Nostr notes by The Public Domain Review

Depiction of Bael, “the first king of hell”, with the head of ...

2026-10-31T19:48:28Z

Depiction of Bael, “the first king of hell”, with the head of a toad, a man, and a cat — one of the many illustrations by Louis le Breton for the 1863 edition of Jacques Collin de Plancy’s "Dictionnaire infernal". More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/defining-the-demonic/

Paddleboarding witch, 1643. Featured in Jon Crabb's essay ...

2026-10-31T16:48:36Z

Paddleboarding witch, 1643.

Featured in Jon Crabb's essay "Woodcuts and Witches" about the witch craze of early modern Europe, and how the concurrent rise of the mass-produced woodcut helped forge the archetype of the broom-riding crone so familiar today https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/woodcuts-and-witches

Happy All Hallows Eve! See our selection of Halloween postcards, ...

2026-10-31T11:46:51Z

Happy All Hallows Eve! See our selection of Halloween postcards, ca. 1900-1920. Hobgoblins, joyous skeletons, and truly terrifying gourds... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/halloween-postcards/ #halloween

Some of the many wonderful shapeshifting "monsters" from ...

2026-10-30T19:48:04Z

Some of the many wonderful shapeshifting "monsters" from Japanese folklore featured on a painted scroll known as the Bakemono zukushi (18th or 19th century). See more here of its ghoulish delights here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-bakemono-zukushi-monster-scroll-18th-19th-century

Looking for some Halloween costume inspo? Some first-rate ideas ...

2026-10-29T16:46:11Z

Looking for some Halloween costume inspo? Some first-rate ideas in this 18th-century demonology book: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/compendium-of-demonology-and-magic-ca-1775/ #halloween

Book from 1911 showing that taking photos of cats and furnishing ...

2026-10-29T11:47:16Z

Book from 1911 showing that taking photos of cats and furnishing them with an amusing caption is far from being a phenomenon born with the internet. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kittens-and-cats-a-first-reader-1911-cats-and-captions-before-the-internet-age #NationalCatDay

An automaton fuelled by tomes of newly available knowledge sweeps ...

2026-10-28T11:45:48Z

An automaton fuelled by tomes of newly available knowledge sweeps away the old society. No, not a self-portrait by ChatGPT in the style of a Georgian satirical print, but one of several “March of Intellect” cartoons published ca. 1828: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/march-of-the-intellect

"Photographing the Dark: Nadar’s Descent into the Paris ...

2026-10-27T19:47:06Z

"Photographing the Dark: Nadar’s Descent into the Paris Catacombs", @AllisonCMeier on Nadar’s determined efforts (involving Bunsen batteries, mannequins, and a good deal of patience) to document the beauty and terror of this realm of the dead: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/photographing-the-dark-nadars-descent-into-the-paris-catacombs

Perhaps the tenderest depictions of Krishna and his beloved ...

2026-10-27T16:46:05Z

Perhaps the tenderest depictions of Krishna and his beloved Rādhā are those showing the pair dressed in each other’s clothes: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/krishna-and-radha-exchanging-clothes/

Illuminations by Evrard d'Espinque for a circa 1480 French ...

2026-10-22T14:16:44Z

Illuminations by Evrard d'Espinque for a circa 1480 French translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' 13th-century De Proprietatibus Rerum. More marvellous maps from the manuscript here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/despinque-anglicus-illuminations

Polish composer and virtuoso pianist #Chopin died #onthisday in ...

2026-10-17T11:48:17Z

Polish composer and virtuoso pianist #Chopin died #onthisday in 1849 aged just 39. He was buried to the tune of his very own “Funeral March”... one of the 1st recordings of which you can listen to here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/chopin-s-funeral-march-the-edison-concert-band-1906 #OTD

Geographical Fun (1868), a series of fantastic anthropomorphic ...

2026-10-16T19:48:21Z

Geographical Fun (1868), a series of fantastic anthropomorphic maps of European countries, drawn by an unnamed 15-year-old girl who had the idea for the novel maps "when seeking to amuse a brother confined to his bed by illness": https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/geographical-fun-being-humourous-outlines-of-various-countries-1868

Between 1905 and 1911, the sheet music covers of Gotham-Attucks ...

