THE PUBLIC DOMAIN REVIEW

Frustrated by being referred to as a mere "caricature" artist, William Hogarth produced this 1743 print to explain the difference between characters and caricatures — which he saw as radically different — and aligning his style firmly with the former: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/characters-and-caricaturas-by-william-hogarth-1743

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

Delightfully ingenious travel journal which uses “hieroglyphic” plates to recount an 1814 voyage to the Caribbean: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hieroglyphic-journal-of-a-voyage-to-the-caribbean-1815

Roald Amundsen — the Norwegian explorer who, with his team, became the first to reach the South Pole — was born #onthisday in 1872. See our highlights of the wonderful set of photos from the 1910–12 expedition: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/amundsen-s-south-pole-expedition #OTD

Through a series of short stories and wonderful engravings, The Accidents of Youth (1819) is aimed at keeping young people out of trouble and "calculated to improve [their] moral conduct" — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-accidents-of-youth-1819

Pages from Romeyn Beck Hough’s unique 14 volume work The American Woods (1888–1913), a collection in book-form of more than 1000 paper-thin wood samples representing more than 350 varieties of N.American tree. More samples from the work here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-american-woods

OnThisDay in 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, a woman named Frau Troffea woke to begin the 2nd day of her manic and mysterious dance. Soon she would be joined by hundreds of others, compelled to dance for seemingly no reason at all... https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-dancing-plague-of-1518 #otd

Illustration from Nonsenseorship (1922). In this “levititious literary escapade” — as publisher George P. Putnam describes his anthology — some of the wittiest writers of the Jazz Age lambaste the nonsensically censorious atmosphere of prohibition-era US: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/nonsenseorship

Before Cousteau, way before @Octonauts, explorer Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez was bringing images of the undersea world to the surface, from his artist’s sketch pad inside a glass and steel diving bell: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/underwater-landscapes-of-eugen-von-ransonnet-villez

Onthisday in 1789, the Bastille was stormed in Paris, a key turning point of the French Revolution. 3.5 years later Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. We look at the deluge of prints that emerged depicting his death https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/execution-by-guillotine-of-louis-xvi #FeteNationale #bastilleday #otd

More eyes in the hills here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-art-of-hidden-faces-anthropomorphic-landscapes #otd

Buy print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/vase-of-flowers

Circular snapshots from the very first @Kodak camera (the first truly portable camera) — invented by George Eastman who was born #onthisday in New York in 1854. more examples here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kodak-no-1-circular-snapshots #OTD

The 3 stages of the “Dripping Sheet”.⁠ ⁠ Illustrations from Practical Hydrotherapy: A Manual for Students and Practitioners (1909) by Dr Curran Pope. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/practical-hydrotherapy-1909

From "Shtetl, My Destroyed Home: A Remembrance" (1922), a set of 30 lithographs by the Jewish artist Issachar Ber Ryback. In the series Ryback depicts scenes from his home village in Ukraine before it was destroyed in the pogroms following WW1. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/shtetl-my-destroyed-home-a-remembrance-1922

Dramatic scenes from the auto polo fad of the 1910s and 20s. Reaching top speeds of 40mph, a driver would be accompanied by a malletman who would hold on to the side and attempt to hit a basketball toward the goal of the opposing team. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/auto-polo

Double-exposure photograph, staged for Century magazine in 1899, showing Nikola Tesla — born #onthisday in 1856 — seated beneath a giant “magnifying transmitter”, arcing 22-foot-long bolts of electricity: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/nikola-tesla-in-his-laboratory