Nostr notes by The Public Domain Review

Anton Seder’s The Animal in Decorative Art (1896) — an Art ...

2026-08-28T16:48:14Z

Anton Seder’s The Animal in Decorative Art (1896) — an Art Nouveau reference book full of elaborate ornamentation: winged dragons, chiseled hieroglyphs, warring sea creatures, and more... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/das-thier-in-der-decorativen-kunst/

Thai cat treatises — called “Tamra Maew” — pair ...

2026-08-16T11:46:31Z

Thai cat treatises — called “Tamra Maew” — pair illustrations of auspicious felines with poetic notes: one has “eyes like dewdrops on a lotus,” another’s are “lit like fireflies, applied liquid gold”. Pages of a fine 19th-century example here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tamra-maew/

Napoleon was born #onthisday in 1769. After the collapse of his ...

2026-08-15T11:46:23Z

Napoleon was born #onthisday in 1769. After the collapse of his empire in 1815, “le petit caporal” was imprisoned on St Helena, and while there started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/napoleons-englich-lessons #otd

For those that love things organised neatly — some pages from ...

2026-08-14T19:47:36Z

For those that love things organised neatly — some pages from The Illustrated Catalogue of Ornaments (1919).

More organised delight from the catalogue here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pages-from-an-illustrated-catalogue-of-period-ornaments-ca-1919

George Washington Williams' *History of the Negro Race in ...

2026-08-10T14:18:03Z

George Washington Williams' *History of the Negro Race in America* (1882–83), a work of millennial scope by a self-taught African-American historian:

Today is #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay. Here's "Two ...

2026-08-04T11:46:58Z

Today is #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay. Here's "Two Owls", a 1921 print by Dutch artist Julie de Graag.

Buy as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/two-owls

And more on the good work of owl conservation here: https://www.owls.org/

Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Young Daughter of the Picts, ca. ...

2026-08-03T19:47:59Z

Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Young Daughter of the Picts, ca. 1585.⠀⠀
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Available as a print from our online shop here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/a-young-daughter-of-the-picts

Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell — who died ...

2026-08-02T11:47:29Z

Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell — who died #onthisday in 1922 — goes to kiss his wife Mabel while she stands in one of his spectacular tetrahedral kites. See more of these wonderful creations (and the kiss realised) in our post here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-graham-bell-s-tetrahedral-kites-1903-9 #OTD

The great US novelist, short story writer, and poet Herman ...

2026-08-01T11:45:53Z

The great US novelist, short story writer, and poet Herman Melville was born #onthisday in 1819. His last long-form work was the epic poem Clarel, published in 1876 and coming in at a colossal 18,000 lines. @JWheelwrite explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-skeptical-pilgrim-melvilles-clarel #otd

"The Duck quaketh... The Wolf howleth" — from what many ...

2026-07-30T16:46:11Z

"The Duck quaketh... The Wolf howleth" — from what many consider to be the first picture book for children, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658). More in our essay here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/in-the-image-of-god-john-comenius-and-the-first-children-s-picture-book

Covers from Amauta, a Peruvian avant-garde literary magazine ...

2026-07-28T16:46:13Z

Covers from Amauta, a Peruvian avant-garde literary magazine (1926–30): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/amauta-covers/

Conversations with Walt Whitman (1895) — a short pamphlet of ...

2026-07-22T14:16:32Z

Conversations with Walt Whitman (1895) — a short pamphlet of conversations between Walt Whitman (in his last years) and the art critic and poet Sadakichi Hartmann. Read it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sadakichi-hartmann-conversations-with-walt-whitman

One of a set of three mushroom illustrations on our online shop: ...

2026-07-20T19:46:38Z

One of a set of three mushroom illustrations on our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/search/?q=mushrooms

From M. E. Descourtilz’s Atlas des champignons: comestibles, suspects et vénéneux (1827): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/atlas-des-champignons/

Before Cousteau, way before @Octonauts, explorer Eugen von ...

2026-07-14T16:46:30Z

Before Cousteau, way before @Octonauts, explorer Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez was bringing images of the undersea world to the surface, from his artist’s sketch pad inside a glass and steel diving bell: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/underwater-landscapes-of-eugen-von-ransonnet-villez

Dramatic scenes from the auto polo fad of the 1910s and 20s. ...

