JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.
Hello lovelies! Who will be at ACRL next week? JSTOR will definitely be there, so be sure to stop by booth 649 to say “hi” and chat about cats or online research or coffee or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or anything else you can think of. We’re pretty diverse.
See you there!
Hey students! We’re hiring a Digital Humanities intern on the JSTOR Labs team for this summer. Check out this video from Alex, VP of Labs, where he explains this opportunity and, if you are interested, you can find the full job description and where to apply here. The position can be in either our New York, NY or Ann Arbor, MI offices and is paid. Tell them the JSTOR Tumblr overlord sent you!
I’m a day late on this but THE FINALE OF “THE JINX” OH MY GOD. My jaw dropped open and stayed that way through most of it. I may have drooled on my couch during the last five minutes because OH MY GOD.
I searched the archive and found references to Robert Durst in an article on the “CSI effect” on juries, as well as his name on the list of annual fellows of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
*Goes back to slack-jawed gaping.*
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! But who the heck was St. Patrick, anyway? Our friends at JSTOR Daily are on the case:
“As you may have noticed, modern St. Patricks Day celebrations involve a lot of noise—a triumphant clamour and glamour, which is curiously appropriate considering it occupies the tail end of a historical process which has been ringing out for centuries. Successive generations have been continually adapting, recreating, and re-imagining the saint ever since the earliest attempts to elevate Patrick to a national and international stage almost 1,300 years ago. It was pretty successful at the time. St. Patrick quickly became a super-saint of the early medieval insular world, and we are still living with the considerable “white noise” of those early medieval efforts to this day.
For the most part, the “St. Patrick” celebrated on March 17 every year has never existed…
Contrary to later myth and legend, he never mentions snakes, or shamrocks. He never mentions druids. He never mentions the founding or building of church sites. Indeed, he never mentions churches at all. He only mentions one placename in all of Ireland—the location of his captivity, which was on the western Atlantic coast, not the northeast, as later tradition would come to be written. He provides us with no dates. No Hollywood-style showdowns with pagan kings. No paschal fires. No miracles. There is no mention of Rome. No mention of popes. No mention of papal sanction or authority. No mention of a successor.”
For our next installment of JSTOR: Beyong the Book, we’re tackling Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which I finished yesterday in a fit of frenzied reading. I love Strayed’s “Dear Sugar” column from The Rumpus, but I honestly missed this book until now (yes, I live under a rock).
I love Strayed’s writing style - she’s brutally honest and open about the pain she felt losing her mother, the self-destructive behavior she engaged in afterward, and her poorly planned trip to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone in 1995. She’s heartbroken and broken, and manages to find her way through the pain to a place of healing. Five stars - highly recommend.
To enhance our understanding of the PCT, I found:
John Muir: a lovely obituary for and tribute to the “father of the national parks” in Science in 1915. Much of Muir’s preservation efforts and writings helped create Yosmite National Park, and a portion of the PCT bears his name.
A Wilderness Journey with Judge John B. Waldo, Oregon’s First Preservationist: Judge Waldo was a preservationist in Oregon and his efforts eventually led to establishing the Cascade Range as federally protected property. The “Waldo Tree” that bears the carved names of the judge and his companions in 1888, is a landmark on the trail for hikers.
Happy hiking! Or reading about hiking!
—The Night Witches
Undoubtedly the most-requested episode in our two years hosting the show: The Night Witches were an all-women’s bombing regiment in the Soviet military in World War II. They flew wood-and-canvas biplanes that were never meant to be used in combat. By the end of the war, they’d flown roughly 24,000 combat missions, all of them at night, earning 23 of them the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
YESSSSSSSS
Listened to Missed In History’s podcast on Artemisia Gentileschi this morning, which was awesome! I never knew she and Galileo were friends, so I did a quick JSTOR search to see what’s out there. Found an article about them with best title ever: “Trajectories of Blood: Artemisia Gentileschi and Galileo’s Parabolic Path.”
You’re welcome.
—Artemisia Gentileschi
She’s often called the greatest female painter of the Baroque period, though there were only a few to compare her to. Her work is extraordinary, and reflects the influences of her father Orazio Gentileschi and Caravaggio.
*puts headphones in immediately*
Let’s all bow at the altar of Claire Underwood, shall we?*
And back back to where it started: Corrine Roosevelt Robinson, poet and sister to Teddy, in 1920 on the new role of women in politics:
"Women want things harder than men, they are more ardent, more focused, and if they can keep that ardor warm enough in their hearts, and yet sufficiently in check not to forego realizable ideals, they will be of immeasurable value in the future life of our great nation."
*Go watch House of Cards season 3 now. I’ll wait.
So sad to hear about Leonard Nimoy’s passing. He lived long, he prospered & was a true poet.