Thursday 15 March 2018 at 17:17
Highlights from a book of 120 woodcuts depicting a series of fantastically bizarre and grotesque figures, reminiscent of some of the more inventive and twisted creations of Brueghel or Bosch.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-drolatic-dreams-of-pantagruel-1565/
Wednesday 14 March 2018 at 16:25
While imprisoned on St Helena, Napoleon started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world.”
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/napoleons-englich-lessons/
Wednesday 7 March 2018 at 17:30
On the 250th anniversary of Laurence Sterne's death, Ian Campbell Ross looks at the engagement with mortality so important to the novelist's groundbreaking work.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2018/03/07/alas-poor-yorick-the-death-and-life-of-laurence-sterne/
Tuesday 6 March 2018 at 18:44
Wonderful drawings of balloonfishes and pufferfishes made during, or shortly after, the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/drawings-of-tetradons-and-diodons-ca-1838-42/
Thursday 1 March 2018 at 17:49
Wonderful trompe l'oeil tumbling block design quilt incorporating signatures from such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rembrandt Peale, and Abraham Lincoln (one of eight American presidents represented).
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/adeline-harris-sears-autographs-quilt-1856-ca-1863/
Wednesday 28 February 2018 at 15:19
John Florio's translation of Michel de Montaigne's genre-forming Essays, including thoughts on grief, friendship, drunkenness, impotence, smells, death, and thumbs.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/first-english-edition-of-michel-de-montaignes-essays-1603/
Wednesday 21 February 2018 at 18:17
Musings upon the whys and wherefores of polar bears, particularly in relation to their forest-dwelling cousins, played an important but often overlooked role in the development of evolutionary theory. Michael Engelhard explores.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2018/02/21/darwins-polar-bear/
Tuesday 20 February 2018 at 17:24
Anthology of anti-slavery literature featuring abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass’s only published work of fiction.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/autographs-for-freedom-1853/
Saturday 17 February 2018 at 13:46
This wonderful sketch of “teeth painlessly extracted by steam power” appears on an envelope addressed to a certain Dr J. Chapman of Totton, Southampton. As to whether he is the creator of the drawing also (or indeed someone in his household), the jury is out — though the idea that the envelope made its way […]
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/steam-powered-tooth-extraction-on-an-envelope-1894/
Wednesday 14 February 2018 at 17:51
An exploration of covert communication through history by the artist, naturalist, antiquarian, and writer Frederick Edward Hulme.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/cryptography-or-the-history-principles-and-practice-of-cipher-writing-1898/