Manchester, hosted at Chetham’s Library | libraries and data, early modern books and bodies | posts my own
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finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Last night @chethamslibrary.bsky.social: Dr. John Dee, warden of the college at Manchester, dreams of books!

Part of the event “From Mortlake to Manchester,” which invited visitors to explore the medieval building through Dee’s eyes.
A medieval library press viewed through a wooden gate. On the table is a book-shaped light with translucent books floating above it.
November 22, 2025 at 10:03 AM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Doing mandatory research integrity training and resisting the urge to give the training feedback that just says "shut up"
Summary The effort required to create a research plan might be seen to take some of the fun and adventure out of research. When Galileo turned his home-built telescope to the night sky in 1609, he had not planned to make a discovery that would change the course of science. But in Galileo's day, research was largely a private undertaking, mostly self-funded or funded by patrons.
October 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
It has! Now I’m in “getting UK life admin set up as a foreigner” mode… but the most important part, Calliope, has gone smoothly!
Black and white cat sitting on a lap, with her paws tucked in. She looks content.
September 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Oh dear… here’s some cows I spotted this weekend!
Three grazing cows, one brown and two black, halfway up a hill covered in tall bushes. The brown cow is looking at the camera.
September 16, 2025 at 12:22 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
The awaited life update: I’ve moved to the UK! At the end of the month, I’m beginning a PhD at the University of Manchester. I’ll be researching how library catalogue data can surface marginalized voices in early printed books, and working with Chetham’s Library as a case study. More to come!
Finch, a white person with short brown hair, standing in front of the John Rylands Library, a red stone building with an ornate fence and the library’s name in gold on the side. Finch is smiling at the camera.
September 11, 2025 at 8:04 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
It's official! My last day at the Linda Hall Library will be this Friday, August 8th. Watch this space for where I’m off to! In the meantime, I’ve got to pack up for an international move…
Two people looking at an antique book in a glass display case.
August 6, 2025 at 4:00 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Sometimes you go looking for a plate and find that it’s been replaced by a watercolor!
Botanical watercolor of Jonesia asoca, with red and orange cluster of blossoms, dark green foliage, and a brown seed pod. It’s bound into a book from about 1800.
July 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Coming to #RBMS2025 this week? Interested in queer and LGBTQ+ library work and bibliography? Join us for a casual meet up on Thursday afternoon at the Blue Orchid!

Please repost and share the flyer widely!

#QueerBibliography 📚
RBMS 2025 Queer Bibliography Meet-up! Thursday, June 26, 4 to 5 PM, at the Blue Orchid, 130 Court St., New Haven, Connecticut 06511.
June 23, 2025 at 3:50 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Printed by a woman! German Euclid by Heinrich Hofmann, “gedruckt daselbst bey Johan Weidners Witwe” (“printed there by Johan Weidner’s widow”).
1628 title page for the book “Heinrich Hofmanni[i] Professoris Mathematici in der Universitat Jehna, Teutscher Euclides…” The imprint is given as “Johan Weidners Witwe.”
June 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
how your email finds me
Illustration of three dung beetles rolling their dung balls, done in a 19th-century style.
April 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
I'm consulting David Lyndsay's VIAF file to make a point about gender and linked open data, and this MARC 375 really took me out. Gender goals, I think??
Machine-readable library cataloging (MARC) record for David Lyndsay, who lived and published as a man his whole life. The 375 field, for "Gender," reads "subfield a Females subfield a Males subfield 2 lcdgt," suggesting that Lyndsay is simultaneously male and female for his whole life, which is maybe gender goals?
March 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Finally, you can view the scanned books through the Linda Hall Library catalog!

⚡1823, "Observations on the Effects of Lightning on Floating Bodies": catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01...
⚡c. 1861, "Three Experimental Illustrations...": catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01...
Two gold-printed illustrations of a stylized mast, with three vertical segments scaffolding upwards connected by two vertical pieces. The righthand illustration is greyed along the path a current took through it. The second experiment was intended to show, in a stylized way, the effect of the lightning rod rising and falling as the jibs and rigging were adjusted.
February 28, 2025 at 2:55 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Allison links to my blog post about Harris and the illustrations, if you're curious for more: www.lindahall.org/about/news/n...
Two sets of scattered shapes printed in gold leaf. The righthand set has a greyed area where a current ran through it. It demonstrates the course of electricity through a random array of disjointed metal surfaces.
February 28, 2025 at 2:55 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
I'm going to make a "referenced" section on my CV just to cite this.
References. Finch Collins, assistant curator of rare books at the Linda Hall Library, in Kansas City, Mo., introduced me to the books of William Snow Harris. You should have seen his face when I asked if we could apply a battery to one of the lightning experiments in the book. You can see the books in person by visiting the library. Or you can enjoy fully scanned copies of Observations on the Effects of Lightning on Floating Bodies and Three Experimental Illustrations from your computer.
February 28, 2025 at 2:55 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
New from LHL NEH fellow Allison Marsh: the gold-printed lightning diagrams of William Snow Harris. I had the great pleasure of introducing Allison to these books, acquired by the History of Science collection in 2024!

spectrum.ieee.org/lightning-ro...

