Notices by The Public Domain Review (publicdomainrev@mastodon.social)

Drawing on sources as varied as Wordsworth, Hitchcock, and Conan Doyle, author @PhilipPullman considers the sonic beauty and expert storytelling of Milton's masterpiece and the influence it has had on his own work: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-sound-and-the-story-exploring-the-world-of-paradise-lost

The story of Alexander the Great's descent beneath the waves in a "bathysphere" — whether scouting enemy defences, receiving philosophical insight, or escaping death with his pet dog, cat, and cock — has been subject of many medieval illustrations: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-bathysphere

Running for almost 40 years, Harris’s List was an annual digest aimed at reviewing and cataloguing sex workers in 18th-century London, a bizarre melange of travel guides, yellow pages, and cheap erotica: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/harris-list-of-covent-garden-ladies

In his essay “The Implacability of Things”, Jonathan Lamb explores the genre of “it-narratives” — stories told from the point of view of an object, often as it travels in circulation through human hands: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-implacability-of-things

In Japanese the circular guard above the handle of a sword is known as a "tsuba", and they became important symbols for samurai in medieval and early modern Japan. Browse images of a wonderful collection from 1916 here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/photographs-of-japanese-sword-guards-1916

Charles Davy’s Conjectural Observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetic Writing (1772) offers a series of intriguing conjectures about the primal scene of writing: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/conjectural-observations

P. H. Ditchfield's Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time (1896) is an excellent resource for learning about Britain’s bygone local practices, and the roots of the few that have persisted: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/old-english-customs

The Temptation of St Anthony, by Martin Schongauer, 1470.

The engraving inspired many artists including Michelangelo who copied it in his earliest known painting when just 12 or 13 yrs old (see 2nd image).

Buy as a print here: https://buff.ly/2nT5bb1

Joseph George Strutt's Sylva Britannica (1822), a 19th-century exploration in etchings and words of British trees “distinguished for their antiquity, magnitude, or beauty” — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sylva-britannica

“Pull up this small rod to enable the 'used' oil to run out of the base-chamber”.

From the 1909 how-to-guide "The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for all Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor", by Dorothy Levitt.

More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-woman-and-the-car

Book of John Leech's cartoons for Punch, the Victorian satirical magazine: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/pictures-of-life-and-character-from-the-collection-of-mr-punch-1887

Edvard Munch, The Sun, 1911.

Measuring 15 by 25 ft, this is one of several Munch paintings to adorn the walls inside the Hall of Ceremonies at the University of Oslo.

One of several Munch prints available from our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/edvard-munch

.@James_J_Conway on Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering 1904 study of queer Berlin: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/out-on-the-town

Happy 1st of June! Here's its entry in the beautiful Très Riches Heures, a 15th-century Book of Hours: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/labors-of-the-months-from-the-tres-riches-heures?utm_content=buffer48077&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer https://twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/status/1134789419116969985/photo/1

(Scyther to the right in pink getting into the Summer spirit... 😳)

#SundayReads: @drmatthewgreen revisits the lost city of Dunwich, a once lively port that was taken by the sea: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-city-that-fell-off-a-cliff

Watercolor and ink drawing by Bartholomeus Ziesenis of the dancer Annette Köbler as she performs the “pas de shawl”, 1812.

One of two available as prints from our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/bartholomeus-ziesenis/

Watercolor and ink drawing by Bartholomeus Ziesenis of the dancer Annette Köbler as she performs the “pas de shawl”, 1812.

One of two available as prints from our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-art-prints/artist/bartholomeus-ziesenis/

D. Graham Burnett on birthday boy Walt Whitman and the curious power of his posthumous eyelids: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/out-from-behind-this-mask #otd #onthisday

#OnThisDay in 1921, several thousand white citizens and authorities began to violently attack the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Karlos K. Hill investigates the disturbing photographic legacy of the Tulsa race massacre: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/photographing-the-tulsa-massacre-of-1921

Born #onthisday in 1819, the American poet Walt Whitman. Nina Murray looks at the translators through which his poems were experienced in Russia, a country hugely influenced by his work: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/walt-whitman-in-russia-three-love-affairs #otd