The Public Domain Review

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

The Tomb and the Telephone Box: Soane's Mausoleum (1816)

Thursday 24 January 2019 at 16:47

How the Soane family tomb provided inspiration for London's iconic red telephone box.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-tomb-and-the-telephone-box-soane-s-mausoleum-1816


Robert Fludd's Memory Tricks (1617)

Thursday 17 January 2019 at 16:59

Robert Fludd's alphabet of correspondences, where each letter and number is paired with an object which echoes its shape.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/robert-fludd-s-memory-tricks-1617


Paterson's Roads (1826 edition)

Wednesday 16 January 2019 at 16:20

Perhaps the closest thing the 19th century ever got to Google Street View, a book to guide the journeyer along the major roads of England and Wales.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/paterson-s-roads-1826-edition


"O Uommibatto": How the Pre-Raphaelites Became Obsessed with the Wombat

Thursday 10 January 2019 at 14:55

Angus Trumble on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and company's curious but longstanding fixation with the furry oddity that is the wombat — that "most beautiful of God's creatures" which found its way into their poems, their art, and even, for a brief while, their homes.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-uommibatto-how-the-pre-raphaelites-became-obsessed-with-the-wombat


Physical Training for Business Men (1917)

Wednesday 9 January 2019 at 20:01

A superb series of photographs found in exercise manual by American author Harrie Irving Hancock.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/physical-training-for-business-men-1917


Characters and Caricaturas by William Hogarth (1743)

Tuesday 8 January 2019 at 18:14

Hogarth's pictorial defence against claims his art was more about caricatures than characters.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/characters-and-caricaturas-by-william-hogarth-1743


Class of 2019

Saturday 29 December 2018 at 19:12

Our top pick of those whose works on 1st January 2019 enter the public domain in many countries around the world, including Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Sergei Eisenstein and Martin Luther King Jr.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/class-of-2019


Schneider Von Groot's Christmas Dream (1885)

Wednesday 12 December 2018 at 17:20

Born of the temperance movement, this poem dramatises the ills of drinking schnapps, through one man’s bloody battle with thousands of intoxicated demons.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/schneider-von-groot-s-christmas-dream-1885


Rambling Reflections: On Summers in Switzerland and Sheffield

Tuesday 11 December 2018 at 17:37

In the footsteps of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Philipp Moritz — from the peace of Lake Biel to the rugged Peaks — Seán Williams considers the connection between walking and writing.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/rambling-reflections-on-summers-in-switzerland-and-sheffield


Hokusai's Ghost Stories (ca. 1830)

Tuesday 11 December 2018 at 16:37

Hokusai's five ghoulish prints for the series Hyaku Monogatari [One Hundred Ghost Stories].

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hokusai-s-ghost-stories-ca-1830