2026-10-16T14:15:53Z

Between 1905 and 1911, the sheet music covers of Gotham-Attucks Co. — a song-publisher managed by some of the most famous Black writers and performers of the day — revolutionised how Black popular music was shown to the public: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/gotham-attucks/ #BlackHistoryMonth

Sketches in Bedlam (1823) — a book gathering together glimpses ...

2026-10-13T11:46:59Z

Sketches in Bedlam (1823) — a book gathering together glimpses into the personalities and stories of more than 140 mental patients confined to the Bethlem Hospital in the early part of the 19th century: http://buff.ly/1olkDH0

Front cover to Flatland (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott, who died ...

2026-10-12T11:46:33Z

Front cover to Flatland (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott, who died #onthisday in 1926. Read Ian Stewart's introduction to the strange tale of A. Square's geometric adventures, the first ever book that could be described as “mathematical fiction” https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/aspiring-to-a-higher-plane #otd

Illustrations from Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom ...

2026-10-10T19:45:58Z

Illustrations from Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (1909) by Gerald Thayer and his father Abbott Handerson Thayer — an exposition on camouflage that believes all animal coloration is an attempt to blend in. See the post on our website: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/concealing-coloration

Were public toilet walls the @Twitter of the 18th century? ...

2026-10-10T16:46:36Z

Were public toilet walls the @Twitter of the 18th century? Maximillian Novak on how a little-known book of “latrinalia” offers a unique and fascinating window into Georgian life: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/tales-from-the-boghouse

One of the first books to be banned and burnt in the New World ...

2026-10-10T14:16:30Z

One of the first books to be banned and burnt in the New World was by an ancestor of the author Thomas Pynchon. More in our essay by Daniel Crown “The Price of Suffering”: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-price-of-suffering-william-pynchon-and-the-meritorious-price-of-our-redemption

It's easy enough to identify the three protagonists as Adam, ...

2026-10-09T16:45:32Z

It's easy enough to identify the three protagonists as Adam, Eve and the Devil, but what are they doing in the water? A peculiar representation of the Temptation? Sarah Toulouse from @BibChampsLibres explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-other-lives-of-adam-and-eve

Divide and concur — this radical plan from 1920, for ...

2026-10-08T14:17:08Z

Divide and concur — this radical plan from 1920, for "lasting peace" after WW1, proposed uniting central Europe into 24 wedge-shaped cantons which would radiate out from Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/unionization-of-central-europe/

A seemingly modern moment of abstraction in a medieval ...

2026-10-07T16:47:35Z

A seemingly modern moment of abstraction in a medieval manuscript, representing silence as a yellow rectangle: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/yellow-silence-miniature-from-the-silos-apocalypse/

“And when he opened the 7th seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour”

(Silos Apocalypse, BL Add MS 11695)

These 1920s costumes for dancing — more sculpture than clothing ...

2026-10-07T14:17:47Z

These 1920s costumes for dancing — more sculpture than clothing — by the avant-garde couple Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt, were born of an artistic philosophy of suffering: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tanzmasken

#OnThisDay in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe passed away under mysterious ...

2026-10-07T11:47:30Z

#OnThisDay in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe passed away under mysterious circumstances. Of all the artists who gave life to Poe's macabre tales over the years, perhaps none captured them quite so brilliantly as the Irish artist Harry Clarke: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/harry-clarke-s-illustrations-for-poe-s-tales-of-mystery-and-imagination-1919 #OTD #EdgarAllanPoe

Over 150 yrs ago, George Perkins Marsh urged his readers to ...

2026-10-05T16:46:16Z

Over 150 yrs ago, George Perkins Marsh urged his readers to consider the disastrous environmental effects of deforestation, over-mining, and other human actions. Read more about this remarkable thinker and his extraordinary book, Man and Nature (1864) https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/man-and-nature-1864

Before CPR there was... blowing tobacco smoke up the bum. One of ...

2026-10-05T14:16:12Z

Before CPR there was... blowing tobacco smoke up the bum. One of the recommended procedures for resuscitating "persons apparently dead from drowning", from a 1787 booklet by the Humane Society. More here: https://buff.ly/3FSaQjs

In his essay “The Nightwalker and the Nocturnal Picaresque”, ...

2026-10-04T16:46:26Z

In his essay “The Nightwalker and the Nocturnal Picaresque”, Matthew Beaumont explores how the introduction of street lighting to 17th-century London engendered the birth of a peculiar new literary genre: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-nightwalker-and-the-nocturnal-picaresque

Happy birthday Buster Keaton! Born #onthisday in 1895. Watch his ...

