The Public Domain Review

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

Joseph Ducreux’s Self-Portraits (ca. 1790)

Thursday 27 August 2020 at 08:30

Strikingly modern self-portraits by a French painter whose fixation on his own physiognomy has made his paintings readymade material for internet memes.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/joseph-ducreux-self-portraits


Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652)

Wednesday 26 August 2020 at 08:55

Early anthology of English alchemical texts, including by Geoffrey Chaucer among others, accompanied by charts and illustrations.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/theatrum-chemicum


Work with The Public Domain Review

Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 16:04

We are looking for an experienced editor, researcher, and writer to work with us.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2020/08/work-with-the-public-domain-review


Primary Sources: A Natural History of the Artist's Palette

Thursday 23 July 2020 at 08:54

For all its transcendental appeals, art has always been inextricably grounded in the material realities of its production, an entwinement most evident in the intriguing history of artists' colours. Focusing in on painting's primary trio of red, yellow, and blue, Philip Ball explores the science and stories behind the pigments, from the red ochre of Lascaux to Yves Klein's blue.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/primary-sources


Ancient Courses: Harold Fisk’s Meander Maps of the Mississippi River (1944)

Tuesday 21 July 2020 at 07:11

Artful, detailed maps of the Mississippi’s meander belt created by US geologist and cartographer Harold Fisk.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/maps-of-the-lower-mississippi-harold-fisk


"A Slight Freshness on the Neck": Prints Depicting the Execution of Louis XVI (ca. 1793)

Tuesday 14 July 2020 at 09:35

Eighteenth-century images of the guillotining of King Louis XVI, which came to represent the changing nature of the French Revolution.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/execution-by-guillotine-of-louis-xvi


First Edition Pamphlet of Frederick Douglass' "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" (1852)

Saturday 4 July 2020 at 09:56

Douglass' famous anti-slavery oration, one of the most important speeches in the history of the United States.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/frederick-douglass-fourth-july-speech


Sicko Doctors: Suffering and Sadism in 19th-Century America

Wednesday 1 July 2020 at 09:01

American fiction of the 19th century often featured a ghoulish figure, the cruel doctor, whose unfeeling fascination with bodily suffering readers found both unnerving and entirely plausible. Looking at novels by Louisa May Alcott, James Fenimore Cooper, and Herman Melville, Chelsea Davis dissects this curious character.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sicko-doctors


The Four Elements and Temperaments from an Album of Prints after Maerten de Vos (ca. 1583)

Tuesday 30 June 2020 at 08:39

Colourful prints depicting the four classical elements and the four temperaments based on paintings by the Flemish artist Maerten de Vos.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/elements-and-temperaments-maerten-de-vos


William Wood’s The History and Antiquities of Eyam (1848)

Wednesday 24 June 2020 at 09:27

A romantically tinged history of the town of Eyam, which was devastated by the bubonic plague in 1666.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/history-and-antiquities-of-eyam