Dr Natalee Garrett
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nemgarrett.bsky.social
Dr Natalee Garrett
@nemgarrett.bsky.social
2.2K followers 920 following 190 posts
Historian of 18th-c. Europe. Royalty and popular/print culture. Lecturing at Open University. Rep'd by Perez Literary & Entertainment. https://linktr.ee/natalee.garrett
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nemgarrett.bsky.social
Now that it's official, I'm pleased as punch to announce that I'm represented by Perez Literary & Entertainment Agency. Exciting times ahead!

www.perezliterary.com/authors/nata...

#historysky #booksky #18thcentury
A headshot of a white woman with long brown hair. She wears a pink floral blouse. The text beneath the image reads: 'Natalee Garrett.'
October 13, 2025 at 11:48 AM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
George III & Queen Charlotte married #OnThisDay 1761. Charlotte's wedding gown was so elaborate and jewel-studded that it tugged down her ill-fitting bodice. Horace Walpole remarked 'the spectators knew as much of her upper half as the King himself.' A fashion disaster!

#queencharlotte #18thcentury
'The Marriage of George III' by Joshua Reynolds (1761). A sketched image of a wedding ceremony in a chapel with red and gold hangings. In the middle of the scene stand the bride and groom (George III & Queen Charlotte) wearing white and silver garments. The groom holds the bride's right hand in his right hand, and a minister stands between them. In the foreground of the image, on both sides, stand rows of spectators/wedding guests, also lavishly dressed. The floor is plan and the image is clearly an unfinished work, possibly a preparatory sketch. Now in Royal Collection Trust.
September 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Apparently it's International Dog Day, so here's a close-up of one of Queen Charlotte's pooches who was tragically cropped out in the cover of my book (oops!)

#queencharlotte #18thcentury #arthistory #dogsinart
A detail from Thomas Gainsborough's 1781 portrait of Queen Charlotte. The image shows a small spaniel-like dog with white and rust-coloured fur, standing by the large gold-embroidered skirts of the queen's dress. The dog lifts one forepaw and tilts its head, looking to the left of the frame. One of queen Charlotte's shoes is just visible, peeping out from beneath her skirts. Painting (c) Royal Collection Trust.
August 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Quite satisfying when your current reading material lines up so well with a local exhibition. Really enjoyed the exhibition on James VI at the Portrait Gallery here in #Edinburgh 🎨 Well worth a visit if you're in the city between now and September
#historysky #royalhistory #arthistory
June 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Born #onthisday 1738: #GeorgeIII He experienced many personal & political highs & lows across his 59+yr reign (1760-1820). Still best known in the UK as 'The Mad King' or 'the King who lost America', his impact on the British monarchy was huge & ensured its survival today
#18thcentury #royalhistory
George, Prince of Wales (1738–1820) by Jean-Étienne Liotard, (1754) RCT. Three-quarter bust-length pastel portrait of a young man. He wears a powdered wig tied back with a black ribbon. His jacket is cream with elaborate silver floral details along the chest, including silver buttons. A deep blue sash rests on his left shoulder. He looks out at the viewer, unsmiling. The background is plain.
June 4, 2025 at 1:18 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
And to finish off the celebration of Queen Charlotte's birthday #OnThisDay 1744: my all-time favourite portrait of her, painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1781. Said to be one of the best likenesses ever painted of the queen 👑

#historysky #18thcentury #queencharlotte #royalhistory
A painting of a middle-aged woman. She wears a white gown overlaid with gold embroidery: the dress has a wide skirt and frilled lace sleeves. The woman wears a headdress in her tall powdered hair. She holds a fan in her right hand and gazes to the right. A small white and ginger dog walks beside the woman. In the background hangs a red velvet curtain on the right side, and on the left, an outdoor autumnal scene with a classical building.
May 19, 2025 at 2:15 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
#BornOnThisDay 1744: Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Going by her 2nd name from childhood, she married King #GeorgeIII of Britain in 1761 & had 15 children. #QueenCharlotte is the longest-serving queen consort in British history with a reign of 57+yrs.
#18thcentury #historysky
Queen Charlotte by Benjamin West (1779). A painting of a woman in a white and silver dress with diamonds in her tall, powdered hair. Her left hand rests on a table, on which sits a gold crown and robes of blue velvet and fur. A small white dog lies on a patterned red carpet at the woman’s feet. To the woman’s left is a marble column, from which hangs a red velvet curtain; the curtain is pulled back to reveal thirteen children in the background. The children are depicted playing and talking on a lawn. Behind them is an image of a large castle (Windsor).
May 19, 2025 at 1:31 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
#OnThisDay 1744 Queen Charlotte was born 👑

...and 250 years later, yours truly was born!

