In 1774, a British scientist sat in a "super-sauna", hot enough to overcook a steak in 33 mins. He wanted to explore the effects on the human body of “air heated to a much higher degree than it was formerly thought any living creature could bear”

The Public Domain Review

Experiments and Observations in a Heated Room (1774)

In 1774 and 1775 the British physician and scientist Charles Blagden conducted a series of experiments concerned with exploring the effects on the ...

“WELL-A-DAY, is this my SON TOM?” A macaroni was a man who “exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion” — the name from the type of pasta which some had taken a liking to on their Grand Tour. In his essay “A Queer Taste for Macaroni” Dominic James explores: https://buff.ly/2KScNAg

In the prevailing anti-Catholic atmosphere of early-19th-century US, the publication of Maria Monk's revelations of nuns being forced to engage in sexual acts with priests became a sensation:

The Public Domain Review

Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk (1836)

Maria Monk's revelations of her time at the Hôtel-Dieu convent in Montreal, describing nuns forced to engage in sexual acts with priests and being...

Frontispiece to Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904), a book of traditional Japanese ghost stories compiled by the great scholar and translator Lafcadio Hearn, who was born #onthisday in 1850. Read the book here:

The Public Domain Review

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904)

Deriving its title from the word for "ghost story" in Japanese this is a book by scholar and translator Lafcadio Hearn in which are compiled an arr...

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Emma Goldman — born #onthisday in 1869 — was a radical critic of capitalism, the state, patriarchy and colonialism during the fertile political years of the late 19th and early 20th century. More on her life and “anarchism without adjectives” here:

The Public Domain Review

Emma Goldman’s “Anarchism Without Adjectives”

In 2011, over 100 years after the publication of her seminal Anarchism and Other Essays, the writings of Emma Goldman entered the public domain. Ka...

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How did alphabet books deal with the letter X before the rise of x-rays and xylophones? Here's some highlights:

The Public Domain Review

X is for...

How alphabet books dealt with the letter X before the rise of x-rays and xylophones.

In the 1980s, a suitcase marked “private” was found in a barn near Oslo. Inside? Hundreds of playful, radical photos by the couple Marie Høeg and Bolette Berg — subversive visions of gender and sexuality in early 1900s Norway:

The Public Domain Review

The “Private” Photographs of Bolette Berg and Marie Høeg (ca. 1895–1903)

Excerpts from a dazzling image collection, discovered in a Norwegian barn in the 1980s, that experiments with the presentation of gender.

Happy (?) birthday Ambrose Bierce! The American journalist, born #onthisday in 1842, is best known for his satirical dictionary The Cynic’s Word Book also known as The Devil’s Dictionary. Read it here:

The Public Domain Review

The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

A satirical dictionary written by American journalist and author Ambrose Bierce (1842-ca.1914), a man whose savage wit apparently earned him the ni...

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From Abatina (fickleness) to Zinnia (thoughts of absent friends), and from Absence (wormwood) to Zest (Lemon), the marvellous Language of Flowers: An Alphabet of Floral Emblems (1857) pairs up hundreds of flowers with hundreds of emotions:

The Public Domain Review

The Language of Flowers: An Alphabet of Floral Emblems (1857)

Ever wondered what sentiments the various flowers express? The Victorians have you covered.

Happy Solstice! Here's the Sun putting on its best happy shining face for the special occasion, from the Splendor Solis, a 16th-century alchemical treatise. More art from the history of alchemy here:

The Public Domain Review

The Surreal Art of Alchemical Diagrams

The varied tradition of alchemy has given birth to a whole host of strange and wondrous imagery over the centuries. Here we pick out some favourites.

#SummerSolstice #Solstice #Midsummer #longestday