2026-07-10T16:45:51Z

Dramatic scenes from the auto polo fad of the 1910s and 20s. Reaching top speeds of 40mph, a driver would be accompanied by a malletman who would hold on to the side and attempt to hit a basketball toward the goal of the opposing team. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/auto-polo?utm_content=buffer6366b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Illustrations from Japanese fireworks catalogues (ca. 1880s) — ...

2026-07-04T16:46:10Z

Illustrations from Japanese fireworks catalogues (ca. 1880s) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-fireworks-cataloguesFireworks

#Fireworks appeared in Japan sometime around 1600 and were called hanabi — a combination of the kanji “fire” and “flower”.

Read the first edition pamphlet of Frederick Douglass' famous ...

2026-07-04T14:16:13Z

Read the first edition pamphlet of Frederick Douglass' famous 1852 “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?” speech. After he finished speaking there was “a universal burst of applause” and 700 copies of the pamphlet were subscribed to on the spot: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/frederick-douglass-fourth-july-speech #July4th

“In the whirlpool of modern life — The most difficult thing ...

2026-07-03T16:46:12Z

“In the whirlpool of modern life — The most difficult thing is to live alone”, declares an intertitle during the opening scene of Lonesome (1928), directed by Paul Fejos. Watch the full film here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/paul-fejos-lonesome/

#SundayReads: For more than half a millennium, the dance of death ...

2026-06-28T16:48:08Z

#SundayReads: For more than half a millennium, the dance of death in European visual art has imagined a tango between the quick and the dead. @AllisonCMeier explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/our-mortal-waltz-the-dance-of-death-across-centuries

🎶Wear celluloid collars and cuffs 🎶 🎶Of joy you'll ...

2026-06-26T16:47:18Z

🎶Wear celluloid collars and cuffs 🎶
🎶Of joy you'll have more than enough* 🎶

*As long as you'd enjoy turning into a frog, dancing to a banjo, and imitating William Tell's son.

More out-there 19th-century collar and cuff ads here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/wear-celluloid-collars-and-cuffs-ca-1870?utm_content=buffer802ae&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A few of the ethereal illustrations by Raffaele Mainella for ...

2026-06-24T19:48:32Z

A few of the ethereal illustrations by Raffaele Mainella for Clotilde Briatte’s Nos Invisibles (1907), a book that charts the voices of Balzac, Zola, Flaubert, and other illustrious writers and thinkers from beyond the grave. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/nos-invisibles

Happy (?) birthday Ambrose Bierce! The American journalist, born ...

2026-06-24T11:45:45Z

Happy (?) birthday Ambrose Bierce! The American journalist, born #onthisday in 1842, is best known for his satirical dictionary The Cynic’s Word Book also known as The Devil’s Dictionary. Read it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-cynic-s-word-book-1906 #otd

Happy Solstice! Here's the Sun putting on its best happy ...

2026-06-21T11:48:16Z

Happy Solstice! Here's the Sun putting on its best happy shining face for the special occasion, from the Splendor Solis, a 16th-century alchemical treatise.

More art from the history of alchemy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-surreal-art-of-alchemical-diagrams?utm_content=buffer0457a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
#SummerSolstice #Solstice #Midsummer #longestday

Pages from the wonderful History of Ink: Including its Etymology, ...

2026-06-17T19:46:49Z

Pages from the wonderful History of Ink: Including its Etymology, Chemistry and Bibliography (1860), creation of Thaddeus Davids and Co, one of the largest ink manufacturers of its day. See the rest here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-history-of-ink-including-its-etymology-chemistry-and-bibliography-1860

A step-by-step guide to drawing mice, from a 1913 book entitled ...

2026-06-16T19:46:58Z

A step-by-step guide to drawing mice, from a 1913 book entitled What to Draw and How to Draw it. More drawing instruction from this book, plus a 1935 follow-up by the same author, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/what-to-draw-and-how-to-draw-it-1913/

#OnThisDay in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge took this series of images ...

