The Public Domain Review

Wonderful Balloon Ascents (1870)

Friday 5 August 2011 at 14:58

Wonderful balloon ascents or, The conquest of the skies. A history of balloons and balloon voyages from the French of F. Marion, with illustrations; 1870; Cassell Petter & Galpin, New York

A wonderful book of balloon travel. Wikicommons has a collections of the amazing illustrations in the book here.

Open Library link

Letters From a Cat (1879)	Castaway on the Auckland Isles: A Narrative of the Wreck of the "Grafton," (1865)	Infant's Cabinet of Birds and Beasts (1820)	Old French Fairytales (1920)
Armata: a fragment (1817)	An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism (1803)	The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind (1852)	Quarles' Emblems (1886)
Cat and bird stories from the "Spectator" (1896)	Wonderful Balloon Ascents (1870)	The Book of Topiary (1904)	The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (1899)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/05/wonderful-balloon-ascents-1870/

Cat and bird stories from the “Spectator” (1896)

Friday 5 August 2011 at 14:52

Cat and bird stories from the “Spectator”, to which are added sundry anecdotes of horses, donkeys, cows, apes, bears, and other animals, as well as of insects and reptiles, edited by John St. Loe Strachey; 1896; T. Fisher Unwin, London.

A sequel to Dog Stories from The Spectator, this book brings us mysteries and anecdotes relating to cats, birds, and other animals which found there way into the pages of The Spectator.

Open Library link

Letters From a Cat (1879)	Castaway on the Auckland Isles: A Narrative of the Wreck of the "Grafton," (1865)	Infant's Cabinet of Birds and Beasts (1820)	Old French Fairytales (1920)
Armata: a fragment (1817)	An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism (1803)	The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind (1852)	Quarles' Emblems (1886)
Cat and bird stories from the "Spectator" (1896)	Wonderful Balloon Ascents (1870)	The Book of Topiary (1904)	The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (1899)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/05/cat-and-bird-stories-from-the-spectator-1896/

WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

Wednesday 3 August 2011 at 16:10

Currently putting the finishing touches to the BRAND NEW website! Please be patient!

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/03/website-is-under-construction/

Enrico Caruso – A Dream

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 18:41

Enrico Caruso made approximately 290 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920. This was one of his last. Explore more here.

MP3 Download
Internet Archive Link

Beela Boola by the Electric City 4 (1920)	Hungarian Rag - Pietro Deiro (1913)	As a Porcupine Pines for its Pork - Billy Jones & Ernest Hare (1925)	Popeye, the Sailor Man - Al Dollar & His Ten Cent Band with Billy Murray (1931)
Chopins Funeral March - The Edison Concert Band (1906)	Houdini on his Water Torture Cell (1914)	Lomax Collection Recording of English	Enrico Caruso - A Dream (1920)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/enrico-caruso-a-dream/

Lomax Collection Recording of English, sample 8

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 18:12

This is a recording from Alan Lomax’s Parlametrics collection. These recordings were made by linguists around the world as well as by Lomax himself. In this one of many recordings of the English language, the interviewee from Arkansaw talks of his Grandfather’s relationship with famous outlaws Frank and Jesse James. Find more out about Alan Lomax and his pioneering collection of recordings here

MP3 Download
Internet Archive Link

Beela Boola by the Electric City 4 (1920)	Hungarian Rag - Pietro Deiro (1913)	As a Porcupine Pines for its Pork - Billy Jones & Ernest Hare (1925)	Popeye, the Sailor Man - Al Dollar & His Ten Cent Band with Billy Murray (1931)
Chopins Funeral March - The Edison Concert Band (1906)	Houdini on his Water Torture Cell (1914)	Lomax Collection Recording of English	Enrico Caruso - A Dream (1920)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/lomax-collection-recording-of-english/

Houdini on his Water Torture Cell (1914)

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 17:59

Houdini made the only known recordings of his voice on Edison wax cylinders on October 29, 1914, in Flatbush, New York. On them, Houdini practices several different introductory speeches for his famous Chinese Water Torture Cell. In the trick, Houdini’s feet would be locked in stocks, and he would be lowered upside down into a tank filled with water. The mahogany and metal cell featured a glass front, through which audiences could clearly see Houdini. The stocks would be locked to the top of the cell, and a curtain would conceal his escape. In the earliest version of the Torture Cell, a metal cage was lowered into the cell, and Houdini was enclosed inside that. While the escape was advertised as “The Chinese Water Torture Cell” or “The Water Torture Cell”, Houdini always referred to it as “the Upside Down” or “USD”. The first public performance of the USD was at the Circus Busch in Berlin, on September 21, 1912. Houdini continued to perform the escape until his death in 1926.

