Oh, there is a site dedicated entirely to reviewing works (“from classic works of art to absentminded doodles”) that have entered the public domain, and I have only just found out about it this very minute.
The Collections – The vast majority of our content exists in our curated collections of images, books, audio and film, in which we shine a light on curiosities and wonders from a wide range of online archives. Some highlights include visions of the future from late 19th century France, a dictionary of Victorian slang and a film showing the very talented “hand-farting” farmer of Michigan.
The Essays – Each fortnight we publish a new long-form essay in which leading scholars, writers, archivists, and artists offer insight and reflection upon the oft overlooked histories which surround public domain works – from a history of the smile in portraiture to the case of the woman who claimed to give birth to rabbits. Contributors include Julian Barnes, George Prochnik, Frank Delaney and Richard Hamblyn. (If you’d like to contribute please see our Submissions page).
There is an entire essay about the history of smiling in European portraiture, which should dovetail nicely with my forthcoming “Famous Unsmilers Of Art History.” There is nothing in the world I love better than judging the past; this is the site for me. Have you longed to read about 16th-century monster illustrations? Or the 1810 illustrated version of Cinderella’s Adventure’s? Then this is the site for you too.
Tags: history, public domain review, the history of smiling, the internet, the public domain, whimsy
*SUSTAINED SQUEALING*
(Also, there was an episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class that mentioned the lady who gave birth to rabbits and it is BANANAPANTS.)
The best part of that story is that she was pulling these rabbits out of her vag and everyone was like WONDER OF WONDERS HOW CAN THIS BE?!?!? and everyone was so squeamish about women’s parts that they didn’t want to, you know, LOOK.
Emma Donoghue wrote a short story about her and it was wonderful: http://www.emmadonoghue.com/books/short-story-col…
Everything about this is amazing. Off to download that episode immediately.
I wish PUBLIC DOMAIN had eight letters instead of twelve, so that it converted gracefully to finger tattoos.
Why not just get two customized four finger rings?
those monsters! I was eating!
From the story of Mary Toft:
“Toft was forced to admit on 7th December 1726 that she had manually inserted dead rabbits into her vagina and then allowed them to be removed as if she were giving birth.”
Every day is a school day.
i want to make a joke about Watership Down but I can’t figure out how so yeah
I’m going to say that Toft’s story was inspiration for the theme to Watership Down (Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes”) because something down there was definitely “burning like fire.”
(It was dead rabbits.)
joke-set-spike
yet another excellent round of toastball
Oh I got another one!
Putting the “ow” in Owsla.
Too obscure? WHATEVER.
The Awl did an awesome piece on that story about a year ago.
“The very first rabbit that Mary Toft gave birth to was, in point of fact, a cat. The schemers didn’t settle on rabbits until a little further along—in the beginning, they were only thinking “monster” (broad strokes! big picture!).”
Not just any cat!
“She gave birth to something resembling a liverless cat”
what why
Wha…what exactly does a liverless cat look like? How do you know it’s missing a liver? I…do I want to know?
Oh. That’s —
wreeetch—
interesting.
Nicholas Humphreys on medieval animal trials! Say no MORE, I am THERE
I love Public Domain Review. I subscribe to their emails. I get so many weird things in my inbox from them. I also follow on Twitter and today they tweeted a bunny dance party illustration from Beatrix Potter. It is the cure for all your ills.
Have you read anything on The Appendix too? It’s seriously like my favourite history site/journal/online mag.
This looks brilliant, I’ve just signed up for the emails too. Looking forward to wasting many hours on there!
This rhyming dictionary has made my day: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/manipul…
alleluia! fistula!
Fuck yeah, Public Domain Review!
About 50% of my job is explaining to dirtbag professors that they can’t just steal multimedia from textbooks/other professors/the internet to make course materials, and then introducing them to public domain and Creative Commons with a big song and dance.
(as you can see, the other 50% is commenting on misandrist websites)
Are you a librarian? I work for Bowker/ProQuest is why I ask, so intellectual property is kind of my world. (And my guy is a professor but he’s older and decidedly not a dirtbag.)
I’m kind of a librarian/archivist hybrid, and I work at a University in a media production unit that makes content for online courses. To be fair, most of our faculty are lovely but DAMN if there isn’t a subset of very shouty folks! And a lot of it is just that they’ve never heard that digital copyright works differently than when they’re teaching face-to-face.
LOL, I know. It’s true even in publishing – it’s crazy!!!
I was really enjoying this book until I got to the really racist bit (why oh why does there ALWAYS seem to be a racist bit?): http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-hol…
ETA: I could really do with more pictures of bifurcated girls: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/bifurca…
What do you mean, rac-
…oh.
Nevermind.
“And then the bullet struck a passing car, and everybody died! Whimsy!”
Tags: deformity, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, sheep
OK I’m hooked.
Do you know BibliOdyssey, Mallory? You know know bibliodyssey.blogspot.com.
BRB. My next few forevers have just been absorbed by this magnificent site. Sorry there’s no dinner, Hon.
Fortunio Liceti believed in well-defined labia, let me tell you.
…
We have been waiting for this website our ENTIRE ADULT LIVES.
Excellent, excellent. Public domain is a wonderful thing.
Okay but why is no one talking about the HAND FARTS FARMER???
Wait but which? There is so much farting!