If you'd like to learn more about the real #QueenCharlotte, my book "Queen Charlotte: Family, Duty, Scandal" is available from all good booksellers 📚

#historysky #18thcentury #royalhistory #skystorians
'Queen Charlotte' by Nathaniel Dance-Holland. Bust-length portrait of a woman. She wears a gold gown with looped embellishments on the bodice. Over this, she wears a red velvet and ermine robe with loops of pearls at the shoulders. She also wears pearls in her ears, her hair, and in a choker around her neck. The woman's hair is powdered grey and pulled high off her forehead in a pompadour style. She smiles faintly at the viewer, mouth closed. The background is dark and plain. Photograph of a woman smiling and holding a book titled 'Queen Charlotte: Family, Duty, Scandal'. The background is a cream wall with panelling. The woman has long brown hair and wears a burgundy jumper with a black skirt.
May 19, 2025 at 12:34 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Anne of Green Gables may have been glad to live in a world where there are Octobers, but personally I'm very glad to live in a world where there are Mays 🌸 💐 Beauty around every corner 😍 #bloomscrolling #edinburgh #spring
Photograph of an 18th-century house on a sunny day. In the foreground are apple blossom flowers in bloom. Photograph of a path in a park. On either side of the path is white cow parsley in bloom and several trees.
May 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Alas, the inside of the manuscript was not as exciting as this little note led me to believe...

#archives #historysky #skystorians #18thcentury
Photograph of a folded document with handwritten note: "Open this when alone."
May 8, 2025 at 12:33 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
"A May Day Garland for 1820" replaced the traditional Maypole decorations with the heads of the Cato Street conspirators, executed on 1 May 1820. Judges and politicians dance around the pole. The plot intended to assassinate leading politicians & PM Lord Liverpool.

