ARS MAGNA PROJECT

Gerard K O'Neill design from the 1970s for a space station colony — 2 cylinders rotate in opposite directions to provide artificial gravity and keep the station aimed at the sun. A similar colony appears at the end of Interstellar (2014). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/space-colony-art-from-the-1970s

Frontispiece to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), a book of traditional Japanese ghost stories compiled by the great scholar and translator Lafcadio Hearn, who was born #onthisday in 1850. Read the book here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kwaidan-stories-and-studies-of-strange-things-1904 #otd

Posters for Harry Kellar (1849–1922) the hugely popular US magician who inspired the likes of Harry Houdini, and reportedly acted as model for the bald-headed wizard in the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz published in 1900 — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/harry-kellar-s-show-posters

The art of arranging marine algae into designs, bouquets, and even sometimes intricate little scenes, was surprisingly popular in the 19th century. See an album of such pictures by a woman named Eliza A. Jordson here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/album-of-seaweed-pictures-1848

My latest @guardian book cartoon

OnThisDay in 1821, after more than 5 years in exile on St Helena, #Napoleon died. While imprisoned on the remote island, le petit caporal started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world”. — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/napoleons-englich-lessons #OTD

Extract from The Hasheesh Eater (1857) by novelist/journalist Fitz Hugh Ludlow. Terence McKenna would describe Ludlow as “Part genius, part madman, … halfway between Captain Ahab and PT Barnum, a kind of Mark Twain on hashish”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-hasheesh-eater-1857?utm_content=buffer93dad&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer #fourtwenty #four20

Mark Twain died #onthisday in 1910. The best known of his books is Huckleberry Finn, not so well known is Jap Herron which, according to a woman named Emily Grant Hutchings, he dictated from beyond the grave via a ouija board… https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/jap-herron-a-novel-written-from-the-ouija-board-1917 #OTD

More on his life and stunning astronomical art here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-trouvelot-astronomical-drawings-1882

Alice Morse Earle, Sun dials and roses of yesterday, 1902

More art depicting #dreams here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-art-of-dreams #OTD

One of many wonderful full-page watercolour illustrations in a 16th-century edition of Pedanius Dioscorides’s work on herbal medicine, De Materia Medica (ca. 80 AD). More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/watercolours-from-a-16th-century-de-materia-medica

Born #onthisday in Wisconsin in 1868, the US photographer and ethnologist Edward S. Curtis. Here’s his circa 1914 series depicting the ceremonial dress and masks of the Kwakwaka’wakw, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/edward-curtis-photographs-of-kwakwaka-wakw-ceremonial-dress-and-masks-ca-1914

More info and images from the book here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-comet-book

From John Bulwer’s Chirologia, or The Naturall Language of the Hand (1644), the English physician’s attempt to record the vocabulary contained in hand gestures and bodily motions. ⠀ More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/chirologia-or-the-natural-language-of-the-hand-1644

French novelist Jules Verne was born #onthisday in 1828. His fantastic tales of voyage and adventure have lent themselves to many wonderful illustrations but perhaps none so captivating as those by Émile-Antoine Bayard for Around the Moon (1870) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/emile-antoine-bayard-s-illustrations-for-around-the-moon-by-jules-verne-1870 #otd