The Public Domain Review

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Visual nation making and forgetting

Tuesday 3 September 2013 at 15:40

CURATOR’S CHOICE #3: HENRIK HOLM FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF DENMARK Henrik Holm, curator at the National Gallery of Denmark, looks at the making of the Danish painting canon and its relation to the construction of a national identity. The selection of Danish artworks that the Statens Museum for Kunst, the National Gallery of Denmark, has released for free download in high resolution (under a CCBY-license) offers a good case for taking a critical look at how national identity is constructed. One of the images in this collection is the painting often claimed by Danish art historians to represent the birth of a truly Danish kind of art – A View through Three of the Northwestern Arches of the Third Storey of the Colosseum in Rome. It was created by Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg, the artist known as “The Father of Danish Painting”, inspiring as he did the so-called Golden Age of Danish painting. At the heart of Eckersberg’s work, and this Golden Age he inspired, was the practise of making sketches out in the open, en plein air, a practice made popular by the Parisian school of painter and revolutionary Jacques-Louis David, of which Eckersberg was a pupil, and later […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/09/03/visual-nation-making-and-forgetting/


Edison’s backwards bicycle rider (1899)

Monday 2 September 2013 at 17:10

An animated GIF created by Okkult Motion Pictures excerpted from Bicycle Trick Riding (1899), a 38” film dated March 20th, 1899 by Thomas A. Edison, showing perhaps the first ever footage of a bicycle trick. See the film here. See more creations from Okkult Motion Pictures here in our Animated GIFs Collection. Okkult Motion Pictures is the brainchild of Marco Calabrese and Alessandro Scali from Turin, Italy. With the Excerpts project, Okkult Motion Pictures aims to bring to light the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright moving images occulted in Internet archives, through a series of animated gifs. A digital archivalism project for the diffusion of open knowledge. Okkult Motion Pictures official website: / Facebook / Twitter All Okkult animated GIFs published here under a CC-BY-SA license. HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : £5.00 GBP - monthly Large emperor : £10.00 GBP - monthly Vast deity […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/09/02/edisons-backwards-bicycle-rider-1899/


That to Study Philosophy is to Learn to Die (1580)

Thursday 29 August 2013 at 17:42

…let us learn bravely to stand our ground, and fight him. And to begin to deprive him of the greatest advantage he has over us, let us take a way quite contrary to the common course. Let us disarm him of his novelty and strangeness, let us converse and be familiar with him, and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as death. Upon all occasions represent him to our imagination in his every shape; at the stumbling of a horse, at the falling of a tile, at the least prick with a pin, let us presently consider, and say to ourselves, ‘Well, and what if it had been death itself?’ and, thereupon, let us encourage and fortify ourselves. Let us evermore, amidst our jollity and feasting, set the remembrance of our frail condition before our eyes, never suffering ourselves to be so far transported with our delights, but that we have some intervals of reflecting upon, and considering how many several ways this jollity of ours tends to death, and with how many dangers it threatens it. The Egyptians were wont to do after this manner, who in the height of their feasting and mirth, caused a dried skeleton […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/29/that-to-study-philosophy-is-to-learn-to-die-1580/


Frank Desprez’s “Lasca” read by Harry E. Humphrey (1920)

Thursday 22 August 2013 at 17:02

Edison recording of Harry E. Humphrey reading the English writer Frank Desprez’s most famous poem “Lasca”. This ballad-like piece, first published in a London magazine in 1882, tells the story of a Mexican girl and her cowboy sweetheart caught in a cattle stampede “in Texas down by the Rio Grande”. Housed at: Internet Archive | From: Library of Congress Underlying Work: PD 70 Years | Digital Copy: No Additional Rights Download: VBR MP3 | Ogg Vorbis HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : £5.00 GBP - monthly Large emperor : £10.00 GBP - monthly Vast deity : £20.00 GBP - monthly Make a one off Donation SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER Sign up to get our free fortnightly newsletter which shall deliver direct to your inbox the latest brand new article and a digest of the most recent collection items. Simply add your details to the […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/22/frank-desprezs-lasca-read-by-harry-e-humphrey-1920/


Engravings from a French Ice-Skating Manual (1813)

Tuesday 20 August 2013 at 16:43

Coloured engravings from France’s first ice-skating manual Le Vrai Patineur (The True Skater) written by Jean Garcin, a book praised in Honoré de Balzac’s Illusions Perdues. As well as the aide of eight engraved plates, four of which are featured here, the manual details many movements and poses, putting an emphasis on artistry and grace in contrast to the more straightforward technical approach usually practised in England. The book is considered to be one of the earliest works in any language devoted entirely to ice-skating. Villanova Digital Library Underlying Work: PD Worldwide | Digital Copy: Share Alike Download: Right click on image or see source for higher res versions HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : £5.00 GBP - monthly Large emperor : £10.00 GBP - monthly Vast deity : £20.00 GBP - monthly Make a one off Donation SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER Sign up […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/20/engravings-from-a-french-ice-skating-manual-1813/


The Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson (1904)

Thursday 15 August 2013 at 17:52

The Wisdom of Robert Louis Stevenson collected and arranged from his writings; 1904; Scott-Thaw Co., New York. A book of posthumously collected extracts from the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer, most famous for his books Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. For more RLS related material check out his “Baby Book”, a remarkable record of the first few years of his life, as noted down by his mother. Housed at: Internet Archive | From: Library of Congress Underlying Work: PD Worldwide | Digital Copy: No Additional Rights Download: PDF | Kindle | EPUB | Torrent HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : £5.00 GBP - monthly Large emperor : £10.00 GBP - monthly Vast deity : £20.00 GBP - monthly Make a one off Donation SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER Sign up […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/15/the-wisdom-of-robert-louis-stevenson-1904/


A Selection from The Getty’s Open Content Program

Wednesday 14 August 2013 at 17:57

In August of this year The Getty announced the launch of their Open Content Program which sees more than 4500 images from their collection made available under an open license, meaning anyone can share the images freely and without restriction. We’ve spent the day trawling the thousands of images to bring you a small selection of highlights from their wonderful collection. Visit their site to get exploring yourself. The Getty Underlying Work: PD Worldwide | Digital Copy: No Additional Rights Download: Right click on image or see source for higher res versions HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : £5.00 GBP - monthly Large emperor : £10.00 GBP - monthly Vast deity : £20.00 GBP - monthly Make a one off Donation SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER Sign up to get our free fortnightly newsletter which shall deliver direct to your inbox the latest brand new […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/14/selection-from-the-gettys-open-content-program/


Women having tea in Napier, New Zealand (ca.1890)

Friday 9 August 2013 at 17:08

An animated GIF created by Okkult Motion Pictures from a stereoscopic photograph featured in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand. The photograph taken by William Williams shows his wife Lydia (dressed in black, second from left) and other women seated for tea outside their house in Napier, New Zealand. See more creations from Okkult Motion Pictures here in our Animated GIFs Collection. Okkult Motion Pictures is the brainchild of Marco Calabrese and Alessandro Scali from Turin, Italy. With the Excerpts project, Okkult Motion Pictures aims to bring to light the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright moving images occulted in Internet archives, through a series of animated gifs. A digital archivalism project for the diffusion of open knowledge. Okkult Motion Pictures official website: / Facebook / Twitter All Okkult animated GIFs published here under a CC-BY-SA license. HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If you like what we do then please do consider making a donation. We welcome all contributions, big or small - everything helps! Become a Patron Small angel : £3.00 GBP - monthly Medium sized hero : […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/09/women-having-tea-in-napier-new-zealand/


The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse

Wednesday 7 August 2013 at 16:19

In contrast to today’s rather mundane spawn of coffeehouse chains, the Lond…

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/07/the-lost-world-of-the-london-coffeehouse/


Carel and Abraham Allard in the Court of Momus

Tuesday 6 August 2013 at 16:46

CURATOR’S CHOICE #2: DANIEL HORST FROM THE RIJSKMUSEUM Daniel Horst, research associate at the Rijksmuseum, explores the controversial collection of satirical etchings published by Abraham Allard in Amsterdam ca. 1708 under the title ‘t Lusthof van Momus. One of the lesser known sub-collections of the Rijksmuseum’s impressive and rapidly growing collection of digitised works is the set of ‘history pictures’ compiled by the Amsterdam art dealer, auctioneer and publisher Frederik Muller (1817-1881). After his death in 1881 the Rijksmuseum was able to acquire this important collection of c. 25.000 prints, drawings and books illustrating the history of the Netherlands, including a remarkable series of prints published in 1713 by the Dutch printmaker Abraham Allard under the title ‘t Lust-Hof van Momus (Fig. 1). In translation the full title reads: The Court of Momus, planted with the principal crops of Mars in Europe and decorated with political emblems of the current war and embellished with elegant historical and satirical poems. The volume contains 127 prints, all of which pertain to the war between the Dutch Republic and France, part of the War of the Spanish Succession which raged in continental Europe and overseas between 1701 and 1714. Although Abraham Allard (1676-1725) […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/06/carel-and-abraham-allard-in-the-court-of-momus/