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

Edward B. Foote’s Plain Home Talk (1896 edition) is much more than a medical text. Practical and prescriptive, its common sense advice spans an impressive range of topics, from matchmaking and clothing to exercise and education: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/plain-home-talk/

Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, fell for one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century when he became convinced that the "fairy photographs" taken by two girls from Yorkshire in the 1920s were real. Mary Losure explores: https://buff.ly/11byRMg #AprilFools

#OnThisDay in 1889, the Eiffel Tower opened in Paris. Not to be outdone, London decided to get a new tower of their own + held a competition to design it, with some interesting results! See more designs, and learn about the fate of the winner, here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/catalogue-of-the-68-competitive-designs-for-the-great-tower-for-london-1890/ #OTD

Electrical Light in Rarefied Gas, by M. Rapine, from French science writer Amédée Guillemin’s Les phénomènes de la physique (1868).⠀⁠
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See more wonderful images from Guillemin’s physics books on our site — https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/optics-illustrations-from-the-physics-textbooks-of-amedee-guillemin-1868-1882

Michalina Janoszanka, Wiosna (Spring), ca. 1920s.

One of several paintings made directly on glass by the Polish artist. More of her work in our latest post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/michalina-janoszanka/

And buy a print of this image in our online shop: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/spring/

For your weekend amusement/bemusement, the latest of our tiny cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our most recent essay: https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2025/03/tiny-cryptic-4/

Spring has officially sprung. But #equinox aside, how do we tell the season is here? Hugh Aldersey-Williams looks at Robert Marsham’s Indications of Spring (1789), a lifelong calendrical project by Britain’s first phenologist — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/from-snowdrop-to-nightjar/

For your weekend amusement / bemusement, the latest of our tiny cryptic crossword puzzles. Six clues themed on our most recent essay: https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2025/02/tiny-cryptic-3/

Celebrate #WorldBookDay with a look at some of the most beautiful and unusual examples from the first 100 years of the “modern” book cover, since the rise of publishers' bindings circa 1820:
https://buff.ly/36aQW24

Making #pancakes tonight? Here’s a recipe from the 16th century which includes “two or three spoonefuls of ale” — (from The Good Huswifes Jewell, an English cookery book from 1585) #PancakeDay #FatTuesday #ShroveTuesday

Northern Lights in Zenith, by Harald Moltke, 1900.

One of the many images of Aurora Borealis collected in our post “Firelight Flickering on the Ceiling of the World”, looking at how this otherworldly phenomenon has been depicted over the centuries: buff.ly/38dxgft

“The fish sees anything from Raphael’s Cherub through Cubist art to Hindenburg, and all in rapid succession; no wonder he cannot always recognize me.”

Early 20th-century attempts, through photography, to discern things from a fish-eye view: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/fish-eye-view-photography

This unique self-portrait, also known as “view from the left eye”, is the creation of Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (famous for his work on supersonic fluid mechanics), who was born #onthisday in 1838. Read more about the image here: https://buff.ly/38AEKc5 #OTD

"February 16, 1896. – The idea of a special handwriting belonging to the planet Mars occurs for the first time to Hélène’s astonishment in a Martian semi-trance."

A psychology professor spent 5 yrs attending the seances of the medium Hélène Smith: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/from-india-to-the-planet-mars-1900

France in the year 2000, as envisaged in 1899. Some tech is wonderfully prescient: we've versions of Zoom, a vacuum cleaner, drone deliveries. Other visions less so, particularly those anticipating a life beneath the waves, of underwater croquet + whale buses... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vision-of-the-year-2000/

Chemistry of Combustion and Illumination, a diagram from Edward Livingston Youmans' Chemical Atlas; or, The Chemistry of Familiar Objects (1856). ⠀
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Order as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/chemistry-of-combustion-and-illumination

If you haven’t tried before, our clues will typically be on the easier end so could be a good place to get started! 🤓 All puzzles themed on the latest essay.

Into cryptic crosswords? We’ve started our very own “tiny cryptic” series! Published fortnightly on our blog. See the inaugural puzzle here: https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2025/01/tiny-cryptic-1/

Typical winter's day in this entry for #February in the Labors of the Months section from the Très Riches Heures (15th.c). Some peasants get warm by the fire, another chops wood + another leaves for market. Above, an arguably redundant Phoebus... https://buff.ly/2yy3DVq

@kevinrns Kevin, they are both. Stereographs are composed of two photographs side by side. It's not a one or the other situation and I think one should be able to refer to stereographs (made with photographs) as photographs without being "corrected".