Jenny Shaw
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profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Jenny Shaw
@profjennyshaw.bsky.social
6.1K followers 1K following 600 posts
Historian in Roll Tide country. (Almost always) all things early modern Caribbean. Currently foraying into the late eighteenth century while working on THE DUCHESS AND THE DANDY. She/her. Always 🇮🇪🇬🇧 Currently🇺🇸 Views are my own etc.
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profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Hot juice in the @draftingthepast.bsky.social insulated travel cup to get through this election night #Mamdani #onceaNewYorker…
(and do yourselves a favour and go listen to the podcast while you wait for the results to come in) 🗃️
A green metal insulated mug with the logo for the Drafting the Past Podcast sitting on a white counter
November 5, 2025 at 1:37 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
@csschmitt.bsky.social - it’s here, and it’s gorgeous! Looking forward to getting stuck in. Congratulations! 🥳
🗃️
Casey Schmidt’s book, THE PREDATORY SEA, resting on a brown wooden table
August 28, 2025 at 8:10 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
So, @profkfh.bsky.social,
this is what happens when you preorder, forgot you preordered, and preorder again! Twice as nice 😆
@pennpress.bsky.social
Two copies of Kim Hall’s fabulous book THE SWEET TASTE OF EMPIRE on a white table with part of a green Xmas cactus visible in the background
August 28, 2025 at 7:53 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
@profkfh.bsky.social look what finally arrived - I cannot wait to dig in!!! 🤩
Kim F. Hall’s book, THE SWEET TASTE OF EMPIRE, sitting on a wooden table partly on top of a purple, yellow, blue, and white table runner
August 24, 2025 at 1:19 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Sure would you be anywhere else?!?! #theresnoplacelikehome
A sandy beach in the foreground with footprints, sea to the left with waves lapping at the shore, and mountains in the background with just a little bit of cloud cutting across them on the left The same view but with a wider expanse of sand dune in the foreground, which, if given this is summer in the north, has to be seen to be believed! Green grasses in the sand dunes in the foreground and more of that unbelievable blue sky in the background The same shot of the sea to the left, the sand dunes and beach in the foreground, and the mountains in the background only in this one the clouds have come right in across them and the peak of Slieve Donard is poking out above
July 11, 2025 at 6:56 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
First attempt at gluten free focaccia for mum and I’m pretty impressed with the results! #BreadSky
Bowl of risen dough in a clear glass bowl sitting on a glass shelf in the fridge Proved unbaked focaccia in a dark grey metal pan dimpled with yellow and red baby tomatoes halves and scattered with chopped green rosemary and salt sitting on a white and grey veined counter The same foaccia now baked so more golden brown and resting in the pan on a metal silver cooling rack A cross section of focaccia showing the rise and crumb with a bread knife laid across it and a tomato flipped on its side from the cut. The focaccia is sitting on a white chopping board
July 10, 2025 at 6:25 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
There’s no place like home ❤️
Sunlight on rippling water with white clouds and hills in the background Two shipbuilding cranes against a blue sky with tarmac in the foreground and in the immediate foreground the edge of a plane cabin window
June 29, 2025 at 9:07 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Like hundreds of other people I stood on Argyll Street last night to hear Rachel Zegler perform “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” and I’m so glad I did. Brilliant!
A crowd at dusk on Argyll Street in London looking up at the balcony of the Palladium theatre where a woman in a white dress is just visible with her left hand outstretched
June 27, 2025 at 12:42 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Not sure what it says about me that I feel a sense of calm walking into this place, but I do! (it helps that i found what i was looking for) #archivelife 🗃️
Glass and concrete building front with “Public Record Office” in stone across the entrance and a paved entrance way in front. A muster book of cream paper with 12 columns in red and a list of names in black ink
June 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
And Chancery is the gift that keeps on giving. Gulp 😱 🗃️
Two stacks of folded eighteenth century papers that look discolored and a bit tattered in a grey box with the lid open sitting on a walnut wood table
June 17, 2025 at 1:08 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
That feeling when you *find* a Chancery Court case vs that feeling when you realize you have to *read* said Chancery Court case #notabadproblemtohave #archivelife 🗃️
A series of six folded, dirty packets of papers and a sole sheet resting on a wooden walnut table with a white beaded reading weight, a grey box, and a grey foam book stand in the background
June 16, 2025 at 10:30 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
An English mother (Mary Morgan) in India in 1779 writing to her aunt about the importance of “inoculating” her toddler son against smallpox: “the catching of it is very dangerous.” Yep.
Someone might want to tell RFK why vaccination matters 🗃️
Handwritten (cursive) letter - black ink on stained beige paper - from Mary Morgan to her aunt Jane in 1779.
