@WillBeharrell

Librarian @LinneanSociety 📚 Secretary @SHNHSocNatHist 🌱 Trustee @NewburyPride 🏳️‍🌈

 London / Newbury
Joined April 2009
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Alrighty, I’m off 👋 Aside from boosting a few accounts (@LinneanSociety, @SHNHSocNatHist and the like) I’ll be over at the other place 🦋 Come join! Handle is in my bio 😊
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This is the nicest thing I saw today. “Priamus polycletes” [sic] in Carl Clerck’s Icones insectorum rariorum (1759). This copy at the @LinneanSociety is from the private library of Carl Linnaeus, and annotated by him.
An engraving of a large butterfly, with striking yellow and black wings.

ALT An engraving of a large butterfly, with striking yellow and black wings.

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My talk about Elizabeth Blackwell and her “Curious Herbal” is now on the @LinneanSociety’s YouTube channel. It’s an imperfect presentation in lots of ways—and I make a few embarrassing mistakes—but I hope it’s a useful introduction to an amazing book 😊 youtu.be/SurhOJ_x71U?si=4GTh…
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Going to Paris next May. It’s only taken 36 years. What should I see?
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It will—tragically—be 37 years by the time I actually get there. So genteel attractions suitable for the decrepit please x
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It me! Please come. I have at least three good facts about Elizabeth Blackwell and a lovely book to show off. Put me on in the background while you’re doing something else.
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More bookish ramblings from me on September 10, at 2pm. This time we’ll be looking at Elizabeth Blackwell and the gorgeous “Curious Herbal” (1737) she produced to rescue her family from debt. Free and online @LinneanSociety. Book here 🔗: eventbrite.co.uk/e/linnean-l…
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Just five days left to enter the @SHNHSocNatHist Stearn Essay Prize! Fame and riches await 🥳
SHNH@SHNHSocNatHist22 Jul 2024
There’s still time to enter this year’s W.T. Stearn Student Essay Prize 🏆 The winner receives £300 and the chance to see their work published in our journal, Archives of Natural History (@EdinburghUP). More info: shnh.org.uk/news/call-for-st… Completed entries to [email protected]
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So nice to visit the @ChelsPhysicGdn Florilegium Society today to talk about one of my scientific heroes: Elizabeth Blackwell. And even nicer to bring a copy of her gorgeous book from the @LinneanSociety Library for show and tell! Thanks so much for having me 🙂
A group of people are gathered around a large book on a table.

ALT A group of people are gathered around a large book on a table.

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Photo courtesy @DeborahLambkin!
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Showing visitors around the @LinneanSociety is the best bit of the job—even better when the visitors are your Aussie relatives! 😀🇦🇺
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I have a difficult relationship with birds (more Hitchcock than Springwatch), but I really, really love this book at the @LinneanSociety: Louis Agassiz Fuertes ‘Birds of Abyssinia’. Fuertes died in a train crash in 1927, and these illustrations were salvaged from the wreckage.
A watercolour of a Secretary bird, in profile. The bird has silver grey plumage and bright red-orange skin around its eye.

ALT A watercolour of a Secretary bird, in profile. The bird has silver grey plumage and bright red-orange skin around its eye.

An image of a hornbill in profile. The plumage is grey-black, and the bird has a very large protruding beak of a light yellow colour.

ALT An image of a hornbill in profile. The plumage is grey-black, and the bird has a very large protruding beak of a light yellow colour.

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The Linnean Society’s copy is in a sorry state. The boards are detached, and the beautiful plates—although still bright and fresh—loose and vulnerable. We’re currently fundraising to have it conserved. Email [email protected] if you think you can help 😊
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Had lots of fun putting together this breakfast book buffet for the good folk at the @GrolierClub this morning. I hope they enjoyed their visit!
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All books from the @LinneanSociety’s Library. Shonky photography: author’s own.
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There’s still time to enter this year’s Stearn Student Essay competition, recognising the best essay on the history of natural history written by a current or recent student. £300 to be won! Deadline July 31. Details on the @SHNHSocNatHist website here: shnh.org.uk/news/call-for-st… – at Reading, England
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Can’t wait for this year’s @SHNHSocNatHist Summer Meeting at @Museum_Cardiff on June 13/14. Join us for two days of talks and tours exploring the colours of nature in all their glory! Discounts for students and SHNH members available. Book here 🔗 : eventbrite.com/e/the-palette…
A poster for an academic conference entitled “The Palette of Nature”. The poster features a prominent image of a colourful bird’s wing, painted by Albrecht Durer, entitled “The wing of a blue roller”.

ALT A poster for an academic conference entitled “The Palette of Nature”. The poster features a prominent image of a colourful bird’s wing, painted by Albrecht Durer, entitled “The wing of a blue roller”.

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I have nothing very profound to say about these delicate Chinese prints, except how lovely they are! This is Shih-chu-chai Shu Hua P’u (the “Ten Bamboo Studio Treatise on Painting”). Copy at the @linneansociety, first edition, second superstate, produced sometime after 1703. – at England, United Kingdom
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Yet another reason to be proud of Berkshire. What a magnificent hog! 🐷 – at London, England
ZSL Library@ZSLLibrary1 Mar 2024
Today is #NationalPigDay so we are featuring this Berkshire pig from 'The breeds of the domestic animals of the British Islands' described by David Low, and illustrated with plates, from drawings by W. Nicholson, reduced from a series of portraits ... by W. Shiels, 1842.🐖📚
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