2026-06-15T11:46:37Z

#OnThisDay in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge took this series of images of a racehorse in motion. A former governor of California reportedly had bet on whether all the hooves were airborne at once, and hired Muybridge to settle the debate: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-attitudes-of-animals-in-motion-illustrated-with-the-zoopraxiscope-1882 #OTD

For #NationalPigeonDay, photographs taken by Dr Julius ...

2026-06-13T19:47:20Z

For #NationalPigeonDay, photographs taken by Dr Julius Neubronner’s ingenious "pigeon camera", circa 1908. More pics, and the story, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dr-julius-neubronner-s-miniature-pigeon-camera

Our Mid-Year Fundraiser is launched! ...

2026-06-09T16:48:14Z

Our Mid-Year Fundraiser is launched! https://publicdomainreview.org/support

If you like what we do, and want to see it continue, then please do lend your support. Available to donors, our themed postcard packs: upcoming theme on... SOIL. (Shown here a past pack, themed on Light)

"They were three months passing through the forest", an ...

2026-06-08T14:18:08Z

"They were three months passing through the forest", an illustration (for Old French Fairy Tales, 1920) by Virginia Frances Sterrett who died of tuberculosis #onthisday in 1931, at the age of just 30. See more of her magical illustrations here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/old-french-fairytales-illustrated-by-virginia-frances-sterrett-1920 #OTD

Japanese prints from 1873 depicting famous Western inventors and ...

2026-06-06T16:45:42Z

Japanese prints from 1873 depicting famous Western inventors and scholars in times of trouble. Pictured: Audubon (work eaten by mice), Carlyle (papers burnt), and Arkwright (spinning machine smashed by wife). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-prints-of-western-inventors-artists-and-scholars-1873

"General northward view, North Cape, Norway"; photochrom ...

2026-06-05T19:47:11Z

"General northward view, North Cape, Norway"; photochrom print published by Detroit Publishing Co., ca.1890-1900. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/landscape-and-marine-views-of-norway

For #WorldEnvironmentDay today, “A Bestiary of Loss” — ...

2026-06-05T11:48:06Z

For #WorldEnvironmentDay today, “A Bestiary of Loss” — images of 39 recently extinct animals and their stories, from the aurochs to the ivory-billed woodpecker: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/extinct-animals

.@James_J_Conway on Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering 1904 study ...

2026-05-30T16:47:00Z

.@James_J_Conway on Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering 1904 study of queer Berlin: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/out-on-the-town

Images from Eugène von Guérard's Australian Landscapes, a ...

2026-05-25T14:18:17Z

Images from Eugène von Guérard's Australian Landscapes, a series of 24 tinted lithographs published in 1867. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/eugene-von-guerard-s-australian-landscapes

In the 1980s, a suitcase marked “private” was found in a barn ...

2026-05-24T16:46:30Z

In the 1980s, a suitcase marked “private” was found in a barn near Oslo. Inside? Hundreds of playful, radical photos by the couple Marie Høeg and Bolette Berg — subversive visions of gender and sexuality in early 1900s Norway: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/berg-and-hoeg/

Joseph George Strutt's Sylva Britannica (1822), a ...

2026-05-20T19:47:28Z

Joseph George Strutt's Sylva Britannica (1822), a 19th-century exploration in etchings and words of British trees “distinguished for their antiquity, magnitude, or beauty” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sylva-britannica

For #WorldBeeDay 🐝 some late medieval specimens (ca.1440), ...

2026-05-20T11:46:28Z

For #WorldBeeDay 🐝 some late medieval specimens (ca.1440), from Tractatus de Herbis, a wonderful manuscript from northern Italy made to help apothecaries and physicians identify useful ingredients. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tractatus-de-herbis-ca-1440 @britishlibrary

From Abatina (fickleness) to Zinnia (thoughts of absent friends), ...

2026-05-14T19:47:24Z

From Abatina (fickleness) to Zinnia (thoughts of absent friends), and from Absence (wormwood) to Zest (Lemon), the marvellous Language of Flowers: An Alphabet of Floral Emblems (1857) pairs up hundreds of flowers with hundreds of emotions: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-language-of-flowers-an-alphabet-of-floral-emblems-1857

Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (ca. 1850) by Edwin ...

2026-05-14T11:47:33Z

Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (ca. 1850) by Edwin Landseer.