#18thcentury #historysky #mayday
Print by Samuel William Fores 1820. A cartoon-style print which depicts 11 men holding hands and dancing around a maypole in a rural setting. Several of the men wear the robes and wigs of the legal profession. Atop the maypole are impaled the heads of five men. On a hill behind the maypole, a man plays a fiddle and shouts "Dance away my Friends, I have been the cause of all this fun by your Help and Money. Edwards the Instigator!!!" By Samuel William Fores - http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/largerimage.php?search=ss&firstRun=true&role=sit&sText=Arthur+Thistlewood&LinkID=mp50486&rNo=2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10263949
May 1, 2025 at 12:43 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
I absolutely love this gorgeous portrait of #GeorgeIII & #QueenCharlotte 's 3 youngest daughters: Mary, Sophia & Amelia. I saw it at Buckingham Palace in 2023 & it's even more amazing in person. Such a chaotic, fun & whimsical portrait of royal childhood #18thcentury #historysky #arthistory
'The Three Youngest Daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte' by John Singleton Copley, 1785. RCT. A portrait of three young girls. On the left, one of the girls waves a tambourine, glancing back at her two sisters. Sher wears a white gown with a yellow overskirt and three spaniel dogs play at her feet. The youngest child is a baby sitting up in a pram or carriage on the right of the image: she wears a white dress with a large bluish sash and bonnet decorated with feathers. The baby's right hand is held by another young girl, who wears a pale pink gown with a blue sash and matching blue hat. The scene is exterior, with grape vines wrapped around columns. Colourful birds perch on the vines above the girls' heads. In the background a round tower (Windsor Castle) can be seen in the distance. The sky is a pale blue with a lot of cloud cover.
April 30, 2025 at 1:14 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Cherry blossom season in the Meadows 😍 🌸
#Edinburgh #cherryblossom #spring
A photograph of cherry blossom trees in a public park on a sunny day. A photograph of cherry blossom trees in a public park on a sunny day.
April 25, 2025 at 12:51 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
#QueenCharlotte gave royal support to Edward Jenner's ground-breaking #smallpox vaccine, which used cowpox to build resistance. Opponents argued that the procedure would give people bovine features 🐮 an idea mocked in this #caricature by James Gillray.
#18thcentury #historysky
'The Cow-Pock or the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!' by James Gillray, 1802. A cartoon-style print of a crowded room. In the centre of the image a seated woman holds out her arm to a professional-looking man who makes a cut on her arm with a small blade. Next to him a small, ragged boy holds a container labelled 'Vaccine pock hot from the cow.' Behind the woman and to her right are six people who have apparently already undergone the procedure: they all have small cows growing out of their bodies. On the left of the image a man ladles an 'opening mixture' into the mouth of a nervous-looking man. A queue is formed behind him.
April 18, 2025 at 12:43 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Last Wednesday I was sitting in a sunny park overlooking Arthur's Seat and sipping an iced latte. Today it's howling a gale and sleeting. Ah Scottish Aprils, you always keep us on our toes!
#edinburgh #spring
Photograph of an exterior landscape on a sunny day. A green lawn is shown in the bottom of the photo. Above this is a line of hedges and trees, behind which rise several tall hills covered in yellow gorse. The tops of several buildings can also be seen just behind the hedges.
April 16, 2025 at 1:48 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
After the Battle of #Culloden #OTD 1746, the Duke of Cumberland allegedly got the nickname 'The Butcher' from his envious brother, Frederick, Prince of Wales. Who needs enemies when you have a dysfunctional family like the Hanoverian monarchy? #royalhistory #jacobites #18thcentury #britishhistory
'Prince William, Duke of Cumberland' by Arthur Pond (c.1730-1740). Portrait of a man standing in quarter-profile. He wears a red suit with heavy gold detail and a blue sash with medals. Beneath this he wears a metal cuirass and a sword handle can be seen on his left hip. In his right hand he holds a hat, in the left, a military baton. The setting is exterior, overlooking a hilly battleground on a dark, cloudy day. 'Frederick, Prince of Wales' by Jacopo Amigioni (1736). Portrait of a man, seated. He wears a powdered wig and a red suit with gold details. He rests his right arm on a gilded table and holds a book in his right hand. His left hand gestures to two putti (cherubs), one of which holds a lyre. A crown rests on the table behind the man, half cut off by the frame.
April 16, 2025 at 11:50 AM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Lawrence painted #QueenCharlotte in 1789, right after #GeorgeIII 's first bout of "madness". Charlotte didn't want to sit for the painting & Geo III hated the resulting portrait. The portrait captures the traumatic effect of the king's illness on Charlotte #18thcentury #historysky #arthistory
Portrait of a woman in an interior setting. She sits on a chair on a raised dais covered in a patterned carpet. The woman wears a gown of palest blue (almost silver) with white lace details. She wears a black lace shawl across her shoulders. Two large bracelets are visible on her wrists and two rings can be seen on her left hand where is rests on her skirt. She looks away from the viewer, her face in quarter profile. Her powdered hair is adorned with three jewels. Her expression is mild with a faint smile. In the background is an open window revealing a park in autumn with a grand church (the Chapel of Eton College) nestled among the trees.
April 13, 2025 at 12:15 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
And a personal favourite of the #bighair satirical prints: 'The Flower Garden' (1777). Note the tiny gardener and the temple in the hair garden.

#historysky #18thcentury #caricatures #hairhistory #fashionhistory
A satirical print form 1777 titled 'The Flower Garden.' A woman stands in profile, half-length. Her enormous powdered hair is adorned with flowers and grapes cascading down the sides. At the top of her hair is a perfectly manicured miniature garden complete with flowerbeds, a temple, and even a tiny gardener.
April 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Continuing from yesterday's #bighair post, another 1770s satire on women's hairdressing.

Note the chicken & ostrich with plucked bottoms, & the poor peacock being defeathered on the dressing table.

#18thcentury #hairhistory #caricatures #historysky
A black and white print entitled 'Can you Forbear Laughing' from 1776. By Philip Dawe. An interior setting, likely a bedroom. A woman stands fully dressed with an enormous, powdered hairstyle topped with feathers. Her servants hold bundles of feathers. One servant is plucking feathers from a peacock on the dressing table. In the foreground a chicken with a plucked bottom walks past. On the left of the image, an ostrich (also with plucked bottom) attempts to snatch a feather from the woman's hair with its beak.
April 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
As women's hairstyles reached new heights in the 1770s, caricaturists had fun imagining how the ladies coped day-to-day with their enormous hair, including the tricky business of fitting into a carriage!

#historysky #18thcentury #hairhistory #caricatures
A colourful cartoon-style print titled: 'The Vis-a-Vis Bisected or the Ladies Coop' (1776). The print shows the interior of a carriage, where two finely dressed women slouch on the floor reading letters. The woman on the left wears a yellow gown, while the woman on the right wears pink. Both women have enormous hairstyles decorated with feathers, flowers and lace. The woman on the right appears to have carrots or radishes ornamenting her hair as well.
April 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
When I teach classes on the French Revolution I love to show students this satirical print from 1791. King Louis XVI is shown lifting off his 'mask' to reveal that he is, in fact, a 'cruchon' - a jughead or idiot!

