hark! from the tombs a doleful sound

amateur shirtvestigator

[fromthetombs]

John Torrington ~ The Terror-ish | Theater face art, Face reference theater, Theater face drawing

May 29, 2026 — A series of five stylized human faces arranged in a row, each with distinct facial expressions and features. The faces are de

[seaglassandeelgrass]

Songs of textile mills and workers.

Cover image is a 1911 Lewis Hine photograph of Magnolia Cotton Mills spinning room.

Down on the Merrimack River- Si Kahn

The Factory Girl’s Come-All-Ye- Diane Taraz

Boston Town- Della Mae

Doffing Mistress- Jackie Oates

Granite Mills- Cordelia’s Dad

Four Loom Weavers- Maddy Prior & June Tabor

The Mill Was Made of Marble- Magpie

Babies in the Mill- The South Carolina Broadcasters

Spinning Room Blues- Mike Seeger

Give Me That Textile Workers Union- Joe Glazer

Cotton Mill Colic- Pete Seeger

The Mill Mother’s Song- Yvonne Moore & Mat Callahan

Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine- Peggy Seeger

Cotton Mill Girls- New Harmony Sisterhood Band

Weave Room Blues- Sheri Bauer-Mayorga

Hard Times in the Mill- House of Mercy Band

Bread and Roses- Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco

Aragon Mill- Amythyst Kiah

18 tracks; 51 mins. [Spotify]

[my other playlists]

[roundtriptojupiter]

the fact that for 150+ years the owner of the peglar papers has been subject to rigorous debate and it was pretty well acknowledged that it probably wasn’t peglar and now we know with certainty that it was actually peglar the whole time, just wearing someone else’s clothes, is SO FUNNY—

[alongblank]

“Some very hard ground to heave”: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror | Polar Record | Cambridge Core

“Some very hard ground to heave”: DNA identification of Harry Peglar, Captain of the Foretop, HMS Terror - Volume 62

The Polar Record paper about the identification of Harry Peglar is up now!

[roaldamundsen]

Four sailors from doomed Franklin expedition identified through DNA

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have identified the remains of four more crew members of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition

HELLO

[i-am-countess-olivia]

I’m so psyched for @alongblank being credited in this research 🎉🎉🎉 Congrats pal!

[alongblank]

Thanks!

Looks like the cat's finally out of the bag! Last year I was able to assist in identifying 4 (FOUR?!?) members of the Franklin expedition! I researched Bridgens, Young, Orren, and Peglar, and was able to find and contact living descendants of their families who agreed to do DNA tests!

The paper about the three from Erebus is live online in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The second about Peglar is with the Polar Record and should hopefully be coming soon today! And I'll have something up on my blog about it soon, too!

[fromthetombs]

We had a collage zine program at the library where I work and I knew what I had to do

(made from a children's "weird facts" book, a National Geographic, almost an entire Jeep ad from said National Geographic, a quilting magazine and a striped swimsuit from the Land's End catalog)

[fromthetombs]

so I finally got a chance to make the Ridiculous Thing

[graveyardrabbit]

shoutout to the funniest match-up of street names

[fromthetombs]

@castinglotspod

[fromthetombs]

So I was tracking down an unsourced image for a Shirtvestigations Sidebar post and LOOK WHAT I FOUND Y'ALL

"RARE Watermen's Shirt & Trousers, 1827" listed at Meg-Andrews.com

Shirt: Of roller printed blue and white cotton, typical T shape with squarish deep collar with two small mother of pearl buttons, the back slightly curved, the front opening with a further three mother of pearl buttons and buttonholes, above tight gathering,  gathered dropped shoulders with underarm insets (for movement), the deep cuffs with a  Dorset buton and a  mother of pearl button to the other cuff, lower side slits with inset panel, the back slightly longer than the front, all hand sewn.

It's 20 years too early, too wide/dark of a stripe and not quite the right width and shape of bib but that's all minutiae

This is the closest extant garment I have EVER seen to the Torrington Burial Shirt and it's almost exactly the construction I've hypothesized!!!

[fromthetombs]

So we don't know for sure where Torrington worked as a stoker before he joined the Navy, but a textile mill is a strong possibility! This video has some good shots of what that would've looked like, though the machinery in question is about 50 years after his time.

[fromthetombs]

he shovl

[fromthetombs]

"Fine Dark Stripe" by Rosemary Norman

[fromthetombs]

Here's a close-up of the Full Color Hair Photo! Under the cut as always for mummified body images.

Hair is at the top of the image, poking out of the kerchief.

[fromthetombs]

So my interlibrary loan on the first edition of Frozen In Time finally came through and I FINALLY got a good look at the exhumation photo where you can see Torrington's hair. And it's lighter than I thought! Owen Beattie and I do not have the same definition of "medium brown" okay

Anyway here's a pic I had lying around colored with the correct hair color

[fromthetombs]

No chilling winds, nor poisonous breath, can reach that healthful shore. Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, are felt and feared no more.

[fromthetombs]

I traced his signature for a Ridiculous Thing I Am Making and I thought y'all who follow this one-track blog might want it too

[fromthetombs]

he actually wasnt shoveling coal like. at all during the expedition so here's a properly dressed Petty Officer for once