See our collection of art inspired by Shakespeare's plays, including works by William Blake, Henry Fuseli + George Cruikshank: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/shakespeare-in-art

George Mayerle's "international eye chart" (negative) ...

2026-05-10T19:45:29Z

George Mayerle's "international eye chart" (negative) ca. 1907.

Invented by an immigrant living in 20th-century San Fran, the chart was intended to allow anyone to do an eye test regardless of nationality.

Buy a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/george-mayerle

Illustration by Paul Krafft for the reverend William Schuler ...

2026-05-01T19:46:20Z

Illustration by Paul Krafft for the reverend William Schuler Harris’ Capital and Labor (1907), a treatise on the exploitation of workers by capitalism and the potential solutions in socialism. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/capital-and-labor/ #mayday

Emma Goldman addressing a rally at Union Square, New York, 1916. ...

2026-05-01T14:17:01Z

Emma Goldman addressing a rally at Union Square, New York, 1916. Read our essay on her unique brand of anarchism: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/emma-goldmans-anarchism-without-adjectives #MayDay

Happy #MayDay and #InternationalWorkersDay! This poster by Dutch ...

2026-05-01T11:47:38Z

Happy #MayDay and #InternationalWorkersDay! This poster by Dutch artist Jan Toorop was for the Hague's 1898 National Woman’s Labour Exhibition, which had the goal to improve women's wages and working conditions.

More posters from Toorop here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-salad-oil-style-of-jan-toorop

From 1903 to 1907 Augustus Jansson produced more than 30 striking ...

2026-04-29T19:46:33Z

From 1903 to 1907 Augustus Jansson produced more than 30 striking adverts for the Queen City Printing Ink Company, including the wonderful Ink Beasts Parade series, with its "Magenta Ponies" and "Orange-Yellow Ibexiaticus". More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/augustus-janssons-queen-city-ink-adverts-1903-1907

Reading for #InternationalDanceDay... @rkgar on the wonder that ...

2026-04-29T16:47:44Z

Reading for #InternationalDanceDay... @rkgar on the wonder that was Loie Fuller and her "serpentine dance": https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/loie-fuller-and-the-serpentine #InternationalDanceDay2022

Just TWO DAYS left to get 25% off our new PDR Press Minis: ...

2026-04-27T16:47:15Z

Just TWO DAYS left to get 25% off our new PDR Press Minis: beautiful pocket-sized editions of public domain texts. Pre-sale ends midnight (PST) on Wednesday April 29th.

Order here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/pdr-press-minis/

“So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress ...

2026-04-27T14:16:10Z

“So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between House of Have and House of Want, progress is not real” — Henry George, Poverty & Progress, 1879 https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/progress-and-poverty/

Lord Byron — who died #onthisday in 1824 — pictured on his ...

2026-04-19T11:47:37Z

Lord Byron — who died #onthisday in 1824 — pictured on his deathbed in a painting by Joseph Denis Odevaere. A month after Byron's passing, on 17th May 1824, his memoirs were burnt in the upstairs drawing room of a house in London: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/conversations-with-lord-byron-1824 #OTD

In May 1725, Dutch sailor Leendert Hasenbosch was abandoned on a ...

2026-04-17T14:17:49Z

In May 1725, Dutch sailor Leendert Hasenbosch was abandoned on a remote island for having relations with another man. The following Jan. a ship came and found a diary (w/ entries till Oct.) but no sign of a body. It was soon published as Sodomy Punish’d: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sodomy-punished/

Born #onthisday in 1889, Charlie Chaplin! Watch his very first ...

2026-04-16T11:46:51Z

Born #onthisday in 1889, Charlie Chaplin! Watch his very first film appearance in Making a Living (1914) in which he plays a lady-charming swindler, Edgar English, who runs afoul of the Keystone Kops: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/making-a-living-1914 #OTD

This wonderful 1805 book exposes the reality behind various ...

2026-04-13T11:47:12Z

This wonderful 1805 book exposes the reality behind various tricks and illusions of the day, beginning with arguably the most enigmatic of the tricks listed, that of the “Learned Pig”, or as the excellent frontispiece refers to it “The Pig of Knowledge”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-expositor-or-many-mysteries-unravelled-including-that-of-the-learned-pig-1805?utm_content=buffer7f853&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

In these stunning chromolithographs from 1851, Jean Baptiste ...