#HistSci 📚
Pair of gold-leafed illustrations showing a sailor on a wooden ship holding a chain. The chain loops below the sailor as he holds it. The illustration on the right has the gold leaf charred at the top of the chain, the sailor, and the bottom of the chain, with the loop untouched, illustrating the danger of running a chain up a ship's mast during a lightning storm.
February 28, 2025 at 2:55 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Don't mind me, just depicting the lymph nodes...
Full-color anatomical illustration of the first layer of the lower back, picturing muscles, lymph nodes, and tendons, with the anatomical figure's hips tilted back in contrapposto, revealing the anus and testicles. The image is from "Anatomia universale" ("Back, Stratum Primum," tab. 2, Florence: 1833). The anatomist and author is Paolo Mascagni and the artist is Antonio Serrantoni. Credit to the National Library of Medicine.
February 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
A great cover slide and a game of "recognize that queer theory cover font"--I swear I've seen both before and just need to figure them out.
Cover slide for the lecture "Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Perverse Desire in the 18th- and 19th-Century Anatomical Image, or: The Epistemology of the Anatomical Closet," by Mike Sappol, Uppsala University, Feb. 2025. The title is rendered in 2 very 90s' fonts that are definitely from queer theory books that I haven't been able to identify. To the left of the title is a full-color anatomical image of a human face with veins and muscles exposed.
February 25, 2025 at 6:28 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
I’m looking forward to attending this online! And what an amazing book cover! Paging the #QueerBib crowd especially.
Book cover of Michael Sappol’s “Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image, 1700-1900.” The background is light pink, with a dark pink reproduction of an 18th-century anatomical illustration of two very buff men wrestling, evocative of Greco-Roman statuary. One of the men has his very well-defined rear to the viewer, while he lifts the other man, whose struggles reveal defined arm muscles.
February 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
My latest New Acquisition highlight: lichen, moss, and female scientific researchers! Click through for the glass tubes of lichen specimens preserved in the book structure (!!), stay for the tangible history of women in science.

#HistSci 📜 📚

www.lindahall.org/about/news/l...
Detail of large letterpress spread reading “Rhizoplaca Chrysoleuca.” The letters are printed in a speckled turquoise, orange, and grey, resembling lichen on a rock. Field collection detail for sunburst lichen, X. fallax, with eight watercolor observations of the lichen’s colors and handwritten information on specimen number, taxon, common name, habitat, season/date recorded, and additional notes.
February 12, 2025 at 3:35 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
This label on a scanned microfilm of a NASA tech report must have a story behind it.
Portion of a tech report page. There is a diagram of some space equipment with labels too faded to be legible. In the top corner is a label, placed atop the book during scanning, that says, "original page is of poor quality." It's unclear if the label was added when the microfilm was made from the book or when the microfilm was scanned into a digital format.
February 10, 2025 at 9:36 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
On my virtual desk today: a blog post on an artist's book we acquired in 2024! More on Rhiannon Alpers' "Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range" coming in the next week or so.

#HistSci 📚 (where do the lichennologists hang out around here?)
Detail of an artist's book spread featuring large, serif font printed in turquoise with splatters of grey, orange, and white. The pattern resembles lichen. The text is cut off but reads "Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca." Specimen of orange hooded sunburst lichen (Xanthoria fallax) seen through a ten times magnification loupe. The lichen is in a glass vial. The lichen is frilly and folds in on itself.
February 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
My personal favorite, from founding Linda Hall curator Joseph Shipman...
February 7, 2025 at 4:54 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
The order of life: G-d, then high and low angels, then heroes, then idiots!

#HistSci 📜
17th-century diagram illustrating the degrees and spheres of life. The spheres of life are concentric circles reading, from inside out: the center of the world, the mineral sphere, the vegetable sphere of life, the sensitive sphere of life, the rational sphere of life, the intellectual sphere of life, and the divine essence or fountain of life. The degrees of life are represented as a hierarchy. At the top is G-d, then the archangels, then the lower angels, then heroes, then idiots, then apes, then insects, then zoophytes. The degrees of life are represented as a hierarchy. At the top is G-d, then the archangels, then the lower angels, then heroes, then idiots, then apes, then insects, then zoophytes.
February 6, 2025 at 5:10 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
Yesterday I taught a class featuring one of our newest acquisitions, from @blackwellrare.bsky.social—Barbara Hodgson’s artist’s book “Mrs Delany meets Herr Haeckel” (2015), paired with Haeckel’s “Kunstformen der Natur” (1899-1904). The high school students had a blast with both!
Two books open on supports. The first book is open to a large, full-color illustration of Ascidae arranged in a geometric array. The second book is open to a black page with colorful cut-paper illustrations of fungi.
January 10, 2025 at 7:35 PM
finchinthestacks.bsky.social
???
A weird creature-object from a 1698 German book on mining. The caption reads “Der Schlund oder Speise-Köhre.” p. 84 of “Corpus juris et systema rerum…”
December 20, 2024 at 9:41 PM