The "Scare-Fox", 1910.
A mechanical device, designed to keep foxes away from pheasants: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/scare-fox
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The Public Domain Review
@publicdomainrev@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Not-for-profit project dedicated to exploring curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas — focusing on works now fallen into the public domain.
Smaller posts surface images, books, audio, and film (sourced from places like Internet Archive, Library of Congress, The Met, Rijksmusuem, Wellcome, etc.) — and we've also 300+ long-form essays (✍️ submissions welcome!)
Here we'll mostly be tooting about content on our site. 🎺
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Boosted by @gvenema@fairmove.net
The first woman to run for president was also a free-love advocate, Spiritualist stockbroker, and the first person to publish the Communist Manifesto in the US.
More on Victoria Woodhull's wild life:
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/victoria-woodhull-the-impending-revolution
A year before his death, the artist Howard Pyle set off for Italy, leaving unfinished on his Delaware easel his final painting *The Mermaid* — a profoundly haunting work of art: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pyle-mermaid
“Frustules of Diatoms”, a cyanotype from 1870 by Austrian botany professor Julius Wiesner. Diatoms are a microalgae found in oceans, waterways, and soils, and generate about 20 to 50% of the planet's oxygen.
Available as a print in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/frustules-of-diatoms
Crouching down to where sky and ground meet, a traveler pushes his head through a gap and into the heavens beyond.
Known as the “Flammarion Engraving” this image has long stumped scholars: is it a lost Renaissance engraving or a 19th-century pastiche? — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flammarion-engraving
Inventor of the essay Michel de Montaigne died #onthisday in 1592. He was 59 years old. Here he is on the importance of facing death head on: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/that-to-study-philosophy-is-to-learn-to-die-1580?utm_content=buffer372d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer #OTD
“Bill of mortality” from the Great Plague's deadliest week, which ended #onthisday in 1665.
In addition to "Plague", and other expected maladies, we see deaths assigned to more enigmatic causes such as “Frighted”, “Winde”, “Planet” + “Teeth”.
More here https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/londons-dreadful-visitation-bills-of-mortality/
Illustration from The Living Forest (1925), by the Canadian painter Arthur Heming who — having been diagnosed with colourblindness as a child — worked for most of his life in a distinctive palette of black, yellow, and white: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/tribal-life-in-old-lyme-canadas-colorblind-chronicler-and-his-connecticut-exile/
Covers from Amauta, a Peruvian avant-garde literary magazine (1926–30): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/amauta-covers/
Today is #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay. Here's "Two Owls", a 1921 print by Dutch artist Julie de Graag.
Buy as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/two-owls
And more on the good work of owl conservation here: https://www.owls.org/
An "alphabet album", a beautiful book of calligraphy and typographic engraving from 1843 assembled by Joseph-Balthazar Silvestre. Ranging from the old-fashioned to the surprisingly modern looking, from the elegantly unreadable to the crystal clear... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sylvestre-alphabet-album
"Kazanian Cat, Astrakhanian mind, Siberian reason, lived gloriously, ate sweetly, farted lightly"⠀
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More on this image and more Russian lubki (colorful broadsides, 16th–early 20th century) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/d-a-rovinskiis-collection-of-russian-lubki-18th%E2%80%9319th-century/#Caturday
(Print to buy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/search/?q=Lubok)
Happy #WorldLionDay! Pictured is an image by 16th-century Swiss scholar Konrad Gesner, featured in Edward Topsell’s wonderful History of Four-footed Beasts (1607). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/topsells-history-of-four-footed-beasts-and-serpents-1658/
NEW ESSAY — Centuries before Neo instantly mastered Kung Fu in The Matrix, medieval scholars found a shortcut to years of difficult study: a magical manuscript that promised to fast-track advanced learning. Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores the Ars notoria: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/ars-notoria/
Navaho Legends (1897), a book from the American Folk-Lore Society compiling Navaho myths and legends and including a lengthy introduction on the history, beliefs and customs of the Navaho people: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/navaho-legends-1897
The American Librarian C.A. Cutter looks forward from 1883 to “the library of the future” in 1983, where the librarians wear slippers and a “little car” delivers books to your desk. Dreams might still come true... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-library-of-the-future-a-vision-of-1983-from-1883
Sacred Egyptian Bean — one of the many exquisite illustrative plates to be found in Robert John Thornton's "The Temple of Flora" (1807).
