Thursday 9 June 2016 at 16:52
16th-century Dutch engraving depicting a fantastical animal with the heads of various other animals sprouting from its body: an allegory for the difficulty of ruling over a diverse nation.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-difficulty-of-ruling-over-a-diverse-nation-1578/
Wednesday 8 June 2016 at 18:09
One of the earliest works by the American parodist Guy Wetmore Carryl, this collection of fables are adapted from Jean de La Fontaine's Aesop-style originals from more than 200 years earlier.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/fables-for-the-frivolous-1899/
Thursday 2 June 2016 at 17:48
A film by the pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter Segundo Chomón.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-magic-roses-1906/
Wednesday 1 June 2016 at 18:15
Largely forgotten today in the shadow of his more famous father, the 17th-century Flemish alchemist Francis van Helmont influenced and was friends with the likes of Locke, Boyle, and Leibniz. While imprisoned by the Inquisition, in between torture sessions, he wrote his Alphabet of Nature on the idea of a universal natural language. Je Wilson explores.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2016/06/01/francis-van-helmont-and-the-alphabet-of-nature/
Tuesday 31 May 2016 at 21:26
Selection of images illustrating on the idea that one's life can be thought of as divisible into distinct stages.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-steps-of-life/
Tuesday 24 May 2016 at 18:12
An unusual creation from the studio of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, the French photographer known for inventing the hugely popular carte de visite.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-legs-of-the-opera-ca-1862/
Friday 20 May 2016 at 20:14
This somewhat unnerving recording would would have been heard at most Edison phonograph dealers in the early part of the twentieth century.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/i-am-the-edison-phonograph-1906/
Wednesday 18 May 2016 at 15:49
Copying — unoriginal, dull, and derivative by definition — can be creative, contested, and consequential in its effects. Nick Hopwood tracks Haeckel’s embryos, some of the most controversial pictures in the history of science, and explores how copying put them among the most widely seen.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2016/05/18/copying-pictures-evidencing-evolution/
Monday 16 May 2016 at 15:57
The map that changed the Middle East, outlining a secret agreement between the the UK and France on how they would carve up the Middle East should the Ottoman Empire be defeated in the First World War.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-map-that-changed-the-middle-east-1916/
Wednesday 11 May 2016 at 18:39
Dream diary of the 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, religious teacher and visionary Emanuel Swedenborg.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/emanuel-swedenborgs-journal-of-dreams-and-spiritual-experiences-1918/