John Overholt

I’m sorry to hear that the IgNobel Awards will be leaving Harvard, but I’m glad that @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science is prioritizing the safety of the attendees by moving to Europe. I will always treasure the memory of my small role as principal shoeist in the 2018 ceremony.

“It’s our Mona Lisa” @ironicsans@mastodon.social found the things museums identify as their most iconic and popular work. https://ironicsans.ghost.io/its-t-mona-lisa/

We don’t have permanent exhibitions of collection material aside from the Gutenberg Bible (and that’s next door at Widener) but the Emily Dickinson Room at Houghton is the thing people come to like a pilgrimage.

A spectacular discovery by film archivists at the Library of Congress, a lost film by the pioneer George Méliès and the first appearance of a cinematic robot. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/02/lost-19th-century-film-by-melies-discovered-at-the-library/

Conan O'Brien to headline commencement: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/03/conan-obrien-85-named-commencement-speaker/

Somebody tried to email us and got a bounceback because they sent it to harvarrd dot edu, and that address only works on September 19th.

Now on the Criterion Channel and extremely my jam: Videoheaven, a history of the video store as told through its depiction in movies and newscasts. https://www.videoheaven.movie

I like to think I’m pretty good at summarizing longer pieces for short-form social media, but you’re just going to have to read this blog post if you want to know why the skateboard corgi is held in the George Mason Gilbert & Sullivan collection. https://vault217.gmu.edu/?p=11798

You're telling me this analytics platform comes with a sushi counter?

You can write 40 operas and die at age 40 after being poisoned by a jealous husband whose wife you were sleeping with, but you're always going to be second in the Leonardo Vinci namespace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Vinci

This poster went unsold in Swann's auction yesterday. It's a very good exemplar of Art Deco design, but maybe you wouldn't want to hang it on your wall. https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/jupp-wiertz-a-pleasant-trip-to-germany-circa-1935_fc6acae6ae

A new exhibition at HBS Baker Library looks at the career of Muriel Siebert, the first female member of the New York Stock Exchange. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/muriel-siebert-kicked-down-the-door-so-others-could-follow/

A great moment on this week’s Free With Ads podcast, covering the Dustin Hoffman Death of a Salesman: a faux chipper voice tinged with obvious desperation saying “Use promo code LOMAN!”

Multispectral imaging helped the University of Toronto Libraries bring a much faded fragment back to legibility, revealing a document dating to the court of Louis XI. https://library.utoronto.ca/news/hidden-plain-sight-message-spider-king

Reference questions are like "Well I know the sum total of human culture and knowledge is available online, so that can't be the issue."

How about never? Is never good for you?

This is the good shit I come to Antiques Roadshow for.

What is even happening here?

My practice of cutting and pasting the titles from the catalog into my exhibition labels *usually* ensures there aren't any typos.

“Terry Pratchett wrote every decent person’s favorite summary of the bedrock of humanist morality in a fantasy book for young readers called I Shall Wear Midnight: ‘Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.’ Treating people as things can begin in many ways, but I think one of them is the idea that things can be people.” https://www.todayintabs.com/p/a-i-isn-t-people

Either I spotted a typo in the catalog or someone was really unimpressed with platinum. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990034780030203941/catalog

There’s a whole list on Wikipedia of the movies that use the word “fuck” the most, but I’m 15 minutes into the Chevy Chase documentary and I can already tell it’s going to set the record for “asshole”.

@hannah@posts.rat.pictures "The Good Wools was issued by The Wool Bureau, the American branch of the International Wool Secretariat." https://www.honeyandwaxbooks.com/pages/books/1004235/fashion/the-good-wools

Doing a class with a bunch of wonderful medieval manuscripts, but one of the rarest and most interesting has no text, because it was a model book for illuminators to copy from.

A 16th century book of mechanical engineering designs, including a parachute. I like how the fold in the double plate makes it look like he's got a ledge to land on if the parachute doesn't work out. https://www.penkararebooks.com/pages/books/50561/fausto-veranzio/an-early-parachute-likely-inspired-by-da-vinci-machinae-novae-fausti-verantii-siceni-cum

All these emails for me? You shouldn't have!

You won’t read a more interesting and engaging introduction to the art and science of textual criticism than this one (and I promise that’s not damning with faint praise.) Plus, I learned the fun new word sphalmatology. https://antigonejournal.com/2026/02/science-of-blunders-confessions-textual-critic/ via @metafilter@mefi.social

I looked up Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner’s ages and it was profoundly disorienting. @dropping-names@www.youtube.com

Adapt xckcd 2501 to your area of abstruse specialization. https://marshdeer.github.io/xkcd2501-generator/

The head of Harvard Library's digitization unit is retiring this year after being there since 1999, aka roughly the entire history of library digitization.

Wow, I have just been sent a Generation X-themed rare book catalog and I have been so precisely targeted that there's a red dot on my forehead as I'm typing. First editions of the first Encyclopedia Brown and Choose Your Own Adventures? The scripts for 16 Candles and Heathers? Yes, please! Downloadable here: https://www.typepunchmatrix.com/catalogues.php

When a piece of type gets damaged, it's like a fingerprint that can be used to tie all the work of a printer together, whether or not their name appears on the title page. The Catalog of Distinctive Type is building a database of these fingerprints for Restoration England. https://cdt.library.cmu.edu/

A late 19th century novel set in ancient Rome, issued in a special edition of 23 scrolls in a Roman-style carrying case. https://www.dorotheum.com/cz/l/9876563/

Me IRL

Updates on the obituary? "Great news, turns out he's just a heavy sleeper!"