The Public Domain Review

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: publicdomainreview.org/essay/fear-and…

The Private Life of a Cat (ca. 1945) — Experimental film from Alexander Hammid (and possibly also Maya Deren) exploring the lives of their 2 cats (and then 5 kittens) with which they lived in their Greenwich Village apartment. Watch the full 22 mins here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/the…

Adam Wirsing’s Marmora (1776) features hundreds of illustrations showcasing the beauty and variety of marble. Composed in numbered squares, six to a page, his images are colourful and complex odes to stone. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/ada…

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: publicdomainreview.org/collection/ind…

Pages from Patrick Syme's wonderful Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours (1814), one of the first attempts to standardise colour description. For each colour there's examples given from the kingdoms of animal, vegetable and mineral. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collections/we…

A few of the many wonderful images from an early 19th-century Indian manuscript detailing hatha yoga poses. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/hat… @britishlibrary

The Gap, W. T. Horton, 1898.⠀⠀⁠ ⠀⠀⁠ Lauded by W. B Yeats in his day, the enigmatic and minimalist work of English artist William T. Horton is largely unknown today. ⁠ Read more in Jon Crabb's essay: publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-stra…

#OnThisDay in 1768, Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy, died in London after a long battle with consumption. Ian Campbell Ross looks at the engagement with mortality so important to the novelist’s groundbreaking books: publicdomainreview.org/essay/alas-poo… #otd

Images of lunar life from Filippo Morghen's “The Suite of the Most Notable Things Seen by Cavaliere Wild Scull, and by Signore de la Hire on Their Famous Voyage from the Earth to the Moon” (1776). More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/fil…

”Early Modern Memes: The Reuse and Recycling of Woodcuts in 17th-Century English Popular Print“ by @katiesisneros, on the interplay of repetition, context + meaning in woodcuts and the parallels to meme culture of today: publicdomainreview.org/essay/early-mo…

Happy birthday to Irish artist Harry Clarke, born #onthisday in Dublin in 1889 (on #StPatricksDay no less). Here he is in a self-portrait as an absinthe drinking Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust. More in our essay "Harry Clarke’s Looking Glass" publicdomainreview.org/essay/harry-cl… #OTD

For #StPatricksDay: the songs of Irish tenor John McCormack (1884–1945), renowned for lending his superior diction and breath control to a whole range of operatic and popular songs and for teaching a certain James Joyce to sing: publicdomainreview.org/collection/joh…

Edvard Munch, The Sun, 1911. Measuring 15 by 25 ft, this is one of several Munch paintings to adorn the walls inside the Hall of Ceremonies at the University of Oslo. One of several Munch prints available from our online shop: publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-…

Book of John Leech's cartoons for Punch, the Victorian satirical magazine: publicdomainreview.org/collection/pic…

Born #onthisday in 1799, the English botanist Anna Atkins. As well as being considered by many to be first woman to create a photograph, her stunning 1843 book of algae cyanotypes is thought to be first book illustrated with photographs: publicdomainreview.org/collection/cya… #OTD

The Climax, Aubrey Beardsley, 1894. This and other works by Beardsley — who died #onthisday in 1898 — available as prints in our online shop here: publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-… #otd

Watercolor and ink drawing by Bartholomeus Ziesenis of the dancer Annette Köbler as she performs the “pas de shawl”, 1812. One of two available as prints from our online shop: publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-…

Double page spread from a 16th-century pattern book for scribes created by Gregorius Bock. See more here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/16t…

#SundayReads: “As Bright as a Feather”, in which Whitney Rakich examines the far-reaching ostrich industry through a peculiar do-it-yourself-style book: Alexander Paul’s The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer (1888) — publicdomainreview.org/essay/bright-a…

TFW when you pay no heed to the ides... 2066 yrs ago #onthisday Julius Caesar was assassinated. Listen to Marc Antony’s speech over Caesar's body from Shakespeare’s play, performed with stupendous pomp by Harry Humphrey in 1914 publicdomainreview.org/collection/ant… (Image: BLRoyal18EV) #OTD