The Public Domain Review

This is just an automatic copy of Public Domain Review blog.

Darkness Over All: John Robison and the Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy

Wednesday 2 April 2014 at 17:32

Conspiracy theories of a secretive power elite seeking global domination have long held a place in the modern imagination. Mike Jay explores the idea’s beginnings in the writings of John Robison, a Scottish scientist who maintained that the French revolution was the work of a covert Masonic cell known as the Illuminati.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/04/02/darkness-over-all-john-robison-and-the-birth-of-the-illuminati-conspiracy/


Map of New York City from 1857

Tuesday 1 April 2014 at 12:25

DESIGN: Mid-19th century map of New York City including an index to the streets of Ne…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/shop/posters-and-prints/map-of-new-york-city-from-1857/


Highlights from the 20,000+ maps made freely available online by New York Public Library

Monday 31 March 2014 at 19:04

The New York Public Library have made available online, free from all restrictions…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/highlights-from-the-20000-maps-made-freely-available-online-by-new-york-public-library/


Recordings of Pygmy Music from the 1946 Ogooué-Congo Mission

Thursday 27 March 2014 at 17:38

A series of recordings made in 1946 as part of the “Ogooué-Congo” mission, a French scientific expedition led by ethnologist Noël Ballif through Middle-Congo and Gabon with a purpose to discover and study the Pygmy peoples.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/recordings-of-pygmy-music-from-the-1946-ogooue-congo-mission/


The Nitrous Oxide Experiments of Humphry Davy

Tuesday 25 March 2014 at 16:44

Researches, chemical and philosophical chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, or dip…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-nitrous-oxide-experiments-of-humphry-davy/


The 25 Stages from Courtship to Marriage

Thursday 20 March 2014 at 17:47

A charming set of twenty-five hand-tinted stereographs showing the various stage…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-25-stages-from-courtship-to-marriage/


Victorian Occultism and the Art of Synesthesia

Wednesday 19 March 2014 at 17:39

Grounded in the theory that ideas, emotions, and even events, can manifest as visible auras, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater’s Thought-Forms (1901) is an odd and intriguing work. Benjamin Breen explores these “synesthetic” abstractions and asks to what extent they, and the Victorian mysticism of which they were born, influenced the Modernist movement that flourished in the following decades.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/03/19/victorian-occultism-and-the-art-of-synesthesia/


The Home Movies of Frank Richard Oastler

Thursday 13 March 2014 at 17:06

The Home Movies of Frank Richard Oastler, an American surgeon specialising in gynaecology by profession but also a keen amateur photographer, scholar, and authority on wildlife conservation and its interpretation to the public.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-home-movies-of-frank-richard-oastler/


Women Painters of the World: from the time of Caterina Vigri to Rosa Bonheur (1905)

Wednesday 12 March 2014 at 19:35

A book on women painters throughout history, from the time of Caterina Vigri to Rosa Bonheur. includes a rather lavish preface by Walter Shaw Sparrow and various essays on the "genius" of women.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/women-painters-of-the-world-from-the-time-of-caterina-vigri-to-rosa-bonheur-1905/


The Tibetan Book of Proportions

Tuesday 11 March 2014 at 19:25

An eighteenth-century pattern book consisting of 36 ink drawings showing precise…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/tibetan-book-of-proportions/