2026-04-10T14:18:15Z

In these stunning chromolithographs from 1851, Jean Baptiste Vérany realizes his ambition — to accurately render “the suppleness of the flesh, the grace of the contours, the transparency and the coloring” of cephalopods: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/verany-cephalopods

Born #onthisday in 1830, Eadweard Muybridge. Celebrate with a ...

2026-04-09T14:18:08Z

Born #onthisday in 1830, Eadweard Muybridge. Celebrate with a look at his 1882 lecture on his groundbreaking research into animal locomotion: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-attitudes-of-animals-in-motion-illustrated-with-the-zoopraxiscope-1882 #otd

#OnThisDay in 1815, Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted: the ...

2026-04-05T11:46:11Z

#OnThisDay in 1815, Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted: the most powerful in human recorded history. As well as killing 71,000, it led to Europe's "Year Without Summer", climate refugees, and the creation of Shelley's Frankenstein... https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/frankenstein-the-baroness-and-the-climate-refugees-of-1816 #otd

In the early 16th century Albrecht Durer produced 6 woodcuts of ...

2026-04-03T11:47:09Z

In the early 16th century Albrecht Durer produced 6 woodcuts of knot patterns, likely inspired by Mamluk decorative metalwork. Each knot is a group of intricately entwined infinity loops made up of repeating patterns that follow circular paths: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/durer-knots/

Nikolai Agnivtsev’s Little Screw (1925) — a Soviet ...

2026-04-02T16:46:47Z

Nikolai Agnivtsev’s Little Screw (1925) — a Soviet children’s book about a modest factory screw whose importance is overlooked. Read on our site, and also watch a 1927 animated version of the story: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/little-screw/

Banana Tree Flower with Io Moth, by Maria Sibylla Merian — who ...

2026-04-02T11:47:26Z

Banana Tree Flower with Io Moth, by Maria Sibylla Merian — who was born #onthisday in 1647.

From her pioneering Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (Insects of Suriname), first published in 1705.

See more prints by her in our online prints shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/maria-sibylla-merian

Happy #WorldPoetryDay! Explore our essays on poetry themes, ...

2026-03-21T12:48:11Z

Happy #WorldPoetryDay! Explore our essays on poetry themes, including pieces on John Milton, Walt Whitman, G.M. Hopkins, A.C. Swinburne, Lewis Carroll, and Phillis Wheatley: https://publicdomainreview.org/essays/category/poetry

For the first day of spring ... the glorious print of tulips from ...

2026-03-20T20:46:14Z

For the first day of spring ... the glorious print of tulips from Robert John Thornton's stunning “Temple of Flora” (1807): https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/search/?q=thornton

Read more about the Thornton's work here in Martin Kemp's essay here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sex-and-science-in-robert-thornton-s-temple-of-flora

NEW ESSAY — “Fear and Fragility: The Glass Delusion and Its ...

2026-03-19T15:52:37Z

NEW ESSAY — “Fear and Fragility: The Glass Delusion and Its History” — In early modern Europe, patients started appearing in medical records with a particular ailment: a firm belief that they were made of glass. Tamara Sanderson explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/fear-and-fragility-the-glass-delusion-and-its-history/

The Lord's Prayer in what is now known as Plains Indian Sign ...

2026-03-19T12:48:25Z

The Lord's Prayer in what is now known as Plains Indian Sign Language or Plains Sign Talk — a sign language that operated as a lingua franca between tribes across N. America. From Lewis Francis Hadley's Indian Sign Talk (1893). More in our latest post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/indian-sign-talk

At the height of the US postcard craze, “tall-tale” cards ...

2026-03-11T17:46:29Z

At the height of the US postcard craze, “tall-tale” cards often imagined a land of giant-sized plenty. In this 1909 series, Californian rail cars haul colossal fruit and veg — turning agricultural pride into something surreal and strangely beautiful: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/giant-produce-postcards/

#OnThisDay in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was 1st ...

2026-03-11T12:47:55Z

#OnThisDay in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was 1st published. It's not been out of print since. Read Sharon Ruston on the scientific background to the novel incl. contemporary investigations into the possibility of states between life and death: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein #otd

Electrical Light in Rarefied Gas, by M. Rapine, from French ...

