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Oct 21, 2021 16 tweets 5 min read Read on X
In Oct 2020, an extraordinary collection of over 400 erotic sketches by British artist, Duncan Grant (1885-1978), came to light. The collection was thought to have been destroyed but had secretly been passed from lover to lover, friend to friend, for over 60yrs.

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Grant was a painter, a textile designer, theatre designer & pottery artist. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group &, although most of his love affairs were with men, he did have well as a relationship with Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister), with whom he had a child
Grant was born seven months before the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act, also known as the Labouchère Amendment, which criminalised all male homosexual sex in England.
It was the law that was used to persecute Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, as well as countless other gay men. Grant could never live openly as a gay man in his lifetime.
He had many lovers - his cousin, the writer Lytton Strachey, Arthur Hobhouse (a politician) and the economist John Maynard Keynes. It’s thought many of the men in the pictures were also his lovers.
Grant had a daughter with Vanessa Bell, who was married to Clive Bell, with whom she had two sons. Shortly before WW1, Vanessa, Clive, Duncan Grant & Duncan's lover David Garnett all moved in to Charleston Farmhouse together .
The writer Dorothy Parker is said to have quipped that the 'Bloomsbury paints in circles, lives in squares and loves in triangles.'
On 2 May 1959, Grant his friend Edward le Bas a folder containing 400 erotic illustrations. He marked the folder, “These drawings are very private.”
It was thought that Le Bas’ sister had destroyed them after he had died, but she hadn’t. The collection had secretly been passed to from lover to lover, friend to friend, until they wound up in the hands of theatre designer Norman Coates, who kept them under his bed for 11 years
Charleston Farmhouse where Grant lived is now a museum & gallery. After learning the Charleston was at risk of insolvency after coronavirus, Coates generously donated the collection to Charleston, where is remains. bbc.co.uk/news/av/entert…
The museum was saved & Grant’s work was finally out the closet for everyone to see. Incidentally, The Charleston are currently holding a spectacular Duncan Grant exhibition that I am definitely going to. You can get more information about here.
(The Charleston Trust © The Estate of Duncan Grant)
Also, what a #HistoricalHottie 😍
And I managed to missed actually tagging @CharlestonTrust in this thread completely. Please give them a follow to keep up with the amazing work they do preserving the art & history of Duncan Grant. They are wonderful.
I mean…

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Apr 25
Today is #WorldPenguinDay , so here is a story about the “astonishing depravity" and "hooligan males" of the Adélie penguins recorded in Cape Adare in 1911. The book cover of “Antarctic Penguins” by Dr G Murray Levick, RN. The book has a Lon army green cover with the title in white text and Levick’s name in black. In the centre of the cover are two Adelie penguins facing each other, with their bellies touching, as if in an embrace. It’s quite a wholesome image with no hint of the horrendous penguin depravity that is to come.
This is George Murray Levick, a scientist with the 1910-13 Scott Antarctic Expedition. He arrived at Cape Adare in 1911 & observed the penguins for a year. He was the first scientist ever to observe the breeding cycle of the penguins. A black and white photo of George Levick on Antarctic expedition. He’s on a boat (I think), sitting up against a wooden wall. He looks to be mending a leather boot, he’d smoking a pipe and isn’t looking at the camera. He’s wearing a white woolly hat, a pale coloured wooly jumper and sturdy trousers. He’s a rugged, outdoorsy type and powerfully built, He looks very much like someone who should be singing sea shanties in a Cornish pub for a pint and ale and a pickled egg.
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Mar 3
I can’t believe I’ve been woken up the for this, but here we go.

1. The historian Strabo (64BCE - 24 ACE) described operations on the clitoris

2. Galen (129-126 ACE) called the clitoris “the nymph” in his “on the usefulness of the parts of the body.”

3. Soranus of Ephesus (1st century ACE) also calls it a “nymph” and describes it as “hidden underneath the labia such as young brides hide under their veil.”
4. Other ancient writers who describe the clitoris include, Caelius Aurelianus, Iianus, Albucasis, and Avicenna. They would call it a “nymph,” a “myrtleberry,” or “tongue bag.” The romans called it “landica.”
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Sep 18, 2023
Wewe Gombel is a female ghost in Javanese folklore. It is said that she kidnaps children and hides them under her breasts.

Thread Giovanni Battista de' Cavalieri 1585 depiction of "Monsters from all parts of the ancient and modern world", roughly corresponding to a depiction of Wewe Gombel, a spirit of the Indonesian folklore. This is a black and white print of Wewe Gombel. She is a naked woman, with cloven hoofs, who is wearing her boobs like a feather boa. Both breasts droop to the floor and she has wrapped them around her upper arms, like a fox stole. She has long, clawed nails, and wiry hair that is standing on end. She is outside somewhere. Considering what she’s gone through, she looks quite serene.
Wewe Gombel, or “Hantu Kopek" as she’s known in Malaysia, has a complicated legend. It is said that in life, she married the man of her dreams, but they never had children because she was infertile.
Her husband grew resentful and began shagging around. One day, Wewe Gombel caught her husband in bed with another woman. She flew into a rage & killed him.
Read 6 tweets
Jul 22, 2023
July 22nd is the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene in the Christian faith. Much has been made of who Mary was, but she almost certainly wasn’t a sex worker. That story came about in 591, when Pope Gregory I got his Marys muddled.

Thread Saint Mary Magdalene by Guido Reni. An oil painting dating to 1620 of Mary Magdalene. Saint Mary Magdalene is here depicted with eyes raised heavenward, a sign of her devotion and penance. She has pale skin and long blonde, curly hair. She must have her curly girl method down, because those curls are amazing. She has on a red cloak that she clutches at her chest. The background is nondescript and dark. She has that pained, eyes to heaven look so many saints are fond of.
Mary Magdalene, (who debuts in Luke 8:2) was mixed up with with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39), and the anonymous "sinful woman" who washed Jesus's feet in Luke 7:36–50.
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Read 9 tweets
Mar 31, 2023
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🧵 A black and white woodcut print of Mary Carleton. Below her
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These reports say Mary married a shoemaker called Thomas Stedman, who she eventually left to marry a surgeon called Thomas Day. Her first arrest and trial was for bigamy.
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Jan 26, 2023
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Thread A black and white photograph of a young white woman, in a lo
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As a teenager she became deeply religious & at 21 she went to Philadelphia to become a postulant at the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart Convent
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