The Public Domain Review

@publicdomainrev
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Not-for-profit project dedicated to exploring curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas — focusing on works now fallen into the public domain.

Smaller posts surface images, books, audio, and film (sourced from places like Internet Archive, Library of Congress, The Met, Rijksmusuem, Wellcome, etc.) — and we've also 300+ long-form essays (✍️ submissions welcome!)

Here we'll mostly be tooting about content on our site. 🎺

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The Public Domain Review1h ago
Read the remarkable story of Mary Toft who claimed to have given birth to rabbits — an elaborate 18th-century hoax which had King George I’s own court physicians fooled: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/mary-toft-and-her-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits
The Public Domain Review4h ago
.@ResObscura on the story of George Psalmanazar, the mysterious Frenchman who successfully posed as a native of Formosa (now Taiwan) and gave birth to a meticulously fabricated culture with bizarre customs, exotic fashions, and its own invented language: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/made-in-taiwan-how-a-frenchman-fooled-18th-century-london
The Public Domain Review6h ago
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, fell for one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century when he became convinced that the "fairy photographs" taken by two girls from Yorkshire in the 1920s were real. Mary Losure explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sir-arthur-and-the-fairies #AprilFools
The Public Domain Review21h ago
In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Count Ludovico advances his compelling proposal about sprezzatura, which he calls the “one universal rule” concerning graceful behavior: “to practice in everything a certain nonchalance [sprezzatura]” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/baldassare-castiglione-the-book-of-the-courtier
The Public Domain Review1d ago

A few of the characters of the Mascarade à la Greque (1771), a parade of fantastical, architectural outfits from the imagination of French artist Ennemond Alexandre Petitot. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/greek-masquerade

(And prints for sale here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/ennemond-alexandre-petitot)

The Public Domain Review1d ago
The "kahs" and "koos" of a baby blond ring-dove, translated to musical staves. From a series of articles (1909–11) by US psychologist and behavior scientist Wallace Craig on the emotions of pigeons: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/emotion-in-the-pigeons
The Public Domain Review1d ago
#OnThisDay in 1889, the Eiffel Tower opened in Paris. Not to be outdone, London decided to get a new tower of their own + held a competition to design it, with some interesting results! See more designs, and learn about the fate of the winner, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/catalogue-of-the-68-competitive-designs-for-the-great-tower-for-london-1890/ #OTD
The Public Domain Review1d ago

“The Dream” by F. Brossler, from a 1912 issue of Der Guckkasten.

One of 900+ prints in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/the-dream

The Public Domain Review2d ago
Aby Warburg spent his life finding forms that could hold their own against the flow of time. All the while, as Kevin Dann explores, he was churning on the brink of madness with the sense that he himself was changing — into a terrifying animal: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/warburgs-werewolf-an-anamnesis/
The Public Domain Review2d ago
Born #onthisday in 1746, the great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. See his wonderful series of etchings depicting “the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-whims-1799-and-the-follies-1815-23-of-francisco-goya #otd