The Public Domain Review

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

London's Dreadful Visitation: A Year of Weekly Death Statistics during the Great Plague (1665)

Thursday 26 March 2020 at 10:25

Bills of mortality for the year 1665 in London, recording the number of plague dead, as well as other causes of mortality.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/londons-dreadful-visitation-bills-of-mortality


Richard Deakin’s Flora of the Colosseum of Rome (1855)

Tuesday 24 March 2020 at 08:11

A thoroughly romantic amateur English botanist’s catalogue of more than 400 plants and flowers that once grew in profusion on the Roman Colosseum.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/richard-deakin-flora-of-the-colosseum-of-rome


Plague Doctor Costumes

Tuesday 17 March 2020 at 11:34

Depictions of plague doctors in the bird mask and floor-length cloak first developed in France during the early 17th century.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/plague-doctor-costumes


Comic Gold: The Easterner Goes West in Three Early American Comics

Thursday 12 March 2020 at 11:05

The California Gold Rush transformed the landscape and population of the United States. It also introduced a new figure into American life and the American imagination — the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune. Alex Andriesse examines how this figure fares in three mid-nineteenth-century comic books.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/comic-gold-the-easterner-goes-west-in-three-early-american-comics


Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (1853)

Tuesday 10 March 2020 at 07:21

Three volumes of anecdotes about painters and other artists collected by an enterprising American dentist, author, and connoisseur of the arts.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/anecdotes-of-painters-engravers-sculptors-and-architects


Coughs, Sneezes, and Jet-Propelled Germs: Two Public Service Films by Richard Massingham (1945)

Thursday 5 March 2020 at 08:24

Two PSA films featuring the multi-talented director, actor, doctor, and hypochondriac Richard Massingham.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/coughs-sneezes-and-jet-propelled-germs-1945


Edouard Joseph d’Alton's Illustrations of Animal Skeletons (1821–1838)

Wednesday 4 March 2020 at 11:29

Meticulous illustrations from an atlas of animal bones, including those of the tiny squirrel and the tall giraffe, the domesticated camel and the extinct giant ground sloth.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/comparative-osteology


Titiba and the Invention of the Unknown

Wednesday 26 February 2020 at 10:54

In this lyrical essay on a difficult and painful topic, the poet Kathryn Nuernberger works to defy history’s commitment to distance, to unsettling effect.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/titiba-and-the-invention-of-the-unknown


"Theire Soe Admirable Herbe": How the English Found Cannabis

Thursday 20 February 2020 at 07:58

In the 17th century, English travelers, merchants, and physicians were first introduced to cannabis, particularly in the form of bhang, an intoxicating edible which had been getting Indians high for millennia. Benjamin Breen charts the course of the drug from the streets of Machilipatnam to the scientific circles of London.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/how-the-english-found-cannabis


“A Very Speedy Way to Be Besotted”: How the English Found Cannabis

Thursday 20 February 2020 at 07:58

In the 17th century, English travelers, merchants, and physicians were first introduced to cannabis, particularly in the form of bhang, an intoxicating edible which had been getting Indians high for millennia. Benjamin Breen charts the course of the drug from the streets of Machilipatnam to the scientific circles of London.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/a-very-speedy-way-to-be-besotted-how-the-english-found-cannabis