June 12, 2025 at 2:24 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
The @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social treasures exhibit is excellent. Struck by this 1779 letter from the Codrington Papers detailing the coercive sexual relationship between an overseer and an unnamed enslaved woman. Even better is Amina Atiq’s 2021 poem, “Wench” which gives her voice (see ALT text)🗃️
Hung on the wall in the Bodleian museum. An eighteenth-century letter in a wooden frame on the left. On the right on a dark green background is a poem entitled "Wench" (full text below). Underneath the poem is a smaller black rectangular sign with white print explaining the content of the 1779 letter (essentially that an overseer has purchased three of the children he fathered by an unnamed enslaved woman, and is enquiring about purchasing a fourth). There is also a QR code to hear Amina Atiq read her poem. Wench Amina Atiq In your warmest sense of gratitude you ask of me and my ten-month child everyone has forgotten us, as you remember I am here clothed in your waistcoats or worse colony bedding. I hope you will deem no offense, I promised death to run while your lingua left my body thirteen years of drunkenness. But here, you stained your four white shirts, allow me to wipe your mouth of slavery. No doubt of your thinking something strange you write I am your misfortune to breed, an indulged child-bearer, a sugar-shipped body, dancing cuffs in rituals around the highest bidders and studying wombs in English slave codes. I take my liberty of sweet-poetry, a moment of grief oath to all my four children to bless this Island under the Barbados windmills, wash in their holy water build the Codrington Estate in their mother’s bulwarks. I shall leave you to judge of it as you please but I still have one particular matter to mention there is an uprising lost between your starved forlorn eyes I button me up, I dress your white shirts
June 12, 2025 at 10:52 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Having fun at the Bodleian reading “A /true/ description of a young Lady’s arrival in Calcutta, in a letter to her friend in England” c. 1778. New project, new century, new continent 😬 🗃️
18th century poetry on a day in the life of an English woman in Kolkata. Black ink handwriting on paper that has discoloured over time. The writing is in two columns but fills the entire page. 18th century poetry on a day in the life of an English woman in Kolkata. Black ink handwriting on paper that has discoloured over time. The writing is in two columns but fills the entire page. 18th century poetry on a day in the life of an English woman in Kolkata. Black ink handwriting on paper that has discoloured over time. The writing is in two columns but fills the entire page. 18th century poetry on a day in the life of an English woman in Kolkata. Black ink handwriting on paper that has discoloured over time. The writing is in two columns but fills the entire page.
June 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
The crumb! #Breadsky
Sourdough batard sliced in half showing the crumb (decent! Some holes and pockets despite being part whole-wheat and part rye) sitting on a wooden chopping board. In the background is the open bread bin and the corner of a silver stand mixer
May 19, 2025 at 3:21 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Last sourdough loaf til August!
#Breadsky
Whole-wheat and rye batard scored in an ‘s’ shape with a wheat stalk on either side cooling on a black wire rack on a white counter
May 19, 2025 at 3:25 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Probably the most perfectly circular pizza I’ve made! #Breadsky
Circular pizza with red sauce and mozzarella cheese, slightly browned, sitting on a wood chopping board on a cook top The same pizza but this time sliced and dressed with basil
May 17, 2025 at 1:33 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
It’s been a while…by which I mean a week! One whole-wheat/rye batard; one soft white boule #BreadSky
Two loaves of sourdough, one batard scored in an ‘s’ with wheat stalks, one boule with a simple ‘x’ scoring. Both are resting on a black cooking rack above a white counter
May 7, 2025 at 11:53 PM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Somehow Lewis Hamilton makes the Kangol hat work. Black British dandyism at its finest. The broach! The detail on the leg!
The fit! #MetGala
Louis Hamilton face on to the camera wearing an all cream/white tailored suit, double-breasted cropped jacket, bow tie, trousers with embellishment on the left side, black heeled boots, and the most fabulous broach on the lapel
May 6, 2025 at 3:51 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Yessssssss #MetGala
Tramell Tillman showing that Mr Melchick knows how to bring it on a Met Gala carpet: pinstriped black trousers, black and white spats, a black train lined with silver fabric and a beautifully tailored tux top half with a cropped jacket. Chef’s kiss!
May 6, 2025 at 3:30 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
No words. Ah-may-zing #MetGala
Angela Basset in a velvet (?) pant suit, black with blue embellishments, a sparkly camera purse, the most amazing cloche hat, and a fricking cane. SPECTACULAR
May 6, 2025 at 3:23 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Ooof! 🤩 #MetGala
Janelle Monae being freed from a coverall to show the amazing red, black, and white suit that is tailored to within an inch of its life that she is wearing below. Also wearing an incredible take on a bowler hat (it is perched at an angle) and, I think, an eyepatch
May 6, 2025 at 3:16 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Perfection #MetGala
Stormzy stands on the carpet at the Met Gala looking straight to camera wearing tailored back trousers, shiny black dress shoes and the most amazing white top that sort of drapes but is also exquisitely tailored
May 6, 2025 at 3:09 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
RiRi also understands how to do dandyism right. This is EVERYTHING!
Rihanna looking her very best - wide brimmed hat, white collar, tailored top half showing her baby bump, skirt is on the bias and has a short train.
May 6, 2025 at 2:58 AM
profjennyshaw.bsky.social
Kerry Washington understanding the assignment
Kerry Washington in an exquisite white dress fully tailored on the top with a see-through a-line tailored skirt. She’s wear an amazing white wide brimmed hat. Perfection!
May 6, 2025 at 2:55 AM