2026-10-04T11:46:58Z

Happy birthday Buster Keaton! Born #onthisday in 1895. Watch his silent classic The General from 1926: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-general-1926

Letters of the alphabet (plus “&”) arrange themselves ...

2026-09-28T11:47:36Z

Letters of the alphabet (plus “&”) arrange themselves around a pie, to each receive an equal portion. Illustration from The Tragical Death of a Apple-Pye (ca. 1793), subject of our post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-tragical-death-of-a-apple-pye

With his Vera Historia, the 2nd-century satirist Lucian of ...

2026-09-27T16:47:56Z

With his Vera Historia, the 2nd-century satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote the 1st detailed account of a trip to the moon in the Western tradition and, some argue, also one of the earliest science fiction narratives. Aaron Parrett explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/lucians-trips-to-the-moon

Shadows from the Walls of Death (1874) gathers real swaths of ...

2026-09-24T14:17:47Z

Shadows from the Walls of Death (1874) gathers real swaths of poisonous arsenic wallpaper sourced from stores across Michigan. Originally printed in a run of 100 copies, only 6 remain due to recipients fearfully destroying their copies: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kedzie-shadows

Miniatures, likely by Alī Khan, illustrating an 1825 manuscript ...

2026-09-23T14:16:15Z

Miniatures, likely by Alī Khan, illustrating an 1825 manuscript on Indian customs, culture, and caste, penned entirely in Persian by James Skinner, an enigmatic figure of the early British Raj. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/james-skinner-india-castes

Crouching down to where sky and ground meet, a traveler pushes ...

2026-09-23T14:16:07Z

Crouching down to where sky and ground meet, a traveler pushes his head through a gap and into the heavens beyond.

Known as the “Flammarion Engraving” this image has long stumped scholars: is it a lost Renaissance engraving or a 19th-century pastiche? — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flammarion-engraving

Happy first day of autumn!!! (In the northern hemisphere at ...

2026-09-22T11:47:43Z

Happy first day of autumn!!! (In the northern hemisphere at least... and those west of UTC-02:00). ⁠

Pictured here: Maple Trees at Mama (1857) by Utagawa Hiroshige.

More works by Hiroshige → https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/utagawa-hiroshige-last-great-master-of-ukiyo-e

“Frustules of Diatoms”, a cyanotype from 1870 by Austrian ...

2026-09-20T19:45:40Z

“Frustules of Diatoms”, a cyanotype from 1870 by Austrian botany professor Julius Wiesner. Diatoms are a microalgae found in oceans, waterways, and soils, and generate about 20 to 50% of the planet's oxygen.

Available as a print in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/frustules-of-diatoms

"At a Funeral", one of the many enigmatic images to be ...

2026-09-20T11:45:57Z

"At a Funeral", one of the many enigmatic images to be found in Thought-Forms (1901), a work co-authored by the theosophist Annie Besant, who died #onthisday in 1933. More on these “synesthetic” abstractions in our essay by @ResObscura here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/victorian-occultism-and-the-art-of-synesthesia #otd

#OnThisDay in 1797 the radical philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft ...

2026-09-10T11:48:03Z

#OnThisDay in 1797 the radical philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft died after giving birth to her 2nd daughter (Mary Shelley). Her last book was a fictionalised account of a remarkable journey she undertook to Scandinavia in search of stolen treasure: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/mary-wollstonecrafts-adventures-in-scandinavia #OTD

The Sorceress by Jan van de Velde II (1626). A young sorceress ...

2026-09-07T19:47:15Z

The Sorceress by Jan van de Velde II (1626).

A young sorceress mid-conjure with a motley crew of demonic “familiars”, one of which is sporting two pipes from his bum, both streaming with powders in elegant arcs: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-sorceress-jan-van-de-velde

Born #onthisday in London in 1795, John Polidori. As well as ...

2026-09-07T11:47:44Z

Born #onthisday in London in 1795, John Polidori. As well as being the long-suffering personal physician to Lord Byron, he is also the creator of the first modern #vampire story: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-poet-the-physician-and-the-birth-of-the-modern-vampire #OTD

The tragic story of James Tilly Matthews, a former peace activist ...