2026-03-10T17:47:34Z

Electrical Light in Rarefied Gas, by M. Rapine, from French science writer Amédée Guillemin’s Les phénomènes de la physique (1868).⠀⁠
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See more wonderful images from Guillemin’s physics books on our site — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/optics-illustrations-from-the-physics-textbooks-of-amedee-guillemin-1868-1882 https://twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1359629681641852936/photo/1

For #NationalNappingDay (which was yesterday, seems we slept ...

2026-03-10T12:48:12Z

For #NationalNappingDay (which was yesterday, seems we slept through it...) a Danny Tipsmark Blaabjerg (npub1hh6…9v9t) paper from ca. 1698 describing the bizarre case of a man who would periodically fall into a “profound sleep” from which no-one could wake him for months at a time: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-relation-of-an-extraordinary-sleepy-person-ca-1698

Celebrate #WorldBookDay with a look at some of the most beautiful ...

2026-03-05T17:45:37Z

Celebrate #WorldBookDay with a look at some of the most beautiful and unusual examples from the first 100 years of the “modern” book cover, since the rise of publishers' bindings circa 1820: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-art-of-book-covers-1820-1914

A few of the 53 "potted landscapes" made for each of the ...

2026-03-04T17:46:28Z

A few of the 53 "potted landscapes" made for each of the stations of the Tōkaidō road, the most important route in Edo-period Japan. After they were made the artist had a relatively obscure ukiyo-e artist named Utagawa Yoshishige to illustrate them: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/53-stations-of-the-tokaido-as-potted-landscapes-1848

Javanese artist Raden Soelardi’s elegant 1919 illustrations of ...

2026-03-03T15:16:12Z

Javanese artist Raden Soelardi’s elegant 1919 illustrations of the shadow puppetry form known as wayang kulit: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/javanese-shadow-puppets/

In the days after the devastating 1855 Edo earthquake, a new ...

2026-02-18T15:16:37Z

In the days after the devastating 1855 Edo earthquake, a new genre of artwork flourished amid the rubble, a remarkable range of prints featuring the rascal-like figure of Namazu, a giant catfish who caused the earth to shake with its underground writhing: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/earthquakes-in-japanese-woodblock-prints/

This unique self-portrait, also known as “view from the left ...

2026-02-18T12:46:35Z

This unique self-portrait, also known as “view from the left eye”, is the creation of Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (famous for his work on supersonic fluid mechanics), who was born #onthisday in 1838. Read more about the image here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/self-portrait-by-ernst-mach-1886 #OTD

A few of the stunning illustrations from a 16th-century treatise ...

2026-02-12T20:46:20Z

A few of the stunning illustrations from a 16th-century treatise on comets — known as The Comet Book — created anonymously in Flanders (now northern France).

More info and images from the book here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-comet-book

Born #onthisday in 1809, Abraham Lincoln. Pictured here: a detail ...

2026-02-12T12:48:30Z

Born #onthisday in 1809, Abraham Lincoln. Pictured here: a detail featuring Lincoln's contribution to a unique + brilliant project begun in 1856 by a 17-yr-old girl from Rhode Island named Adeline Harris Sears — a quilt made of 360+ celeb autographs: https://buff.ly/2VnkM0L #otd

From James Sowerby's British Mineralogy (1802–1817). ...

2026-02-10T17:47:51Z

From James Sowerby's British Mineralogy (1802–1817).

Despite his scientific leanings, Sowerby was first and foremost an artist, adept in describing and demonstrating how complex questions of perspective, scale, and color functioned in individual objects: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sowerby-mineralogy

Illustrations from William F. Warren's The Universe as ...

2026-02-10T15:17:19Z

Illustrations from William F. Warren's The Universe as Pictured in Milton’s Paradise Lost (1915). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-universe-as-pictured-in-miltons-paradise-lost

Caroline Shawk Brooks (1840–1913) — also known as “The ...

2026-02-06T17:48:10Z

Caroline Shawk Brooks (1840–1913) — also known as “The Butter Woman” or the “Centennial Butter Sculptress” — was famous for her sculptures fashioned entirely out of.... yes, butter. More here: https://buff.ly/2fb9wOE

Murderous pigs sent to the gallows, sparrows prosecuted for ...

