Penelope J. Corfield is a historian, lecturer and education consultant. She currently serves as the President of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS).
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MONTHLY BLOG 121, BEING ASSESSED AS A WHOLE PERSON – A CRITIQUE OF IDENTITY POLITICS
/in Current Affairs, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2021) [PJC Pdf/58] One of series of Dissected Photographs by New York artist © Michael Mapes Friends: I want to be taken seriously as a whole person, assessed in the round. It’s positively good to feel part of a universalist personhood.1 Something that is experienced […]
MONTHLY BLOG 120, ISAAC NEWTON, WORLD RENOWNED PHYSICIST & INVENTOR OF THE CAT FLAP!?
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Downloaded from https://www.catsbest.eu/catsbest_en (Nov. 2020) Nothing wrong with a special cat-sized doorway, of course.1 A cat flap is a handy device. But was it really invented in the late seventeenth century by Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), the renowned physicist and mathematician?2 He was certainly […]
MONTHLY BLOG 119, THE FELINE MUSE IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Fig.1: William Hogarth’s alert cat, ears pricked, teeth bared, claws unleashed, and intent gaze fixed upon its notional prey (a caged bird)– revealing the feral cat within the domestic pet. Source: detail from Hogarth’s Portrait of the Graham Children (1742). Cats in Britain changed […]
MONTHLY BLOG 118, COMMEMORATING ANOTHER FEISTY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SEA-GOING CAT
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Fig. 1 John Cornwell’s bronze statue of Trim, the feisty black cat who sailed in the circumnavigation of Australia in 1801/3: located outside Mitchell Library, 173 Macquarie St, Sydney, Australia. Another feisty sea-going cat from the eighteenth century has inspired a great set of […]
MONTHLY BLOG 117, AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FOLLY-BUILDER & CAT-LOVER
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Public monuments to cats – as opposed to literary, artistic and musical celebrations1 – are rare to find, especially dating from the eighteenth century. So this majestic example deserves full appreciation. The lordly cat sits atop a giant Grecian vase, all forming the substantial […]
MONTHLY BLOG 116, THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY’S MOST AMAZING LADY RECLUSE
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Image of Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) Garbed as an Oriental Magus More than matching the fame of the most notable male recluses of eighteenth-century Britain was the renown of the amazing Lady Hester Stanhope.1 She not only cut herself off from her aristocratic family […]
MONTHLY BLOG 115, THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INVENTION OF TWO NEW SOLITARY OCCUPATIONS
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) 1793 Statue of Ancient British Druid, Croome Park, Worcestershire Not only did a few famous eighteenth-century recluses choose solitude (see BLOG no 114, June 2020) but others found that isolation went with the job. Two new occupations called for people with self-contained personalities, who […]
MONTHLY BLOG 114, SELF-ISOLATION EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STYLE
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Fig.1 Engraving (1808) of Lord Rokeby (1713-1800), a famous eighteenth-century self-isolator, who looked like a wise old wizard but whose actual message was obscure. It’s not original to note that humans are a highly social species. But it’s only now becoming generally appreciated just […]
MONTHLY BLOG 113, LIGHT FROM THE LAMP OF EXPERIENCE
/in History, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Fig.1, A hand-held eighteenth-century lantern, its lighted candle providing an immediate pool of light. ‘The Lamp of Experience’ is a marvellous phrase. A lantern throws light. It does not insist dogmatically but instead conveys sufficient illumination for good judgment. ‘Experience’ is also a vital […]
MONTHLY BLOG 112, ON RECONSIDERING THE (INTERRUPTED) FUTURE
/in Civics, Monthly Blog /by Penelope J. CorfieldIf citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2020) Fig.1 Silhouettes of grass in fog It is not possible to learn from the future that has not yet unfolded. The unidirectional nature of Time forbids it. So when people assert airily: ‘We don’t learn from the past’, I am incredulous. What? Of course, […]