2026-09-05T11:45:53Z

The tragic story of James Tilly Matthews, a former peace activist of the Napoleonic Wars confined to Bedlam asylum in 1797 for believing that his mind was under the control of the “Air Loom” — a terrifying machine which was brainwashing politicians: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/illustrations-of-madness-james-tilly-matthews-and-the-air-loom

From 1969 to 2008 John Margolies photographed the eccentric ...

2026-09-03T16:48:27Z

From 1969 to 2008 John Margolies photographed the eccentric roadside architecture and ephemera of the US. @librarycongress bought the lot, a total of 11,710 colour slides, and lifted all copyright restrictions on them. Here's our highlights: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-margolies-photographs-of-roadside-america

From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have ...

2026-09-03T14:15:40Z

From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have long been entwined with the supernatural in art + literature. @MikeJayNet on early reports of mushroom-induced trips and how one species became established as a stock motif of Victorian fairyland. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/fungi-folklore-and-fairyland

Comets from The Augsburg Book of Miracles, 16th century. 💫 ...

2026-08-25T16:47:30Z

Comets from The Augsburg Book of Miracles, 16th century.
💫
More in our post "Flowers of the Sky", of depictions spanning almost a whole millennium of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flowers-of-the-sky #comets #meteors #shootingstars #meteorshower

Frontispiece to a 1687 edition of Cyrano de Bergerac’s Comical ...

2026-08-25T11:46:13Z

Frontispiece to a 1687 edition of Cyrano de Bergerac’s Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon. Featured in our essay on Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World, which many consider to be one of the founding texts of the science fiction genre — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/mistress-of-a-new-world-early-science-fiction-in-europes-age-of-discovery

Sacred Egyptian Bean — one of the many exquisite illustrative ...

2026-08-23T19:47:40Z

Sacred Egyptian Bean — one of the many exquisite illustrative plates to be found in Robert John Thornton's "The Temple of Flora" (1807).

Read more in our Martin Kemp essay here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sex-and-science-in-robert-thornton-s-temple-of-flora

And see our Temple of Flora prints for sale here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/robert-john-thornton

#SundayReads: @kirstamb on the 19th-century Swiss artist ...

2026-08-23T14:16:06Z

#SundayReads: @kirstamb on the 19th-century Swiss artist Gottfried Mind, who was labelled a “cretin” and “imbecile” in his lifetime, but also the “The Raphael of Cats” due to his profound talents when it came to drafting the feline form: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/gottfried-mind-the-raphael-of-cats/ #cats

A boy in postprandial slump becomes a pig, a woman with key a ...

2026-08-19T16:48:24Z

A boy in postprandial slump becomes a pig, a woman with key a fire extinguisher, and a stretching lady a skeleton — just a few of the shadowy transformations in Charles H. Bennett’s Shadows (1856). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/shadows/

Photo of the “Cardiff Giant” shortly after being exhumed on a ...

2026-08-18T16:53:25Z

Photo of the “Cardiff Giant” shortly after being exhumed on a farm in Onondaga County, New York, on the morning of 16th October 1869. Appearing to be a ten-foot-tall petrified man, it was perhaps the greatest hoax in American natural history... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cardiff-giant/

Happy birthday to book illustrator Walter Crane, born in ...

2026-08-15T14:15:59Z

Happy birthday to book illustrator Walter Crane, born in Liverpool #onthisday in 1845. Celebrate with a look through one of his most stunning works, A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden (1899) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-floral-fantasy-in-an-old-english-garden-1899 #otd

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

#OnThisDay in 1946, H. G. Wells passed away, leaving the future ...

2026-08-13T16:48:11Z

#OnThisDay in 1946, H. G. Wells passed away, leaving the future (about which he wrote so much) to others. Peter J. Bowler explores Wells' ideas of progress and how for him the notion of a better future was riddled with complexities. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/h-g-wells-and-the-uncertainties-of-progress #otd

Mezzotint of a meteor shower in August 1783. More depictions — ...

2026-08-12T19:48:04Z

Mezzotint of a meteor shower in August 1783.

More depictions — spanning almost a whole millennium — of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flowers-of-the-sky/

How NOT to watch the eclipse today! A Conjugal Eclipse, from J. ...

2026-08-12T11:47:45Z

How NOT to watch the eclipse today!