2026-02-05T17:47:23Z

Murderous pigs sent to the gallows, sparrows prosecuted for chattering in church, a gang of thieving rats let off on a wholly technical acquittal — Nicholas Humphrey explores the strange world of medieval animal trials: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/bugs-and-beasts-before-the-law?utm_content=buffer0fbd0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Yaggy's Geographical Study (1887) is a set of elaborate ...

2026-02-04T15:18:20Z

Yaggy's Geographical Study (1887) is a set of elaborate large-scale maps for children, some of which reveal extra details via flaps fastened by metal latches and lighting from behind. See the post on our website: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/yaggy-geographical-maps

125 photographs of life in Palestine before the British Mandate, ...

2026-02-04T12:47:34Z

125 photographs of life in Palestine before the British Mandate, ca. 1896–1919: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-palestinian-life

Pages from a 1902 issue of Shin-Bijutsukai (New Oceans of Art), a ...

2026-02-03T20:46:27Z

Pages from a 1902 issue of Shin-Bijutsukai (New Oceans of Art), a design magazine produced at a watershed in Japanese publishing history: when pattern books became standalone works of art: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-designs-1902

The medieval "Egg Dance", as depicted by Pieter Brueghel ...

2026-02-03T12:46:16Z

The medieval "Egg Dance", as depicted by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, ca. 1620.

More on the egg dance here:https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-egg-dance-from-peasant-village-to-political-caricature

One of the many wonderful illustrations to be found in an 1837 ...

2026-02-02T15:16:34Z

One of the many wonderful illustrations to be found in an 1837 "caterpillar calendar", an entomological volume by the aptly named Christian Friedrich Vogel outlining which caterpillars appear each month. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/images-from-german-caterpillar-calendar-1837?utm_content=buffer35096&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer (from @BioDivLibrary & @SILibraries)

Albrecht Dürer’s Pillow Studies (1493) — Completed in his ...

2026-01-29T20:48:22Z

Albrecht Dürer’s Pillow Studies (1493) — Completed in his early twenties, the work seems to slip between the waking world and the stuff of dreams... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/durer-pillow-studies

Agnes Giberne's The Story of the Sun, Moon, and Stars (1898) ...

2026-01-28T15:16:09Z

Agnes Giberne's The Story of the Sun, Moon, and Stars (1898) transports us to the most remote astral bodies, but also quickens every reader’s lost seven-year-old sensibility that the universe was made to be brought within one’s humble yet unbounded reach: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/story-of-sun-moon-stars

#Onthisday in 1640, Robert Burton passed away in his chambers at ...

2026-01-25T15:15:29Z

#Onthisday in 1640, Robert Burton passed away in his chambers at Christ Church, Oxford, rumoured to the result of suicide by hanging. Learn more about his great masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy in @nogaarikha's essay "As a Lute out of Tune": https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/as-a-lute-out-of-tune-robert-burtons-melancholy #otd

A few of the 350+ slides used by theosophist and meteorologist ...

2026-01-22T15:17:06Z

A few of the 350+ slides used by theosophist and meteorologist Clement Lindley Wragge in various magic lantern lectures, with titles like: “A Voyage through the Universe” (1902), and “The Endless Universe and Eternal Life” (1918–22). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/wragge-lantern-slides/

France in 2000, as envisaged in 1899. Some tech is wonderfully ...

2026-01-20T20:46:47Z

France in 2000, as envisaged in 1899. Some tech is wonderfully prescient: we've versions of Zoom, a vacuum cleaner, drone deliveries. Other visions less so, particularly those anticipating a life beneath the waves, of underwater croquet + whale buses... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vision-of-the-year-2000/

José Guadalupe Posada, the artist who'd become most ...

2026-01-20T12:48:11Z

José Guadalupe Posada, the artist who'd become most associated with the Day of the Dead, had his very own day of death #onthisday in 1913. He was best known for his "calaveras", highly politicised illustrations featuring skulls and skeletons: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-calaveras-of-jose-guadalupe-posada #otd

Pages from Master of Claude de France’s Book of Flower Studies ...

