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A selection of folios from an illuminated manuscript of 17th century Ethiopia, produced during the cultural boom, especially in painting, brought about by the establishment of a permanent court at Gondar by the Solomonic emperor Fasilädäs (who reigned 1632-67). The nearly 50 full-page illuminations of this particular manuscript tell the story of the Archangel...
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A selection from a collection of early 20th century lantern slides held at the Fylkesarkivet of Sogn og Fjordane, a county in the west of Norway. The slides are produced by at least two British photographers – professional photographer Samuel J. Beckett and amateur photographer P. Heywood Hadfield, who was a ship’s surgeon employed...
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Not the same Vanity Fair of current fame, this was a version published by The Commonwealth Publishing Company of New York City, incorporated in February 1902 but which went bankrupt in April 1904. “Vanity Fair” has been the title for at least 5 magazines, and as a phrase became popular through John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s...
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Illustrations from a 16th century manuscript detailing the phenomenon of Nuremberg’s Schembart Carnival, (literally “bearded-mask” carnival). Beginning in 1449, the event was popular throughout the 15th century but was ended in 1539 due to the complaints of an influential preacher named Osiander who objected to his effigy being paraded on a float, depicting him...
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A series of woodcuts from an 18th century chapbook entitled The World Turned Upside Down or The Folly of Man, Exemplified in Twelve Comical Relations upon Uncommon Subjects. As well as the amusing woodcuts showing various reversals (many revolving around the inversion of animal and human relations) there is also included a poem on...
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Illustrations from Vaught’s Practical Character Reader, a book on phrenology by L. A. Vaught published in 1902. As he confidently states in his Preface: The purpose of this book is to acquaint all with the elements of human nature and enable them to read these elements in all men, women and children in all...
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The following images are all taken from Tradition und Naturbeobachtung in den Illustrationen Medizinischer Handschriften und Frühdrucke vornehmlich des 15. Jahrhunderts (1907) by Karl Sudhoff – a book on the topic of medical illustrations in manuscripts and early printed books (primarily) of the 15th century. Included amongst the depictions are a few of the...
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A compilation of double exposures, an accidental phenomenon no longer possible with digital cameras. As well as the unintentional displayed here (though the first picture is debatable, and the saxophonist too), it was a common practise to use double exposures to create what became known as “Spirit Photographs”. One of the most prolific of...
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Selected images from a 1608 edition of Livre de Pourtraiture by Jehan Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522–1595), son of of the famous painter and sculptor Jehan Cousin the Elder (ca. 1490-ca. 1560) who was often compared to his contemporary, Albrecht Dürer. Just before his death, Jehan the Elder published his noted work Livre de...
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Illustrations from (to give its full title) The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, a noble man of France now living, through Turky into Persia and the East-Indies, finished in the year 1670 giving an account of the state of those countries : illustrated with divers sculptures ; together with a new relation of...
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A selection of images from the Library of Congress found via the always excellent Ptak Science Books blog. The daguerreotype, invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1837, was the first commercially successful photographic process and was popular throughout the mid-19th century. Daguerreotype portraits were made by the model posing (often with head fixed in place...
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To celebrate the most auspicious occasion of it being the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year, i.e. 12/12/12, we’ve put together a little collection of twelve pictures of people in groups of twelve. Through a mix of paintings and photographs we travel all over the world, from Central Java in...
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Plates from a “Description of the Brain of Mr. Charles Babbage, F.R.S” published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1909). Credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs, Charles Babbage is considered to be the “father of the computer”. See the description of the...
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José Guadalupe Posada (1851–1913) was a Mexican illustrator known for his satirical and politically acute calaveras. Deriving from the Spanish word for ‘skulls’, these calaveras were illustrations featuring skeletons which would, after Posada’s death, become closely associated with the mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Most of these calaveras...
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Selection of studio posed photographs from the New York Public Library’s Spalding Collection, a series of over 500 photographs, prints, drawings, caricatures, and printed illustrations donated in 1921 by early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. G. Spalding (whose name to this day is printed across every ball used in the National League). The...
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Plates from “Essai d’Anatomie” produced by Gautier D’Agoty in 1745 in Paris, France – a remarkably detailed atlas of the head, neck, and shoulder areas of the human body with explanatory text in French. From the Internet Archive description: The anatomical images were based on human cadavers dissected by Joseph Duverney and produced using...
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A selection of woodcuts from an 1882 book compiling facsimiles of 18th century chapbooks. To see the pictures in context and peruse the full chapbooks see our post in the Text section where we have the full book. Housed at: Internet Archive | From: University of Toronto Libraries Found via: Erin H Underlying Work:...
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Actresses featured in the Moriarty playing card series issued in 1916 by the Movie Souvenir Card Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio. The back of each card is a reproduction in multiple-colors of the painting “The Chariot Race.” The ad card within the pack proclaims: “Get a few packs of “Movies”–A Veritable Picture Gallery of the...
