The Public Domain Review

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

Flash Mob: Revolution, Lightning, and the People’s Will

Thursday 9 November 2017 at 18:42

Kevin Duong explores how leading French revolutionaries, in need of an image to represent the all important “will of the people”, turned to the thunderbolt — a natural symbol of power and illumination that also signalled the scientific ideals so key to their project.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/11/09/revolution-lightning-and-the-peoples-will/


Autumn: Saviour, Breathe an Evening Blessing (1912)

Wednesday 8 November 2017 at 20:07

Rendition by the Trinity Choir of James Edmeston's 1820 hymn "Savior, Breathe an Evening Blessing"

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/autumn-saviour-breathe-an-evening-blessing-1912/


The Model Book of Calligraphy (1561–1596)

Tuesday 7 November 2017 at 18:04

Pages from a remarkable book, the result of a collaboration across many decades between a master scribe, the Croatian-born Georg Bocskay, and Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-model-book-of-calligraphy-1561-1596/


Alphonse Bertillon’s Synoptic Table of Physiognomic Traits (ca. 1909)

Saturday 28 October 2017 at 21:25

Cheat sheet to help police clerks put into practice Bertillon's method for classifying and archiving the images of repeat offenders.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/alphonse-bertillons-synoptic-table-of-physiognomic-traits-ca-1909/


Defining the Demonic

Wednesday 25 October 2017 at 15:45

Although Jacques Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal, a monumental compendium of all things diabolical, was first published in 1818 to much success, it is the fabulously illustrated final edition of 1863 which secured the book as a landmark in the study and representation of demons. Ed Simon explores the work and how at its heart […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/10/25/defining-the-demonic/


Defining the Demonic

Wednesday 25 October 2017 at 15:25

Although Jacques Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal, a monumental compendium of all things diabolical, was first published in 1818 to much success, it is the fabulously illustrated final edition of 1863 which secured the book as a landmark in the study and representation of demons. Ed Simon explores the work and how at its heart lies an unlikely but pertinent synthesis of the Enlightenment and the occult.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/10/25/defining-the-demonic/


The Civil War Sketches of Adolph Metzner (1861–64)

Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 15:26

Remarkable collection of sketches, drawings and watercolours left to us by Adolph Metzner, during his three years of service with the 1st German, 32nd Regiment Indiana Infantry.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-civil-war-sketches-of-adolph-metzner-1861-64/


On the Disposition of Iron in Variegated Strata (1868)

Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 15:00

Images depicting ferruginous variation from a 19th-century geological paper, at times like some kind of geological precursor to the 50s experiments of Abstract Expressionism.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/on-the-disposition-of-iron-in-variegated-strata-1868/


Émile-Antoine Bayard’s Illustrations for Around the Moon by Jules Verne (1870)

Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 14:53

Arguably the very first images to depict space travel on a scientific basis, these wonderful illustrations are the work of the French illustrator Émile-Antoine Bayard.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/emile-antoine-bayards-illustrations-for-around-the-moon-by-jules-verne-1870/


Illustrations from the Lights of Canopus (1847)

Tuesday 24 October 2017 at 14:40

Exquisite illustrations from a 19th-century Persian version of an ancient Indian collection of animal fables called the Panchatantra.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/illustrations-from-the-lights-of-canopus-1847/