The Public Domain Review

From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have long been entwined with the supernatural in art and literature. What might this say about past knowledge of hallucinogenic fungi? Mike Jay looks at early reports of mushroom-induced trips and how one species in particular became established as a stock motif of Victorian fairyland.

Stunning hand-colored transparencies of life in Meiji-era Japan, from the Canadian businessman Herbert Geddes’ collection, acquired in Yokohama from 1908–1918.

A chapter from Charles Babbage’s The Life of a Philosopher railing against noise pollution in 19th-century London.

Artwork by the famous foundling Kaspar Hauser, ranging from pen-and-ink self-portraits to watercolour studies of fruit and flowers.

Vivid retellings of Korean folktales by an American scholar and Protestant minister, including several stories about the sprite Tokgabi.

From infographics to digital renders, today's scientists have ready access to a wide array of techniques to help visually communicate their research. It wasn't always so. Gregorio Astengo explores the innovations employed in early issues of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, the world's first scientific journal — new forms of image making which pushed the boundaries of 17th-century book printing.

Alphabets from across the ages, drawn and collected by the French paleographer Joseph-Balthazar Sylvestre.

Early Dutch illuminated manuscript containing imaginative images of both real and fantastic creatures.

A criti-fictional course-syllabus from the year 2070 — a bibliographical meteor from the other side of a “Remote Revolution”.

A lighthearted but serious-minded anthology of American writings against censorship written during the Prohibition era in America, including pieces by Dorothy Park, Ben Hecht, and Ruth Hale.