The Public Domain Review

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.

An essay by Frances Power Cobbe, an advocate for women’s suffrage, about the consolation and possible significance of deathbed visions.

PDR Editor Adam Green talks to Jason Forrest of Nightingale, journal for the Data Visualization Society.

Dorothy Parker’s reputation as one of the premier wits of the 20th century rests firmly on the brilliance of her writing, but the image of her as a plucky, fast-talking, independent woman of her times owes more than a little to her seat at the legendary Algonquin Round Table. Jonathan Goldman explores the beginnings of the famed New York group and how Parker's determination to speak her mind — even when it angered men in positions of power — gave her pride of place within it.