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(Image above is very long, scroll to the right within the image to see the whole thing) A 17th century copy of Spring Morning in the Han Palace, a famous handscroll by the 16th century Ming Dynasty artist Qiu Ying . It depicts imperial life at its most idyllic. During the years of...
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Images from Deutsche Volkstrachten, Original-Zeichnungen mit erklärendem Text (1887) by Albert Kretschmer, a book detailing the folk dress of the peoples in areas covering modern day Austria and southern Germany. Albert Kretschmer (1825-1891) was known for his highly detailed drawings, watercolors and lithographs usually in publications detailing varieties of German and international costumes and...
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A selection of the more well known of the leading 19th century figures featured in Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day (1873) with drawings by Frederick Watty and accompanied by biographical pieces on each of the subjects. With the exception of one, it is a compilation of all the cartoon...
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With the end of the 2012 Olympics now in sight, we celebrate the world of amateur sport with some photographs of local teams from yesteryear. Pictures from Flickr: The Commons, click on images for more info and source. From a variety of sources via Flickr Commons Underlying Work: No known copyright restrictions | Digital...
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Pictures of the winners of each event of the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games – as featured in the The Fifth Olympiad: the Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912, published in 1913 by Wahlstrom & Widstrand, Stockholm. Housed at: Internet Archive | From: University of Toronto Underlying Work: PD Worldwide | Digital...
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Photographs taken during a square dance in McIntosh County in Oklahoma by photographers working for the U.S. government’s Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA and later the Office of War Information (OWI) between 1939 and 1944 made approximately 1,600 color photographs depicting life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands....
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France in the Year 2000 (XXI century) – a series of futuristic pictures by Jean-Marc Côté and other artists issued in France in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910. Originally in the form of paper cards enclosed in cigarette/cigar boxes and, later, as postcards, the images depicted the world as it was imagined to be...
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Series of photographs taken of Miss Ruth Kellogg demonstrating correct postures for various forms of housework. Photos taken by Troy for Delineator magazine. No date given, but Miss Kellogg was at Cornell 1921-26. Housed at: Flickr: The Commons | From: Cornell University Library Underlying Work: No known copyright restrictions | Digital Copy: Attribution Download:...
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Throughout the course of the 15th and 16th century The Fugger Family from Augsburg became became one of Europe’s most powerful merchant dynasties. They replaced the de’ Medici family as probably Europe’s most influential family, taking over many of the Medici assets as well as their political power and influence. Ennobled at the beginning...
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Images from a 1906 issue of the French women’s magazine Femina, the first of it’s kind in France and which is still going today. These strange array of pictures are from a competition in which the readers were asked to identify the famous female ‘artistes’ of the day obscured behind a bizarre variety of...
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Félix Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1 April 1820, Paris – 23 March 1910), a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist. He took his first photographs in 1853 and pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. Around 1863, Nadar built a huge (6000 m³)...
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The Catalogus Archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium Vitae episcoporum Cracoviensium (Catalogue of the Archbishops of Gniezno and Lives of the Bishops of Cracow) by Jan Długosz is a 16th century manuscript illuminated by Stanislaw Samostrzelnik between 1531-1535. Today in the collection of the National Library in Warsaw. Housed at: Wikimedia Commons | From: National Digital Library of...
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Happy Thanksgiving! The pictures below are from the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation, a ceremony that takes place at the White House every year at which The President of the United States is presented with a live turkey, usually of the Broad Breasted White variety. Since 1989, the first Thanksgiving of President George H. W....
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Dominicus Custos (1560 – 1612), was a Flemish artist, printer and copperplate engraver, who specialised in depicting notable figures of his time – producing books akin to a 16th century “Who’s Who”. The most famous of these was the “Atrium heroicum” which he made between 1602 and 1604; a collection of 171 engraved portraits...
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Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta and John Baptist Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation. These are pages from his book on physiognomy De humana physiognomonia libri IIII. Housed at: Wikimedia Commons | From:...
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From various sources via Wikimedia Commons Underlying Work: No known copyright restrictions | Digital Copy: See source Download: Right click on image or see source for higher res versions. HELP TO KEEP US AFLOAT The Public Domain Review is a not-for-profit project and we rely on support from our readers to stay afloat. If...
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Plates from Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne’s ‘Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine’, published by Jules Renouard, Paris, in 1862. By applying electrodes to male and female volunteers, Duchenne was able to activate individual muscles in the face. He saw the human face as a map, the features of which could be codified into universal taxonomies of inner...
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From 1913, John Alfred Charlton Deas, a former curator at Sunderland Museum, organised several handling sessions for the blind, first offering an invitation to the children from the Sunderland Council Blind School, to handle a few of the collections. They were so successful that Deas went on to develop and arrange a course of...
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These photographs of ‘spirits’ are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum’s curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933). Born in 1863 in Crewe, Hope started his working life as a carpenter. In about 1905 he became...
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