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and all i loved, i loved alone

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“ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ” @songs-of-venus

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When the nature is in vintage mode 🤍

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crashing out over certain books online that can only be accessed one person at a time. do you want me to fail is that what you want? do you want me to not be the academic weapon i was born to be? in the good year of 2025 i have to wait in a virtual queue for a book?? for an essay i left until the last minute?? because i'm an architect of my own misfortune? is that what this is?

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My maintenance loan for next year has been more than halved despite my parents being on benefits??? The new amount can't even cover my rent for the academic year this is insane

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girl i am undergoing a terrifying metamorphosis 

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— Clementine Von Radics, from In A Dream You Saw A Way To Survive; "The Fear" (via lunamonchtuna)

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Oooooooouuuagahh.......

My mum is mailing my ≈ 100 year old violin across the country. I am preparing myself for the worst

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Margaretha Roosenboom (Dutch, 1843-1896)

Witte rozen

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odysseyposting is second nature to us so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the riddle of the olive tree bed and one or two names of penelope's suitors. and the cyclops self-doxxing incident, of course.

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several very thoughtful people on classics tumblr have talked about the popular perception of ancient greece as the site of myth & literature (not history) and ancient rome as the site of history (not myth or literature), how this relates to & informs the perception of (an interest in) ancient greece as gay/girl-coded/etc. and (interest in) ancient rome as male and even fascist. a lot of people have spoken about this from the angle of pointing out rome as a society which had its own myths, produced art, & also the weirdness of gendering (moralising?) the ancient world in this way when both ancient greek societies & rome were patriarchal, imperialist, reliant on enslaved labour, etc. but also & otoh ancient greece really isn't, and hasn't ever been, less appealing or available to fascists than ancient rome as a source of interest or inspiration. an interest in the ancient greek world isn't inherently any less likely to be fascistic. ancient greece's position in the european/european settler colonial imagination as the origin of "western civilisation" makes it appealing both as a place to retvrn to and a way to mark out racial & ethnic Others (as not originally greek & therefore fundamentally incompatible with europeanness/westernness/whatever). & as for the "rome is fascist, greece is gay" thing—do you think there aren't gay fascists? & given that there in fact are—where do you think they go for inspiration?

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How to Critically Analyze a Museum

Here is a tasting menu of questions to ask about your local museum!

The Institution:

What is the museum's mission?

Does the museum collect a broad range of items or does it have a single specific focus?

Is the museum hosted by a research institution?

Does the mission language cater to the local community, the academic community, or the museum's shareholders?

How are exhibitions funded?

Is the building purpose-built or repurposed?

Where did the objects come from?

Does the museum have a history of repatriating objects when asked to?

Outreach:

How complete is the online collection?

How searchable is the online collection?

What educational programs are offered?

What ages are the educational programs for?

Does the museum have an active social media presence?

Has the museum hosted any community events recently?

Does the museum have internship/fellowship/career programs?

Exhibition Pedagogy:

What was the first thing you saw when walking into the exhibition?

Do the wall texts adequately prepare you for what you see in each gallery?

Are objects presented together or one-by-one?

Where are the object labels in relation to the objects? What seems to be more important, the visual effect of the object or its context?

Are the object labels easy to understand?

Do the object labels focus on description, interpretation, or historical context?

What adjectives are used in the object labels? How do they make you feel?

Is there any interactive material?

Accessibility:

How tired do you feel after walking through an exhibition?

How many benches are in a typical gallery?

Are elevators centrally located or on the periphery?

Is the building fully wheelchair accessible?

Are the plinths and object cases easy to walk or wheel around?

Are the wall texts visually contrastive and easy to read from a distance?

Do the audio guides describe the objects at hand? Or do they exist to provide supplementary information/commentary?

Answering these questions for yourself is a great way to better understand your local museum—why it exists, who it serves, who each exhibition is for, and if it is effective in carrying out its mission. I like to keep these questions in mind when I visit a museum and note the answers as entries in my field journal. Now, go forth and visit some museums!

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Kohl jar and stick, 1635BC-1458BC, Egypt.

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instagram | photos are my own, reblogs fine, do not repost/reuse

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My mum is mailing my ≈ 100 year old violin across the country. I am preparing myself for the worst

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jewelry set, italy c. mid 1800s.