The Public Domain Review

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

Race and the White Elephant War of 1884

Wednesday 11 October 2017 at 17:27

Feuding impresarios, a white-but-not-white-enough elephant, and racist ads for soap — Ross Bullen on how a bizarre episode in circus history became an unlikely forum for discussing 19th-century theories of race, and inadvertently laid bare the ideological constructions at their heart.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/10/11/race-and-the-white-elephant-war-of-1884/


Race and the White Elephant War of 1884

Wednesday 11 October 2017 at 13:32

Feuding impresarios, a white-but-not-white-enough elephant, and racist ads for soap — Ross Bullen on how a bizarre episode in circus history became an unlikely forum for discussing 19th-century theories of race, and inadvertently laid bare the ideological constructions at their heart. The Lydian Monarch had been sighted from Fire Island and was expected in Jersey […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/10/11/race-and-the-white-elephant-war-of-1884/


Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (1784)

Thursday 5 October 2017 at 19:09

The published correspondence of Ignatius Sancho, the first known Black Briton to vote in a British election, and the first person of African descent known to be given an obituary in the British press.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/letters-of-the-late-ignatius-sancho-an-african-1784/


The Primordial Gound

Wednesday 4 October 2017 at 21:28

CONJECTURES #6 — Kant in Sumatra? The Third Critique and the cosmologies of Melanesia? Justin E. H. Smith on the strange worlds revealed in a typesetter's error.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-primordial-gound/


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

Tuesday 3 October 2017 at 19:54

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/


Master of Disaster, Ignatius Donnelly

Wednesday 27 September 2017 at 14:53

The destruction of Atlantis, cataclysmic comets, and a Manhattan tower made entirely from concrete and corpse — Carl Abbott on the life and work of a Minnesotan writer, and failed politician, with a mind primed for catastrophe.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/09/27/ignatius-donnelly-recipes-for-disaster/


Master of Disaster, Ignatius Donnelly

Wednesday 27 September 2017 at 13:12

The destruction of Atlantis, cataclysmic comets, and a Manhattan tower made entirely from concrete and corpse — Carl Abbott on the life and work of a Minnesotan writer, and failed politician, with a mind primed for catastrophe. The magnificent civilization of Atlantis shattered and plunged beneath the sea in February 1882. Or, to be more […]

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2017/09/27/ignatius-donnelly-recipes-for-disaster/


The First Shape Book: Little Red Riding Hood (1863)

Wednesday 20 September 2017 at 17:17

This 1863 rendering of Perrault's classic tale, is thought to be the very first shape book, or die cut book, at least in the United States.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/little-red-riding-hood-1863/


On the Disposition of Iron in Variegated Strata (1868)

Tuesday 19 September 2017 at 14:48

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/


Park Conscious (1938)

Thursday 14 September 2017 at 18:02

Short film from the US Department of the Interior emphasising the physical and mental well-being that parks can bring.

Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/park-conscious-1938/