A Conjugal Eclipse, from J. J. Grandville's Another World, 1844. One of several Grandville prints available in our shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/j.-j.-grandville/ #eclipse #solareclipse

Julian Barnes on when a young Guy de Maupassant — born ...

2026-08-05T11:48:22Z

Julian Barnes on when a young Guy de Maupassant — born #onthisday in 1850 — was invited to lunch by A.C. Swinburne. A flayed human hand, porn, monkey meat, and inordinate amounts of alcohol, all made for a truly strange Anglo-French encounter: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/an-unlikely-lunch-when-maupassant-met-swinburne #OTD

"The Moguls give to the white owl credit for preserving ...

2026-08-04T19:47:09Z

"The Moguls give to the white owl credit for preserving Jengis Khan, the founder of their empire..."

One of a hundred tales to be found in Anecdotes of Animals (1905): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/anecdotes-of-animals-1905

Landscape near Rome during a Storm (ca. 1786–1806), by Simon ...

2026-08-04T16:47:39Z

Landscape near Rome during a Storm (ca. 1786–1806), by Simon Denis.

From a selection of rainbows in art, spanning 800 years: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/rainbows-in-art?utm_content=buffer7546f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer @metmuseum

John H. White's stunning photographs of Black Chicago, taken ...

2026-08-04T14:16:01Z

John H. White's stunning photographs of Black Chicago, taken as part of the DOCUAMERICA project which sought to produce a visual record of 1970s US: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-h-white-documerica

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/

Navaho Legends (1897), a book from the American Folk-Lore Society ...

2026-08-03T14:18:15Z

Navaho Legends (1897), a book from the American Folk-Lore Society compiling Navaho myths and legends and including a lengthy introduction on the history, beliefs and customs of the Navaho people: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/navaho-legends-1897

#SundayReads: After the intro of gin to England, tipplers ...

2026-08-02T14:18:52Z

#SundayReads: After the intro of gin to England, tipplers reported a range of effects: frenzy, madness, joy, and death. With the help of prints by George Cruikshank, William Hogarth, and others, James Brown explores the spaces in which it was consumed: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/liquid-bewitchment

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

Dice Man — it's just how he rolls... More radical fashion ...

2026-07-31T16:46:35Z

Dice Man — it's just how he rolls...

More radical fashion from the 16th-century Schembart Carnival here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/radical-fashion-from-the-schembart-carnival-1590

NEW ESSAY — Centuries before Neo instantly mastered Kung Fu in ...

2026-07-31T14:15:55Z

NEW ESSAY — Centuries before Neo instantly mastered Kung Fu in The Matrix, medieval scholars found a shortcut to years of difficult study: a magical manuscript that promised to fast-track advanced learning. Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores the Ars notoria: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/ars-notoria/

Pages from Walter Crane's beautifully illustrated version of ...

2026-07-30T19:46:15Z

Pages from Walter Crane's beautifully illustrated version of Aesop's fables, shortened and put into limericks for the younger reader and first published in 1887. See the full book here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-baby-s-own-aesop-1908

Photographs of sea stars, collected during the Siboga Expedition ...

2026-07-29T14:17:29Z

Photographs of sea stars, collected during the Siboga Expedition around Indonesia, 1899–1900.

More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-sea-stars-1917

Final illustration for A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of ...

2026-07-27T11:46:49Z

Final illustration for A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future (1894) by the wealthy businessman John Jacob Astor IV, in which he offers an imagining of life in the year 2000. In 1912, Astor would die in the sinking of the Titanic.

More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-journey-in-other-worlds-a-romance-of-the-future-1894

"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived ...

2026-07-26T19:48:15Z

"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived gloriously, ate sweetly, farted lightly"⠀
⠀
More on this image and more Russian lubki (colorful broadsides, 16th–early 20th century) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th%E2%80%9319th-century/#Caturday

(Print to buy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/search/?q=Lubok)

Between the blubber, blood, and cruel destruction of life, there ...

2026-07-19T16:47:59Z

Between the blubber, blood, and cruel destruction of life, there was plenty of time for creation too on a 19th-century whale hunt. @JessicaBoyall1 explores the rich vein of illustration running through the logbooks and journals of Nantucket whalers: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-art-of-whaling

Belshazzar's Feast (1820) — a subversive take on the ...

2026-07-19T11:48:02Z

Belshazzar's Feast (1820) — a subversive take on the coronation of George IV.

