The Public Domain Review

Illustrations from a seventeenth-century Italian book of proverbs made by the engraver and painter Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (1634–1718).

Deadly fogs, moralistic diatribes, debunked medical theory - Brett Beasley explores a piece of Victorian science fiction considered to be the first modern tale of urban apocalypse.

A unique glimpse at London in 1918, some months before the end of World War I. The film shows some of the famous sights of the city, from Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral, from Clepotra's Needle to the Tower of London.

A set of diagrams from a 19th-century gynecology manual, in which the figures bear an uncanny resemblance to depictions of aliens from more than half-a-century later.

Issue from 1838 of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, first published in 1836 by the American Anti-Slavery Society and an attempt to bring awareness about slavery to nineteenth-century America.

A comedic song performed by the music hall performer Tom Woottwell (1865-1941).

One of the early Republic's great polymaths, New Yorker Samuel L. Mitchill was a man with a finger in many a pie, including medicine, science, natural history, and politics. Dr Kevin Dann argues that Mitchill's peculiar brand of curiosity can best be seen in his study of fish and the attention he gives one seemingly unassuming specimen.

Wonderful full-page watercolour illustrations from a 16th-century edition of Pedanius Dioscorides's work on herbal medicine, De Materia Medica.

A film produced by Western Electric, a haunting glimpse into the construction of the Twin Towers in New York and their early use.

A selection on Augustus Sherman's photographs of immgrants passing through Ellis Island on their way to new lives in the United States.