#18thcentury #politicalsatire #revolutionaryart #historysky #frenchrevolution
A cartoon-style image of a man. He wears luxurious purple velvet robes trimmed with white fur and decorated with gold fleur-de-lis. In his right hand he holds a broken sceptre. The heavy chain of office around his neck is also broken. On his left hip can be seen a sword hilt and multi-coloured breeches. With his left hand he lifts off a "mask" (his face), beneath which is a small jug. The words "Ah! le cruchon" hover above the jug. The title of the print is 'Le Masque Levé.' From Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 1791. Artist unknown.
April 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
A cheeky satirical print on the 1795 "Gagging Acts" (the ‘Seditious Meetings Act’ and ‘Treason Act’) both of which severely curbed press and political freedoms in Britain. The latter made it high treason to harm the king or even to plot or imagine harming him.
#historysky #18thcentury #caricature
A cartoon-style satirical print titled 'TREASON!'. Published by Richard Newton, 1798. A grinning man named Mr Bull (John Bull, the stereotypical Englishman) stands in the centre of the image. He wears a black hat, a blue shirt with a white neckerchief, and yellow breeches, the latter of which he has pulled down to fart on a print of the king pasted on the wall behind him. On the left of the image, a bony, ruddy face (that of Prime Minister William Pitt) leans into frame and says "That is treason, Johnny!". The setting is exterior; a sunny day with the sun rising or setting in the distance.
April 2, 2025 at 12:39 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
A satirical print on the 1795 "Gagging Acts" (the ‘Seditious Meetings Act’ and ‘Treason Act’) both of which severely curbed press and political freedoms in Britain. The former targeted political meetings & societies critical of government policy.
#historysky #18thcentury #skystorians
'The Royal Extinguisher or Gulliver Putting out the Patriots of Lilliput!'. Satirical, cartoon-style print from 1795, loosely based on characters from 'Gulliver's Travels'. Created by Isaac Cruikshank. A gigantic man (Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger) puts an extinguisher over a crowd of miniature people (various "radical" politicians including Charles James Fox) confined within a hoop. The man wears a long blue coat with red collar and cuffs and a peaked cap. In his right hand he holds a lantern inscribed 'For Protecting His Majesty's Person.' His extinguisher is inscribed 'For Preventing Seditious Meetings'. The man says: "Aye! Aye! My Seditious Lads I'm down upon You I'll Darken your Day lights I'll stop your Throats." The miniature people say: "He'll put us out to a Certainty."
March 30, 2025 at 11:38 AM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
Apparently it's #WearAHatDay 👒 No one did it better than Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), shown here wearing the "picture hat" or "Gainsborough hat." The latter named for the painter of this famous portrait of Georgiana.

#historysky #18thcentury #Georgianera #fashionhistory #arthistory
Portrait of a woman by Thomas Gainsborough, 18th century. The woman wears a large black hat with a cream ribbon and black feathers on top of her curled and powdered hair. Her dress is pale with ruffled cuffs and a green-blue ribbon around her waist. She holds a pink rose and a bud in her hands. She looks out at the viewer with a faint smile. The setting is quite dark and looks like an exterior place, possibly a park.
March 28, 2025 at 1:01 PM
nemgarrett.bsky.social
#OnThisDay 1795 The Times reported on the upcoming Duty of Hair Powder Act: anyone wearing powder without a license would be fined a hefty £20. The duty aimed to raise funds for the war against Revolutionary France. The decline of powdered wigs began soon after. #historysky #18thcentury
A satirical cartoon-style print in colour. Titled 'Leaving off Powder -or- A Frugal Family saving the Guinea'. Published in 1795 and made by James Gillray. The setting is an interior with rich floral carpet and green walls. A bald woman sits in the centre, with a hairdresser holding a dark brownish wig out to her. Behind this woman a young lady stands gazing sadly at herself in the mirror; her hair is a natural brown and adorned with feathers. Next to her a young man with a high collar stares at himself in a mirror; his hair is cropped and he looks shocked at his appearance. On the far right a large, older man warms his back at a fire, holding a newspaper and looking disgruntled. He wears an unpowdered wig. A painting on the wall shows a historical figure with an extravagant white powdered wig.
March 27, 2025 at 12:56 PM