The Public Domain Review

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

The Age of Impoliteness: Galateo: or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners (1774 edition)

Tuesday 27 February 2024 at 16:46

An English translation of an influential 16th-century Italian etiquette guide. Its proposition is simple but difficult to get right: politeness is the art of pleasing others.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/galateo


“The Substantiality of Spirit”: Georgiana Houghton’s Pictures from the Other Side

Wednesday 21 February 2024 at 16:15

When Georgiana Houghton first exhibited her paintings at a London gallery in 1871, their wild eddies of colour and line were unlike anything the public had seen before — nor would see again until the rise of abstract art decades later. But there was little intentionally abstract about these images: Houghton painted entities she met in the spirit regions. Viewing her works through the prism of friendship, loss, and faith, Jennifer Higgie turns overdue attention on an artist neglected by historians, a visionary who believed that death was not the end, merely a new distance to overcome.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-substantiality-of-spirit


Tales of the Catfish God: Earthquakes in Japanese Woodblock Prints (1855)

Wednesday 21 February 2024 at 16:10

A type of woodblock print known as namazu-e, these images involve a myth that earthquakes were caused by the movements of a great catfish.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/earthquakes-in-japanese-woodblock-prints


Unwashed Furry Masses: Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats (1928)

Thursday 15 February 2024 at 16:50

The oldest American children's book still in print, Wanda Gág's classic opens onto surprisingly political themes.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/millions-of-cats


Lithographs from Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn’s Java-Album (1854)

Tuesday 13 February 2024 at 13:58

Eleven lithographs of Java from drawings by an eccentric Dutch colonial explorer who believed elevation equals greatness.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/junghuhn-java-album


Eugène-François Vidocq and the Birth of the Detective

Wednesday 7 February 2024 at 15:01

According to his memoirs, Eugène-François Vidocq escaped from more than twenty prisons (sometimes dressed as a nun). Working on the other side of the law, he apprehended some 4000 criminals with a team of plainclothes agents. He founded the first criminal investigation bureau — staffed mainly with convicts — and, when he was later fired, the first private detective agency. He was one the fathers of modern criminology and had a rap sheet longer than his very tall tales. Who was Vidocq? Daisy Sainsbury investigates.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/eugene-francois-vidocq-and-the-birth-of-the-detective


Never-again Land: J. M. Barrie's My Lady Nicotine (1896)

Tuesday 6 February 2024 at 13:41

A genre-defying work by the creator of Peter Pan about the pleasures of smoking.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/my-lady-nicotine


Sheet Music Covers for the Gotham-Attucks Company, ca. 1905–1911

Thursday 1 February 2024 at 14:50

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/gotham-attucks


Paper Gems: Early Modern Blackwork Prints

Tuesday 30 January 2024 at 16:26

Prints made using a technique known as blackwork which flourished from the 1580s to the 1620s.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/blackwork


As Loud as a Mouse: Mickey’s Sonic Debut in Steamboat Willie (1928)

Wednesday 24 January 2024 at 13:40

In the public domain at last, Steamboat Willie debuted both Mickey Mouse and cartoon synchronised sound to a widespread audience.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/steamboat-willie