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Selected images from a massive late 19th century tome entitled simply Magic, subtitled Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, including Trick Photography, compiled and edited by Albert A. Hopkins. The book takes a thorough tour through the popular magic tricks and illusions of the day, including along the way many delightfully surreal diagrams and illustrations,...
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Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase, by J. Redding Ware; 1909; Routledge, London. Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase is complied and written by James Redding Ware, the pseudonym of Andrew Forrester the British writer who created one...
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Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day, the drawings by Frederick Waddy; 1873; Tinsley Brothers, London. A book of caricatures of famous “Men of the Day” (as was the case in 1873) – including the likes of Darwin, Swinburne, Tennyson and Browning – drawn by cartoonist Frederick Watty and accompanied by...
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How to Become a Magician, Containing a Grand Assortment of Magical Illusions as Performed by the Leading Magicians and Wizards of the Day; 1882; F. Tousey, New York A grand assortment of various tricks, illusions, conjurings, deceptions and slights of hand…. The following pages are not intended to make the young reader either a...
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Popular photography can properly be said to have started 120 years ago with the introduction of the Kodak camera, the invention of an American, George Eastman (1854-1932). It was a simple, leather-covered wooden box – small and light enough to be held in the hands. Taking a photograph with the Kodak was very easy,...
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In 1884 Edwin Abbott Abbott published Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, the first ever book that could be described as ‘mathematical fiction’. Ian Stewart, author of Flatterland and The Annotated Flatland, introduces the strange tale of the geometric adventures of A. Square. Edwin Abbott Abbott, who became Headmaster of the City of London...
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The Danger of Premature Interment, by Joseph Taylor; 1816; W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, London. “The Danger of Premature Interment proved from many remarkable instances of people who have recovered after being laid out for dead, and of others entombed alive, for want of being properly examined prior to interment. Also a description of...
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The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind by James Bower Harrison; 1852; Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London Open Library link 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 you like...
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