THE PUBLIC DOMAIN REVIEW

Happy birthday to book illustrator Walter Crane, born in Liverpool #onthisday in 1845. Celebrate with a look through one of his most stunning works, A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden (1899) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-floral-fantasy-in-an-old-english-garden-1899 #otd

Napoleon was born #onthisday in 1769. After the collapse of his empire in 1815, “le petit caporal” was imprisoned on St Helena, and while there started learning English. One resident of the island called his English “the oddest in the world” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/napoleons-englich-lessons #otd

More organised delight from the catalogue here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pages-from-an-illustrated-catalogue-of-period-ornaments-ca-1919

“Mermaids and Tritons in the Age of Reason” — @VaughnScribner's essay on how humanity’s supposed aquatic ancestors became wondrous screens on which to project theories of geographical, racial, and taxonomical difference: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/mermaids-and-tritons-in-the-age-of-reason

Highlights from the photography collection of the 19th-century sexologist and author of Psychopathia Sexualis (1896), Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, who was born #onthisday in 1840: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photograph-collection-of-a-19th-century-sexologist #otd

Here's an x-ray of a Green Lizard, from an early volume of X-rays produced by Josef Maria Eder, a director of an institute for graphic processes, and Eduard Valenta, a photochemist, both from Austria. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/early-experiments-with-x-rays-1896 #onthisday #otd

Highlight's from John O. Westwood’s sensational Victorian facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon and Irish medieval manuscripts — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-o-westwoods-facsimiles-of-anglo-saxon-and-irish-manuscripts-1868

Read Matthew Hargreaves on Blake and one of his most avid collectors Paul Mellon: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/william-blake-and-paul-mellon-the-life-of-the-mind #otd

"Chladni figures" from 1787 created by German physicist and musician Ernst Chladni, showing nodal patterns made by drawing a bow along the edge of a sand-covered plate. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/chladni-figures-1787

Ukiyo-e woodblock, by the late Edo artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), illustrating the legend of the "Sea Monk" or Umibōzu, a spirit in Japanese folklore. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-sea-monk-ca-1845

George Washington Williams' History of the Negro Race in America (1882–83), a work of millennial scope by a self-taught African-American historian:

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/collection/topsell-s-history-of-four-footed-beasts-and-serpents-1658

Still Life with Peeled Orange and Bunch of Grapes, Albertus Steenbergen, late 19th century.⠀⁠ ⠀⁠ Available as a print from our shop here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/still-life-with-peeled-orange-and-bunch-of-grapes

Take a closer look at "The Garden of Earthly Delights", the best known painting by the genius that was Hieronymus Bosch, who died #onthisday in 1516: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/details-from-bosch-s-garden-of-earthly-delights-ca-1500 #otd

Fifteenth-century handwriting as seen in The History of Ink (1860), a book including beautiful samples of penmanship from 1500 BC to 1834 AD: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-history-of-ink-including-its-etymology-chemistry-and-bibliography-1860

This 1911 book shows that taking photos of cats and furnishing them with an amusing caption was a thing long before the internet... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kittens-and-cats-a-first-reader-1911-cats-and-captions-before-the-internet-age #InternationalCatDay

Some essential reading for #InternationalCatDay" — the wonderfully illustrated Nine Lives of a Cat (1860) — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-nine-lives-of-a-cat-1860