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 Review4m ago
Illustrations from The Vessels of Hermes (ca. 1700), an alchemical album from the Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-vessels-of-hermes-an-alchemical-album-ca-1700?utm_content=bufferbf98b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The Public Domain Review5h ago
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/
The Public Domain Review8h ago
It's #BatAppreciationDay! Here's Plate 67 from Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms of Nature (1904). Focusing mainly on marine animals, the bat is one of the only mammals to feature in the book: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/ernst-haeckel-s-bats-1904 #bats #onthisday #otd
The Public Domain Review1d ago
Eyeball in a landscape in hat and jacket, human-headed melons, fleeing prisons... these are C. P. Cranch’s very literal illustrations of Emerson’s Nature (ca. 1837–39) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cranch-new-philosophy
The Public Domain Review1d ago
A Way of Flying, from the series Los disparates (The Follies) by Francisco Goya, who died #onthisday in 1828. Produced 1815–23, it would be the Spanish artist's last major series of prints. See more here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-whims-1799-and-the-follies-1815-23-of-francisco-goya #OTD
The Public Domain Review1d ago
Although best known for its waxworks, the famous museum founded by French sculptress Marie Tussaud — who died #onthisday in 1850 — also featured a weird and wonderful array of historical memorabilia. Leaf through the pages of an early catalogue here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/madame-tussaud-s-napoleon-relics-pictures-and-other-curiosities-1901 #OTD
The Public Domain Review1d ago
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
The Public Domain Review2d ago
A few of the 120 illustrations by Jean de Bosschère from his Weird Islands (1921), a wild fantasia of a journey to strange lands and their monstrous inhabitants. More on the book in our latest post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/weird-islands
The Public Domain Review2d ago
#OnThisDay in 1912, the Titanic sank. Later that year a short film came out that appeared to show the interior and deck of the ship only minutes prior to its ill-fated voyage, but it was a (fairly convincing!) fake. Watch it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-apparent-tour-of-the-titanic-1912 #otd
The Public Domain Review2d ago
Highlights from the many centuries of artworks to feature the Notre-Dame de Paris — which caught fire 5 years ago #onthisday — from its illuminated punctuation of medieval skylines to grainy detailed studies at the birth of photography: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-notre-dame-cathedral-in-art-1460-1921