#John Gerard

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Sweet Potato Awareness Month!

November is here and with it, Sweet Potato Awareness Month!  

Native to tropical regions of the Americas and domesticated at least 5,000 years ago, the sweet potato is a delightful member of the morning glory family. Not to be confused with yams, sweet potatoes produce long vines with heart-shaped leaves and flowers above ground and delicious starchy tubers sprawling beneath the dirt. It is said that Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to encounter and taste sweet potatoes, and they have been a staple among the American diet ever since with the average per capita consumption around 4.4 pounds per year.  

In recognition of Sweet Potato Awareness Month, we’re looking at John Gerard’s Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes. The book is his translation of a Latin version that was originally published in Flemish and includes some of Gerard’s original assertions and annotations from his own garden. Published in 1597 by the Queen's printer John Norton, it notably includes an example of the first English description of the potato! What Gerard describes as potatus or potatoes are in fact what we know today as sweet potatoes. Gerard’s lack of scientific knowledge led to misunderstandings about the plants he wrote about and criticism from his contemporaries. See our Science Saturday post for all the hot gossip about Gerard’s incompetencies and accusations of plagiarism. 

Despite the drama surrounding Gerard’s botanical authorship and because of the inclusion of over 1,000 plants including illustrations, habits, and uses, Herball was an exhaustive and highly used resource of its time. 

View other posts with our copy of Gerard's Herball.

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[rbolick]

Books On Books Collection - Barbara Beisinghoff

Tau blau / Dew Blue (2013) Tau blau / Dew Blue (2013) Barbara Beisinghoff ; Solander box in linen, handbound Vera Schollemann; Flax paper, handmade by John Gerard.Solander box: H240 x W200 x D32 mm. Flagbook: H220 x W180 mm. Edition of 38, of which this is #22. Acquired from the artist, 30 December 2024. Photos: Books On Books Collection. Familiarity with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale…

[elle8n]

This movie changed my live <3

[potato-lord-but-not]

EPISODE 48 MY BELOVED 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[frimleyblogger]

Bluebell Glue

The folklore associated with the #bluebell and how it was used to make #books and #arrows

Bluebell bulbs are full of a viscid juice and are poisonous in their fresh state, at least for humans and most animals except, curiously, badgers. To consume them in large quantities could be fatal. Some folk traditions played on the flower’s inimical properties. Bluebells were said to be used in witches’ potions. Nightmares could be warded off by placing bluebells under a pillow or hanging them…

[i-eat-mold]

just here to say that gertrude robinson is the single funniest character. she is THE character. she dies before the show even starts. shes an old lady that adopted an edgy teen and traveled the world. She is the avatar of one of the fourteen elditch horrors that feed on primordial fears, she had basically infite knowledge of everything and her plan to stop one of the rituals of a cult of another one of said list of eldrich horrors was to blow it up with a bunch of c4. we only find out about this because she stored all of the explosives in a random storage unit and the aforementioned edgy teen with mommy issues (who by the way, is dead, but when he died she sneaked into the morgue to put him inside a book) speaks through the book to the woman's succesor who, by the way, has no idea what the fuck is going on because neither she nor anyone else has bothered to explain shit to him, and tells him that she kept something important in the unit. we only find out about this after 100 episodes of the show. She feeds her subordinates to an all consuming monster/god, but its ok i guess. Later on (earlier on? at the same time? in a different timeline? after?) the literal end of the world and the end of the end of the world shes back and still has to deal with this stupid teenager who at least doesnt spend half his life focused on dyeing his hair and the other half about finding murder books (not as books about murder but as in, books who actively murder). She is a well experienced arsonist despite having no affiliation with the actual official arsonists club that is yet another cult to yet another one of the previously mentioned eldritch horrors. She is, however, metaphysically tied to the Chosen One, the Messiah of said cult, or some shit. She is absolutely terrible at her actual office job (on purpose). She dismembered a guy (who was her assistant) and probably commited several undocumented crimes against humanity. Once again, she has all seeing abilities and barely noticed her favorite assistant was torturing a coworker. She dares her murderous boss to kill her and gets surprised when he does so. When asked what to do about a literal Monster Pig, her advice is to encase it in cement. She was such a bitch. Her plan B was always to set things on fire. Her plan A was often to set things on fire. One of these instances was approved by her boss (the one who killed her). It is canon that the reason she started all this shit in her life was because the fire cult killer her cat. She sacrified another one of her assistants who became an avatar of the literal concept of Insanity but it was just a other thursday for her. She knows on a first name basis pretty much every person and monster affiliated with the eldritch horrors that she tries to keep at bay on the daily. She stopped a ritual for The Lonely by making the place a tourist destination. She has an ebay account. Instead of performing a ritual for the God that she was affiliated with, she wanted to destroy it and planned to 1. blind herself, and 2. set fire (yet again) to her workplace. It didnt work, because and her boss, who was also the one who was going to perform the ritual, finds her right before and kills her after she says he has no balls to do so. Also she is voiced by the mother of the main character's voice actor (who he named with his own, full, legal name) and the series' writer, which are the same person. Shes the worst, shes the best, i love her, we will never get anyone like her again, we need more characters like her.

[glorious-destruction]

“Tortured poets department?” Back in my day it was dead poets society

[wojtekaneko]

Knives Out: 13th century edition

[soullust]

dead poets society (1989)

[ash5monster01]

finally that time of year 🍂🤍

Dead Poets Society (1989)

[pink-carnelian]

The “he was kinda cute when he was young lol” to “I need to fuck that old man nasty style” pipeline

[toddandersonsblog]

finally, here are all of the dps moodboards I've made together!! just thought I'd have them all in one post. 🫡☕️🍂⏳️🕰🕯🗝

[lycheecannibal]

[thepenguinwhocanfly]

at least we still have Neil :,)))

[slugtowns]

can’t stop thinking about these moments from the original dps script

[tortured-poet-of-thursday]

why can’t gay people flirt normally like tf you mean “no <3”