Thursday 28 January 2016 at 16:37
The great inventor Thomas Edison tells a joke about a healthy liver, recorded on his Edison Blue Amberol cylinder. I guess you had to have been there...
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/thomas-edison-tells-a-joke-about-a-liver-1906/
Wednesday 27 January 2016 at 18:13
Known for his debauched lifestyle, his flirtations with criminality, and the sheer volume of his literary output, the Elizabethan writer Robert Greene was a fascinating figure. Ed Simon explores the literary merits and bohemian traits of the man who penned the earliest known, and far from flattering, reference to Shakespeare as a playwright.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2016/01/27/robert-greene-the-first-bohemian/
Tuesday 26 January 2016 at 18:46
An Austrian painter's beautiful presentation of various atmospheric conditions including will-o'-the-wisp, a moonbow, and the Northern Lights.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/phenomena-over-and-under-the-earth-1878/
Thursday 21 January 2016 at 15:59
Silent film exploring the Studio for Portrait Masks, the Paris workshop of American artist Anna Coleman Ladd (1878-1939), which provided galvanised copper masks for soldiers whose faces were partly destroyed fighting in the First World War.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/plastic-reconstruction-of-the-face-1918/
Wednesday 20 January 2016 at 16:01
Featuring artwork by Lucien Pissarro, this is a beautiful art nouveau edition of an essay on gardens by the Renaissance philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626).
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/francis-bacon-on-gardens-1902/
Tuesday 19 January 2016 at 18:02
A unique set of composite photographs by Lewis Hine depicting Southern cotton mill workers. Each image was created by purposively rephotographing several workers upon the same photographic plate.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/lewis-hines-composite-photographs-of-child-labourers-1913/
Thursday 14 January 2016 at 17:23
A small booklet detailing the narrative of Bridget Durgan (1843-1867), an Irish domestic servant who was hanged for murder of her master in the 1860s New Jersey.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/life-crimes-and-confession-of-bridget-durgan-1867/
Wednesday 13 January 2016 at 18:37
Celebrated for his innovative wit, Oscar Wilde and the notion of originality are common bedfellows. The pairing, however, is not without its complications. Joseph Bristow and Rebecca N. Mitchell explore the claims of plagiarism that dogged Wilde's career, particularly as regards his relationship with that other great figure of late-19th-century Decadence, the American painter James McNeill Whistler.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/2016/01/13/on-oscar-wilde-and-plagiarism/
Tuesday 12 January 2016 at 19:11
Our selection of highlights from an afternoon's browsing of the NYPL's massive new public domain release — a selection which we hope shows the breadth and depth of the content.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/nypl-release-187k-public-domain-images-in-hi-res/
Wednesday 6 January 2016 at 16:18
This charming book from 1917 presents a manual training in what the author William S. Marten terms constructive-play, full of how-to guides for making all manner of toys and other objects.
Source: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/manual-training-play-problems-1917/