The Public Domain Review

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Firemen's coats in 19th-century Japan were reversible — one side was plain and the other side (worn on the inside while tackling blazes) was decorated with rich and symbolic imagery

List of Latin words used to veil words deemed too scandalous in Bernard S. Talmey’s treatise on carnal acts.