Discover the apocalyptic compositions of John Martin — born #onthisday in 1789 — and how in his epic landscapes one can see reflected his revolutionary leanings: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/john-martin-and-the-theatre-of-subversion #otd

The Laughing Song (1904) — In this novelty recording by the ...

2026-07-17T19:48:21Z

The Laughing Song (1904) — In this novelty recording by the Norwegian actor Henry Klauser, a mournful refrain gradually gives way to laughter. Apparently it found a perhaps unlikely fan in the fifth Qajar king of Persia, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-laughing-song-1904

Frustrated by being referred to as a mere "caricature" ...

2026-07-16T19:46:59Z

Frustrated by being referred to as a mere "caricature" artist, William Hogarth produced this 1743 print to explain the difference between characters and caricatures — which he saw as radically different — and aligning his style firmly with the former: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/characters-and-caricaturas-by-william-hogarth-1743

Delightfully ingenious travel journal which uses ...

2026-07-16T14:17:59Z

Delightfully ingenious travel journal which uses “hieroglyphic” plates to recount an 1814 voyage to the Caribbean: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hieroglyphic-journal-of-a-voyage-to-the-caribbean-1815

Through a series of short stories and wonderful engravings, The ...

2026-07-15T19:47:23Z

Through a series of short stories and wonderful engravings, The Accidents of Youth (1819) is aimed at keeping young people out of trouble and "calculated to improve [their] moral conduct" — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-accidents-of-youth-1819

#OnThisDay in 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman named Frau ...

2026-07-15T14:17:53Z

#OnThisDay in 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman named Frau Troffea woke to begin the 2nd day of her manic and mysterious dance. Soon she would be joined by hundreds of others, compelled to dance for seemingly no reason at all... https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-dancing-plague-of-1518 #otd

#Onthisday in 1789, the Bastille was stormed in Paris, a key ...

2026-07-14T11:47:31Z

#Onthisday in 1789, the Bastille was stormed in Paris, a key turning point of the French Revolution. 3.5 years later Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. We look at the deluge of prints that emerged depicting his death https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/execution-by-guillotine-of-louis-xvi #FeteNationale #bastilleday #otd

In his essay “Colonizing the Cosmos”, @irmorus1 joins the ...

2026-07-11T16:46:01Z

In his essay “Colonizing the Cosmos”, @irmorus1 joins the interplanetary safari that is John Jacob Astor’s A Journey in Other Worlds, a high-voltage scientific romance in which visions of imperialism haunt a supposedly “perfect” future — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/colonizing-the-cosmos

From "Shtetl, My Destroyed Home: A Remembrance" (1922), a ...

2026-07-11T14:16:12Z

From "Shtetl, My Destroyed Home: A Remembrance" (1922), a set of 30 lithographs by the Jewish artist Issachar Ber Ryback. In the series Ryback depicts scenes from his home village in Ukraine before it was destroyed in the pogroms following WW1. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/shtetl-my-destroyed-home-a-remembrance-1922

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

Double-exposure photograph, staged for Century magazine in 1899, ...

2026-07-10T14:16:01Z

Double-exposure photograph, staged for Century magazine in 1899, showing Nikola Tesla — born #onthisday in 1856 — seated beneath a giant “magnifying transmitter”, arcing 22-foot-long bolts of electricity: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/nikola-tesla-in-his-laboratory

The rhymes for this short and wonderfully illustrated version of ...

2026-07-09T19:47:21Z

The rhymes for this short and wonderfully illustrated version of the Cinderella tale often work best when said in a Georgian cockney drawl, e.g. "born" and "gone" — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-adventures-of-cinderella-ca-1810

First image of a tardigrade (1773). Also known as water bears or ...

2026-07-09T16:47:45Z

First image of a tardigrade (1773).

Also known as water bears or moss piglets, they're around 0.5mm in length, and can survive extreme temperatures, pressures, radiation, and reanimate after long periods without oxygen. And even handle outer space: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tardigrade/

Repeat dog pattern, from sample book of French textile design, ...

2026-07-09T11:46:08Z

Repeat dog pattern, from sample book of French textile design, 1863. See more here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/book-of-french-textile-samples-1863

Lewis Carroll's original sepia ink illustrations for ...

