Collections – The Public Domain Review

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The Narrative of Henry Box Brown (1849)

Account of a Virginian slave’s daring escape from his plantation in a box and subsequent life as a free man….more

Chester Harding’s My Egotistigraphy (1866)

Privately published memoir of an American portraitist who grew up in a log cabin and went on to paint presidents, congressmen, philanthropists, and Daniel Boone….more

Adeline Harris Sears’ Autographs Quilt (1856–ca.1863)

Wonderful trompe l’oeil tumbling block design quilt incorporating signatures from such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rembrandt Peale, and Abra…more

Kusakabe Kimbei’s Photographs of Late 19th-Century Japan

Photographs depicting everyday scenes in 19th-century Japan by Kusakabe Kimbei….more

Texts in Mathias Enard’s Compass

Collection of the major public domain texts featuring in the novel Compass by French writer Mathias Enard — including Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Joseph-Charles Mard…more

Arcimboldo-esque Composite Portraits of Trades (ca. 1800)

Lovely aquatint print depicting four composite portraits for the professions of florist, writer, musician, and barber — their features made up entirely from the t…more

The Wise Boys: or, The Entertaining Histories of Fred Forethought, Matt Merrythought, Luke Lovebook and Ben Bee (ca. 1842)

Collection of poetic stories championing exemplary boyhood behaviour, the work of the American poet Sarah Josepha Buell Hale….more

Marcus Selmer’s Photographs of 19th-Century Norwegians

Stunning set of portraits of Norwegians in national folk costume taken by the Danish photographer Marcus Selmer….more

The Confidence-Man (1857)

Published on the day it is set, April Fool’s Day 1857, Herman Melville’s last novel concerns a group of passengers travelling by steamboat along the Mississippi and…more

Painted Photograph of an Unknown Man (ca. 1855–70)

An unusual example of a painted photograph, in which the artist has left sections untouched by paint….more

Hypnotism Posters (ca. 1900)

A set of amusing turn-of-the-century hypnotism posters showing hypnotised people up to various strange shenanigans….more

Sketches in Bedlam (1823)

A compendium of glimpses into the personalities and stories of more than 140 mental patients confined to the Bethlem Hospital in the early part of the 19th century….more

The majority of the digital copies featured are in the public domain or under an open license all over the world, however, some works may not be so in all jurisdictions. On each Collections post we’ve done our best to indicate which rights we think apply, so please do check and look into more detail where necessary, before reusing. All articles published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Strong Freedom in the Zone.

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