Read more in our Martin Kemp essay here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/sex-and-science-in-robert-thornton-s-temple-of-flora
And see our Temple of Flora prints for sale here: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/robert-john-thornton
"Thackerayana" — a remarkable compendium of nearly 600 doodles made by Vanity Fair author William Makepeace Thackeray, who was born #onthisday in 1811: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/thackerayana-1875?utm_content=bufferdc697&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer #OTD
"Caterpillar, Pear, Tulip, and Purple Snail " (1561–96) — from the remarkable Model Book of Calligraphy, the result of a collaboration across many decades between a master scribe Georg Bocskay and artist Joris Hoefnagel, who died #onthisday in 1601: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-model-book-of-calligraphy-1561-1596 #OTD
This is a photograph taken in 1873. Did its creator James Nasmyth somehow, and very secretly, beat the Apollo space program by almost 100 years? You may be surprised to hear he did not. It's a photograph of one of his many intricate models. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-models-of-the-moon-1874
Victorian sexuality is often thought synonymous with prudishness, conjuring images of covered-up piano legs + ankle-length skirts. @drmatthewgreen uncovers a quite different scene in the sordid story of Holywell St, 19th-century London's epicentre of smut https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-secret-history-of-holywell-street-home-to-victorian-london-s-dirty-book-trade
Barnard’s Universal Criminal Cipher Code (1895) was a book of codes to help disguise internal police telegrams in what amounted to some kind of 19th-century version of the encrypted email: http://buff.ly/2ut1vvs
The Juggler, from J. J. Grandville's Another World, 1844.
Read Patricia Mainardi on the unique work of the 19th-century illustrator now recognised as a major precursor and inspiration to the Surrealist movement: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/grandville-visions-and-dreams
In his essay “The Polyhedral Perspective”, Noam Andrews explores how polyhedra descended from mathematical treatises to Renaissance artists’ studios, distilling abstract ideas into objects one could see and touch: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/polyhedral-perspective
The illustrations in A Careful Selection of Whisk Ferns (1837) seem to reduce bonsai to its sparest visual elements. The result is something alien, algal — hardly recognizable as a plant at all... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/selection-of-whisk-ferns/
Belshazzar's Feast (1820) — a subversive take on the coronation of George IV.
Discover the apocalyptic compositions of John Martin — born #onthisday in 1789 — and how in his epic landscapes one can see reflected his revolutionary leanings: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/john-martin-and-the-theatre-of-subversion #otd
17th-century Dutch engraving showing a team of pigs spinning cotton, while in the corner a woman — who'd normally be associated with the work — sleeps: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-spinning-sow-1673?utm_content=buffer98086&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
“Who frets about the mystery / Enshrouding all of history / On reading this will, maybe, see / We've made it plain as ABC.”
From Alexander The Great, “a victim of fate”, to Zenobia, “the empress of Palmyra” — An Alphabet of History (1905) https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/an-alphabet-of-history-1905?utm_content=bufferd77f6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
An Austrian painter's beautiful presentation, from 1878, of various atmospheric conditions: including will-o'-the-wisp, a moonbow, and the Northern Lights: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/phenomena-over-and-under-the-earth-1878?utm_content=bufferf2207&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
🌪 🌈 ☀️ 🌤 ⛅️ 🌥 ☁️ 🌦 🌧 ⛈ 🌩 ❄️ ☃️ 🌬 💨 💧
Images from a 1608 edition of Livre de Pourtraiture by Jehan Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522–95), son of the painter and sculptor Jehan Cousin the Elder (ca. 1490-ca. 1560): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/jehan-cousin-s-livre-de-pourtraiture-1608/
Photograph of a Sinhalese woman by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1875.