2026-07-07T16:48:33Z

Lewis Carroll's original sepia ink illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/carroll-illustrations-for-alice-undergound @britishlibrary

The Last American (1889) — journal of a Persian admiral who in ...

2026-07-04T19:46:36Z

The Last American (1889) — journal of a Persian admiral who in the year 2951 sails across the Atlantic to “rediscover” the ruined remains of a US civilisation destroyed by climate change many centuries previously: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-last-american-1889 #fourthofjuly #ClimateChange 🇺🇸

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”.

“The Human Liberty Bell”, complete with crack, comprised of ...

2026-07-04T11:46:44Z

“The Human Liberty Bell”, complete with crack, comprised of 25,000 officers and men at Camp Dix, New Jersey, ca. 1918.

A “living photograph“ made by Arthur Mole and John Thomas — more here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-living-photographs-of-mole-and-thomas

Sliced, stabbed, punctured, bleeding, harassed on all sides by ...

2026-07-02T14:16:54Z

Sliced, stabbed, punctured, bleeding, harassed on all sides by various weaponry, the curious image of Wound Man is a rare yet intriguing presence in the world of medieval and early modern manuscripts. @j_hartnell on this enigmatic figure: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-many-lives-of-the-medieval-wound-man

Sniffing ozone, 1910.⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ One of the many bizarre photos ...

2026-07-02T11:46:13Z

Sniffing ozone, 1910.⠀⠀
⠀⠀
One of the many bizarre photos in High Frequency Electric Currents in Medicine and Dentistry (1910) by champion of electro-therapeutics Samuel Howard Monell, who did “more for static electricity than any other living man”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/high-frequency-electric-currents-in-medicine-and-dentistry-1910?utm_content=buffer0ded5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Radiolaria by Ernst Haeckel. These single-celled aquatic animals ...

2026-07-01T19:47:00Z

Radiolaria by Ernst Haeckel. These single-celled aquatic animals have spiny silica skeletons which accumulate as a slimy deposit on the seabed. More beautiful radiolaria illustrations here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/ernst-haeckel-s-radiolaria-1862

The ten-volume "Unai no tomo" (1891–1923) is comprised ...

2026-07-01T16:47:39Z

The ten-volume "Unai no tomo" (1891–1923) is comprised of hundreds of woodblock prints of Japanese toys, including jack-in-the-box chickens, whales on wheels, magnetic mice, and popguns, hobbyhorses, and noisemakers galore: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/unai-no-tomo

Illustration from the 1845 English edition of Niels Klim’s ...

2026-06-30T19:47:04Z

Illustration from the 1845 English edition of Niels Klim’s Journey Under the Ground, a satirical #scifi/fantasy novel by the Norwegian-Dane Ludvig Holberg. More on the book and the wider context of hollow earth theory here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/stories-of-a-hollow-earth

Stereograms from the first ever publication on a Neanderthal ...

2026-06-29T16:47:31Z

Stereograms from the first ever publication on a Neanderthal skeleton, L’Homme Fossile de La Chapelle-aux-Saints (1911).

A special viewfinder combined these stereograms to give the illusion of three dimensions. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/neanderthals-in-3d-lhomme-de-la-chapelle

#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

Containing 405 alphabet specimens from 164 languages, Edmund ...

2026-06-26T19:45:37Z

Containing 405 alphabet specimens from 164 languages, Edmund Fry's Pantographia (1799) is a treasure chest for the epigraphical imagination: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pantographia

🎶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

The great comet of 1881, observed 145 years ago on the night of ...

2026-06-25T11:48:32Z

The great comet of 1881, observed 145 years ago on the night of June 25–26 — plate XI from The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings (1882).

More comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars through the ages in our post "Flowers of the Sky" https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flowers-of-the-sky #onthisday #OTD

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

The earliest known depiction of a crop circle is in The ...

2026-06-23T19:47:21Z

The earliest known depiction of a crop circle is in The Mowing-Devil (1678), a 5-page pamphlet which recounts a labor dispute ending with an unwitting deal with the devil, and a field mown in way “that no Mortal Man was able to do the like”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-mowing-devil #cropcircles

When it comes to self-defence, skunks and spitting cobras have ...

2026-06-23T16:48:32Z

When it comes to self-defence, skunks and spitting cobras have nothing on the medieval “bonnacon”. It was said to defecate with such explosive force that it could scald targets more than a football pitch away with its fire-like dung. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/bonnacons