So many wonderful new queer-themed books published so far this #PrideMonth. It really is most heartening . . . but I need more hours in the day to read them all! 🏳️🌈📚
I mustn't let May go by without a nod to my 2009 article on the discovery, during the 19th century, of same-sex copulation among Maybugs (also known as Maybeetles, cockchafers, doodlebugs). Do look out for them at it in your garden! 🌈🌳
No cute bunnies or lambs in my files, I'm afraid. I do, however, have a lot of queer chickens. This is a painting of a hen-cock (c. 1900), a prize fighter, by English artist Herbert Atkinson. 🥚🐥🐔
Just a reminder that, following the Royal Society event in Jan, my article 'Mendel's Closet: Genetics, Eugenics and the Exceptions of Sex in Edwardian Britain' has been made freely available until the end of Feb/LGBTQ+ History Month.
An Illustrated Exploration Across Two Centuries in the Pacific Northwest
During a meteoric career that spanned from 1825 to 1834, David Douglas made the first systematic collections of flora and fauna over many parts of the greater Pacific Northwest.
This is the only Black Friday deal I look forward to each year. Simply the best stay-at-home research resource. I've found many sexological gems over the years . . .
Charles Darwin called it "a little world within itself." Sailors referred to it as "Las Encantadas"- the enchanted islands. Lying in the eastern Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator off the west coast of South America, the Galapagos is the most pristine archipelago to be found anywhere in the tropics.
❗️The applications for a Junior Researcher position for the project "KNOW-AFRICA - Knowledge networks in 19th century Africa", coordinated by Sara Albuquerque at the University of Évora, closes on 20 November.
Gynandromorph Gouldian finch possessing female plumage on the left side and male on the right. Described and pictured in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1939. 🏳️🌈 🐦 :transgender:
Here's a terrific, out-of-print book, which seems to consist entirely of exquisite, Ernst Haeckel-esque natural history drawings of birds, reptiles & amphibians, and their intersection--which is, naturally, dragons.
🎂 A delightful birthday treat today, visiting Down House - former home of Charles Darwin - for the first time. This was long overdue!
Amid all the staid Victoriana, I couldn't help but think of Darwin writing about gynandromorphs, 'latent sex,' 'vice,' and 'extreme sensuality' here . . .
Two male Asian elephants, Dunk and Gold Dust, were star attractions at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. In November 1892 physician Irving C. Rosse described, somewhat disapprovingly, how the animals had sex together, this being the first published account of same-sex sexual behaviour in elephants. 🏳️🌈 🐘