More on the Victorian photographer's time in Sri Lanka in our essay by Eugenia Herbert: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/julia-margaret-cameron-in-ceylon-idylls-of-freshwater-vs-idylls-of-rathoongodde
#SundayReads — Vlad Solomon on populist forerunner Henri Rochefort, the self-described “errant journalist and literary poacher” who rose to power on the wings of sarcasm and ridicule to reshape France’s political landscape: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/henri-rochefort-and-the-origins-of-french-populism/
Dice Man — it's just how he rolls...
More radical fashion from the 16th-century Schembart Carnival here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/radical-fashion-from-the-schembart-carnival-1590
Harsh words on peacock legs from the author of Bird Gods (1903). Overall though the book is a song of praise. Each chapter considers a bird — dove, woodpecker, cuckoo, peacock, owl, swan — and the gods it has given rise to. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/bird-gods-1898
From Maya astrological tables and Mixtec genealogies, to agricultural records and religious rites, the nine-volume Antiquities of Mexico (1831-48) exquisitely reproduced virtually all pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican books in European collections at the time: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/antiquities-of-mexico/
Final illustration for A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future (1894) by the wealthy businessman John Jacob Astor IV, in which he offers an imagining of life in the year 2000. In 1912, Astor would die in the sinking of the Titanic.
More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-journey-in-other-worlds-a-romance-of-the-future-1894
Carla Nappi conjures a dreamscape from four archival fragments — four oblique references to women named “Elizabeth” who lived on the watershed of the 16th and 17th centuries: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-elizabeths-elemental-historians
After a transformative moment on the Devon coast, Vaughan Cornish devoted his life to the study of waveforms. Read about his Waves of the Sea and Other Water Waves (1910) and Waves of Sand and Snow and the Eddies Which Make Them (1914): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cornish-waves
"Diagram of the Winds", one of several medieval cosmographic diagrams found in a 12th-century English manuscript. See more of its wonderful cosmographic imagery here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cosmography-manuscript-12th-century
In her essay “Picturing Scent: The Tale of a Beached Whale”, @Lizzie_Marx follows a “whale-trail” across history to discover the olfactory paradoxes of the Dutch Golden Age: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/picturing-scent
The remarkable visual diary of the US Civil War left to us by Adolph Metzner: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-civil-war-sketches-of-adolph-metzner-1861-64?utm_content=buffer4b307&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Page from Thesaurus of Alchemy, ca. 1725.
More wondrous illustrations from the world of alchemy here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-surreal-art-of-alchemical-diagrams
The Light is Sweet, a 1687 engraving by the Dutch poet, illustrator, and engraver Jan Luyken.
One of 900+ prints available to buy from our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/the-light-is-sweet/
The Laughing Song (1904) — In this novelty recording by the Norwegian actor Henry Klauser, a mournful refrain gradually gives way to laughter. Apparently it found a perhaps unlikely fan in the fifth Qajar king of Persia, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-laughing-song-1904
Left: St. Michael rescues the faithful from Hell; Right: the rescued in Paradise.
From a 17th-century Ethiopian manuscript telling the story of Michael who, under the patronage of Emperor Zara Yaqob, became the most venerated of archangels in Ethiopia: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/17th-century-ethiopian-manuscript-the-miracles-of-the-archangel-michael?utm_content=buffer88172&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
One of a set of three mushroom illustrations on our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/search/?q=mushrooms
From M. E. Descourtilz’s Atlas des champignons: comestibles, suspects et vénéneux (1827): https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/atlas-des-champignons/
Hypnotees after handing control to mischievous hypnotists (ca. 1900). More diverting scenes here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hypnotism-posters-ca-1900?utm_content=bufferf352a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Print from 1556 published by Hieronymus Cock , designed by Cornelis Floris II and engraved by Johannes or Lucas van Doetecum.
More of these highly elaborate ornament prints, mostly in the grotesque style, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/16th-century-ornament-prints
Coloured lantern slides from Norway in the early 20th century: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/lantern-slides-of-norway-ca-1910?utm_content=buffer4d150&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Illustration from Gaspar Schott's Magia universalis naturae et artis (c. 1658) — the bottom image shows a "cat piano".
More about cat pianos here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/cat-pianos-sound-houses-and-other-imaginary-musical-instruments