2026-01-19T15:18:57Z

Pages from Master of Claude de France’s Book of Flower Studies (ca. 1510–1515), including some delightful play with scale. From the @metmuseum.

More in our post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/book-of-flower-studies/

Died #onthisday in 1834, Giovanni Aldini, the Italian ...

2026-01-17T15:18:08Z

Died #onthisday in 1834, Giovanni Aldini, the Italian "galvanist" whose experiments in animating the muscles of the dead with electricity inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Read more in our essay by Sharon Ruston: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein

Born #onthisday in 1574, the great occult philosopher Robert ...

2026-01-17T12:47:03Z

Born #onthisday in 1574, the great occult philosopher Robert Fludd. Pictured here his image of the "spiritual brain". More about the man and his philosophy in our essay by Urszula Szulakowska: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/robert-fludd-and-his-images-of-the-divine #otd

Uncharacteristically ominous title card from The Sky, a wonderful ...

2026-01-16T17:46:24Z

Uncharacteristically ominous title card from The Sky, a wonderful educational film from 1928 looking at the wonders of the night sky to be seen through a telescope, including constellations, the moon, the planets, and the sun. Watch it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-sky-a-film-lesson-in-nature-study-1928

Inventor Robert Pittis Scott's Cycling Art, Energy, and ...

2026-01-14T17:46:44Z

Inventor Robert Pittis Scott's Cycling Art, Energy, and Locomotion (1889) offers a whimsical and illustrated tour through the previous century of “man-motor locomotion” including a second half dedicated to unusual patents: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cycling-art

Susan Schulten explores the pioneering work of Emma Willard ...

2026-01-13T17:47:55Z

Susan Schulten explores the pioneering work of Emma Willard (1787–1870), a leading feminist educator whose innovative maps of time laid the groundwork for the charts and infographics of today: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/emma-willard-maps-of-time

A few of the 80+ illustrations by Pauline Knip for Les Pigeons ...

2026-01-07T20:48:22Z

A few of the 80+ illustrations by Pauline Knip for Les Pigeons (1810), a publication mired in controversy. See our post for more of the stunning images, and a story of plagiarism, power, pretence and... pigeons: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/les-pigeons

These rebus-style Buddhist texts were made for illiterate people. ...

2026-01-06T17:47:21Z

These rebus-style Buddhist texts were made for illiterate people. Each picture, when sounded out in Japanese, would approximate the Classical Chinese syllables in which the sutra or hymn should be recited. More here: https://buff.ly/3reC8vg

Born #onthisday in 1832, the French illustrator Gustave Doré. ...

2026-01-06T12:46:00Z

Born #onthisday in 1832, the French illustrator Gustave Doré. Pictured is the “The New Zealander”, the last of Doré's plates for London: A Pilgrimage (1872) in which he depicts a distant traveller from New Zealand sketching the ruins of a future London: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dore-new-zealander

As many embark boldly (and perhaps temporarily) on brand new gym ...

2026-01-05T15:17:23Z

As many embark boldly (and perhaps temporarily) on brand new gym memberships, here's a look at where it all started: the workout machines of the 19th century: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/zander-gym

Born #onthisday in 1785, Jacob Grimm, the elder of the famous ...

2026-01-04T12:47:54Z

Born #onthisday in 1785, Jacob Grimm, the elder of the famous folklorist brothers. Read Jack Zipes' essay exploring the importance of the neglected first edition of their Kinder-und Hausmärchen and what it tells us about their motives and passions: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-forgotten-tales-of-the-brothers-grimm #otd

The Book of the Homeless (1916) was a collection of essays, art, ...

2026-01-03T15:17:02Z

The Book of the Homeless (1916) was a collection of essays, art, poetry, and musical scores, edited by Edith Wharton, whose profits were used to fund civilians displaced by WWI. Including works by Conrad, Monet, Yeats, Cocteau, and Rodin (pictured here) https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-book-of-the-homeless-1916?utm_content=buffer0a282&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

New year's resolution to do more exercise? A business man? ...

2026-01-02T15:16:27Z

New year's resolution to do more exercise? A business man? Then this 1917 book, Physical Training for Business Men, may be the perfect January read. (And for everyone else, you can just look at the spellbinding photos). More here: https://buff.ly/3pJoD46