Love by the Sackful

November 06, 2023

Dorian Cole, WPAMC '24 It hurts to be a mother. My own mother told me that women forget the pain of childbirth. How else, she asked, would we ever be convinced to do it again? Pain can be hard to remember, but blurry memories turn sharp in other ways. How do you hold a memory without cutting yourself on its edges? The things that hurt us hurt to think about even years removed from them, even across generations. When we do remember our pain, we often ...

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The Water is Just Fine: The Roman Baths and The Grand Tour

October 30, 2023

Laini Farrare, WPAMC '24 Figure 1: The Roman Baths. Photo by author. Bath, England is well known for its illustrious architecture (featuring native Bath stone), its famous streetscape, and of course the Roman Baths. The Baths, also known as Aquae Sulis, are an archeological marvel, consist of traditional Roman bathing pools sourced from a natural hot spring. The Baths are also remnants of a temple dedicated to the Roman goddess, Minerva. Upon my ...

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“Smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive”: Tallow candles in the museum

October 23, 2023

Em Dombrovskaya, WPAMC '24 As we visited museums concerned with the daily lives of people in the past on our British Design History trip, I started taking note of the investment museums are making in multi-sensory experiences of the home. In many cases this means the presence and interpretation of tallow candles. Tallow candles have been made by rendering animal fat within the home at least since the existence of the Roman Empire. Beeswax candles were ...

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Getting Stone(d) in Bath: When a Natural Resource Gains Heritage Status

October 17, 2023

Becca Lo Presti, WPAMC '24 Figure 1: The glass wall of the new Bath Spa reflects the iconic Bath Stone from nearby buildings while also asserting the contemporary date of the construction. The city of Bath in the UK has an almost jarringly yellow look (fig.1). For over a millenia, the built environment of this UNESCO-designated heritage site has been synonymous with a particular type of pale yellow local limestone (of the Great Oolite Group for the ...

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