Collections – The Public Domain Review

August Strindberg’s Celestographs (1893–4)

The Swedish playwright’s attempt to capture the night sky by the use of photographic plates alone….more

The Library of the Future: A Vision of 1983 from 1883

The American librarian C.A. Cutter looks forward from 1883 to “the library of the future” in 1983….more

Photographs of (models of) the moon (1874)

James Nasymth’s images of intricate models of the lunar surface….more

The Celestial Atlas of Andreas Cellarius (1660)

Harmonia Macrocosmica (1660), an atlas of the stars from the Dutch Golden Age of cartography, maps the structure of the heavens in twenty-nine extraordinary double-…more

Cosmography Manuscript (12th Century)

Wonderful series of medieval cosmographic diagrams and schemas sourced from a late 12th-century English manuscript….more

1970: A Vision of the Coming Age (1870)

A vision of the world hundred years in the future, in which societies have been transformed into Quakerly perfection….more

Omega: The Last Days of the World (1894)

Science fiction novel by astronomer Camille Flammarion, concerning a near comet miss and a vision of the earth’s far distant future….more

Émile-Antoine Bayard’s Illustrations for Around the Moon by Jules Verne (1870)

Arguably the very first images to depict space travel on a scientific basis, these wonderful illustrations are the work of the French illustrator Émile-Antoine Bay…more

Micromégas by Voltaire (1752)

Early sci-fi short story by Voltaire recounting a visit to Earth by Micromégas, an inhabitant of a distant planet which circles the star Sirius, and his companion …more

Aratea: Making Pictures with Words in the 9th Century

Some of the earliest examples of calligrams found in a 9th-century astronomical manuscript on the constellations….more

The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings (1882)

The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings published in 1882, a collection of 15 exquisite pastel works created by the French artist, astronomer and amateur entomologist �…more