On August 18, 2017, I stood outside, like millions of other Americans from Oregon to South Carolina, put on glasses made of paper and thin foil, and stared into the… [Continue Reading]
Review: Mary Beard’s Women & Power
The subtitle of Mary Beard’s new book Women & Power is, provocatively, A Manifesto. But, as manifestos go, there’s nothing really radical about it. There are no lengthy enumerations of grievances, no definitive calls… [Continue Reading]
Best Books of 2017
Every year I recommit myself to a resolution to use this blog as a sort of intellectual diary, documenting my research projects, thoughts from events and lectures, and book reviews…. [Continue Reading]
Bugs!
In September 1947, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer programming, kept finding glitches in her programming. She ran several diagnostic tests before deciding to open up her massive… [Continue Reading]
When Julia Margaret Cameron Photographed the High Priest of Astronomy
In one photo, he looks far into the distance, blurry-eyed and pensive. A velvet cape drapes around his shoulders so that each fold catches the light. His white hair, perpetually… [Continue Reading]
A Brief History of Grauman’s Egyptian Theater
The Klieg lights swept over the gathering crowd and cut through the dark October sky for the first premier in movie history. Limousines lined the street as far as the… [Continue Reading]
Amelia Edwards and Late-Victorian Egyptology
The midday sun was beating down mercilessly, and most of the tourists had already returned to the dahabiyeh for luncheon. The kitchen crew rang the bell twice, and when these… [Continue Reading]
Embedding iFrames in WordPress
A question came up recently at THATCamp DC about how to embed Timeline.js or Storymap.js into WordPress blogs. WordPress doesn’t currently have a Plugin to facilitate Timeline or Storymap (and… [Continue Reading]
Wonderful Things
Howard Carter went to Egypt in 1902 at the age of 17. Though his family was not particularly wealthy, they had connections and secured Carter a job as an artist… [Continue Reading]
Summer Suits and Straw Hats: Poirot, Agatha Christie, and Archaeology
With a somewhat smaller budget than Indiana Jones and, admittedly, a much smaller fan-base, the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989 – 2013), starring David Suchet, masterfully captures an imaginative sense of time and… [Continue Reading]