Sofonisba Anguissola, a Painter and a Lady-in-Waiting

Relying on primary source documents, Cecilia Gamberini outlines the reality of Sofonisba Anguissola’s experiences in the Household of Queen Isabel of Valois following the artist’s appointment to the Spanish court in 1559. Anguissola’s position is generally credited to her two roles there: painter and lady-in-waiting. The author argues that while Anguissola’s appointment was due in part to her remarkable painted self-representations, it was also facilitated by a largely overlooked network of familial contacts and the political climate of the time. Analyses of Anguissola’s behaviour in the Queen’s Household also offers a glimpse into the young woman’s personality, which was at times irreverent and rebellious, and the opportunity for new attributions.

“Researching Starsky and Hutch is exquisite torture”

This paper reflects on work-in-progress on archived media fans’ letterzines of the 1970s and 1980s. Growing out of the science fiction APA fanzine scene, letterzines collect letters of comment (LOCs) between female fans and capture conversations about their television viewing. Zines from this period go beyond science fiction and include fandoms for cop shows such as Starsky & Hutch (ABC, 1975–1979) and Simon & Simon (CBS, 1981–1989). Letterzines, which have not typically been used as a source for exploring women’s television history, contain a range of information of interest to historians: interpretations of character and narrative, reports on fan conventions and meet-ups, and discussions of how women related to contemporary television at a time when VCRs started to saturate the domestic market. These primary source documents can potentially nuance assumptions about what women watched, their views on the programmes, and the contexts in which they watched.

Overcoming and Denial: Disability and Modern Dance in the United States

Dancers and choreographers have always been navigating disability within an ableist representational form. This article questions the ableist histories of modern dance in the United States and seeks to redefine how disability is conceived of within the field of dance. The article explores five themes found within archival research, including overcoming narratives, symbiotic and inseparability of dance and disability, denial of disability, changing choreographic practices, and disability aesthetics. Examples of these themes are found in primary source documents about and by Martha Graham, Ted Shawn, and Doris Humphrey and contextualized throughout the article with dance and disability studies theorization.

Green, James N., Victoria Langland, and Lilia Moritz Schwarz, editors. The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke UP, 2019

The editors have produced a significantly revised compendium that introduces Brazil and its major themes and events through primary source documents in translation. The new edition boasts welcome advancements, especially in its heavily revamped selections for reading, its expanded expert commentary, and its updated organization.

“The Yankees, Señor General, Are Not Like Us:” Vallejo, Bancroft, and the Construction of California History

This article explores the relationship between Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vallejo was one of the most important contributors to Bancroft’s massive History of California. He entrusted to Bancroft thirty-six volumes of primary source documents and his own five-volume manuscript on California history. He also encouraged other Californios to share their own family documents with Bancroft and to provide oral histories of the Mexican era. Vallejo believed that he was working in partnership with Bancroft, who would in turn compose a sensitive and community-based account of pre-U.S. California. But Vallejo was deeply upset about Bancroft’s finished product, which he believed deliberately suppressed the Hispanic contribution. The conflict between Vallejo and Bancroft lays bare a series of issues revolving around inclusion, omission, and the nature of historical authority that have remained crucial in the construction of Western history.