The Public Domain Review

Long before Rauchenberg, Cage, or Malevich, Allais anticipated many of the innovations and experiments that would occupy 20th-century artists.

An attempt to parallel every possible case of amputation, allowing individuals to find a case identical to their own.

At once a reference manual to inspire artists and artisans, and a series of proto-modernist photographic montages anticipating the work of Joseph Cornell.

Why do helical seashells resemble spiralling galaxies and the human heart? Kevin Dann leads us into the gyre of James Bell Pettigrew’s Design in Nature (1908), a provocative and forgotten exploration of the world’s archetypal whorl.

In this affecting photo-essay, Federica Soletta invites us to sit with her awhile on the American porch.

Transcending the earthly concerns of betting and regal motifs, this pack of cards focuses exclusively on the heavens.

Millican's memoir of travels and exploits in the budding flower industry.

What can visual art teach us about scent, stench, and the mysterious substance known as ambergris? Lizzie Marx follows a “whale-trail” across history to discover the olfactory paradoxes of the Dutch Golden Age.

American-born Copley made a splash at London’s Royal Academy with this depiction of Brook Watson’s dramatic rescue from Havana harbour in 1749.

These complex geometrical figures and perspective drawings are preserved in a little-known manuscript at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel