The enigmatic story of the Unicorn Tapestries, whose multifarious medieval symbolism still beguiles.
This is just an automatic copy of Public Domain Review blog.
The enigmatic story of the Unicorn Tapestries, whose multifarious medieval symbolism still beguiles.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-unicorn-tapestries-1495-1505
Poe’s story of a treasure hunt, revealing the fantastical writer’s hyper-rational penchant for cracking codes.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/edgar-allan-poes-the-gold-bug-1843
The Victorian artist and writer turns his peculiar brand of verbal and visual invention to the world of plant taxonomy.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/edward-lears-nonsense-botany-1871-77
Though the 17th-century whaling station of Smeerenburg was in reality, at its height, just a few dwellings and structures for processing blubber, over the decades and centuries a more extravagant picture took hold — that there once had stood, defying its far-flung Arctic location, a bustling urban centre complete with bakeries, churches, gambling dens, and brothels. Matthew H. Birkhold explores the legend.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-myth-of-blubber-town-an-arctic-metropolis
Illustrations from the 19th-century physics text books of Amédée Guillemin.
Condensed and beautifully illustrated English version of the ten volume series on insects by Jean-Henri Fabre in which he brought out the beauty and drama in the lives of creatures that had hitherto been regarded with horror, if regarded at all.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/fabres-book-of-insects-1921
Recording by the legendary musicologist Alan Lomax of Abner Boggs singing a heartrending rendition of this popular murder ballad.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-false-young-man-1937
In addition to the numerous pioneering works of science fiction by which he made his name, H. G. Wells also published a steady stream of non-fiction meditations, mainly focused on themes salient to his stories: the effects of technology, human folly, and the idea of progress. As Peter J. Bowler explores, for Wells the notion of a better future was riddled with complexities.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/h-g-wells-and-the-uncertainties-of-progress
Ever wondered what sentiments the various flowers express? The Victorians have you covered.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-language-of-flowers-an-alphabet-of-floral-emblems-1857
Journal of one of the first to spend winter on Antarctica, including more than 2 months of total darkness.
Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/through-the-first-antarctic-night-1900