MP3 Download
Internet Archive Link

Beela Boola by the Electric City 4 (1920)	Hungarian Rag - Pietro Deiro (1913)	As a Porcupine Pines for its Pork - Billy Jones & Ernest Hare (1925)	Popeye, the Sailor Man - Al Dollar & His Ten Cent Band with Billy Murray (1931)
Chopins Funeral March - The Edison Concert Band (1906)	Houdini on his Water Torture Cell (1914)	Lomax Collection Recording of English	Enrico Caruso - A Dream (1920)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/houdini-on-his-water-torture-cell-1914/

Chopin’s Funeral March – The Edison Concert Band (1906)

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 17:32

Chopin’s “Funeral March” is the third movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2. It was used at the state funerals of John F. Kennedy and those of Soviet leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev. It was played at the graveside during Chopin’s own burial at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris in 1849 with Napoléon Henri Reber’s instrumentation.

MP3 Download
Internet Archive Link

Beela Boola by the Electric City 4 (1920)	Hungarian Rag - Pietro Deiro (1913)	As a Porcupine Pines for its Pork - Billy Jones & Ernest Hare (1925)	Popeye, the Sailor Man - Al Dollar & His Ten Cent Band with Billy Murray (1931)
Chopins Funeral March - The Edison Concert Band (1906)	Houdini on his Water Torture Cell (1914)	Lomax Collection Recording of English	Enrico Caruso - A Dream (1920)

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/chopins-funeral-march-the-edison-concert-band-1906/

M (1931)

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 16:24

Directed by Fritz Lang, M is about the search for a child murderer in Berlin, and as the story, and the search progress, the high profile murderer begins to inhibit the lives of everyone from the Police, to the criminals, to innocent bystanders who are accused of being the murderer for even the slightest contact with any child. It was Lang’s first sound film. It has become a classic which Lang himself considered his finest work.

Download from Internet Archive

CLIPS	SHORT	FULL LENGTH SILENT	FULL LENGTH TALKIE
Princess Nicotine (1909) 6min	Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) 12min	Last of the Mohicans (1920) 1hr11min	Meet John Doe (1941) 2hr3min
The Unappreciated Joke (1903) 1min	Frankenstein (1910) 13min	The General (1926) 1hr19min	Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) 1hr19mins
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) 21sec	The Great Train Robbery (1903) 10min	Wolf Blood (1925) 1hr7min	M (1931) 1hr57min

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/m-1931/

Wolf Blood (1925)

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 16:14

Dick the lumberjack gets a blood transfusion with unexpected results. Wolf Blood, also known as Wolfblood: A Tale of the Forest, is the oldest surviving werewolf movie. Starring and directed by George Chesebro.

Download from Internet Archive

CLIPS	SHORT	FULL LENGTH SILENT	FULL LENGTH TALKIE
Princess Nicotine (1909) 6min	Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) 12min	Last of the Mohicans (1920) 1hr11min	Meet John Doe (1941) 2hr3min
The Unappreciated Joke (1903) 1min	Frankenstein (1910) 13min	The General (1926) 1hr19min	Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) 1hr19mins
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) 21sec	The Great Train Robbery (1903) 10min	Wolf Blood (1925) 1hr7min	M (1931) 1hr57min

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/wolf-blood-1925/

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Tuesday 2 August 2011 at 16:05

Considered to be one of the first significant early US narrative films. Greatly influenced by the British film “Daring Daylight Robbery” (1903) it introduced many new cinematic techniques (cross cutting, double exposure, camera movement and location shooting) to American audiences. It was directed by Edwin S Porter and stars Justus D. Barnes as the head bandit, G. M. Anderson as a slain passenger and a robber, Walter Cameron as the sheriff.

Download from Internet Archive

CLIPS	SHORT	FULL LENGTH SILENT	FULL LENGTH TALKIE
Princess Nicotine (1909) 6min	Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) 12min	Last of the Mohicans (1920) 1hr11min	Meet John Doe (1941) 2hr3min
The Unappreciated Joke (1903) 1min	Frankenstein (1910) 13min	The General (1926) 1hr19min	Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) 1hr19mins
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) 21sec	The Great Train Robbery (1903) 10min	Wolf Blood (1925) 1hr7min	M (1931) 1hr57min

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/08/02/the-great-train-robbery-1903/