George Washington Williams' *History of the Negro Race in America* (1882–83), a work of millennial scope by a self-taught African-American historian: image
Some 15th-century rainbow-coloured beasts to brighten your Monday:
The Public Domain Review
Rainbow-coloured Beasts from 15th-Century Book of Hours
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Hypnotees after handing control to mischievous hypnotists (ca. 1900). More diverting scenes here:
The Public Domain Review
Hypnotism Posters (ca. 1900)
A set of amusing turn-of-the-century hypnotism posters showing hypnotised people up to various strange shenanigans.
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After a transformative moment on the Devon coast, Vaughan Cornish devoted his life to the study of waveforms. Read about his Waves of the Sea and Other Water Waves (1910) and Waves of Sand and Snow and the Eddies Which Make Them (1914):
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The Kumatologist: Vaughan Cornish’s Wave Studies (1910–14)
After a transformative moment on the Devon Coast, Vaughan Cornish devoted his life to the study of waveforms.
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An "alphabet album", a beautiful book of calligraphy and typographic engraving from 1843 assembled by Joseph-Balthazar Silvestre. Ranging from the old-fashioned to the surprisingly modern looking, from the elegantly unreadable to the crystal clear...
The Public Domain Review
Joseph-Balthazar Sylvestre’s Alphabet Album (1843)
Alphabets from across the ages, drawn and collected by the French paleographer Joseph-Balthazar Sylvestre.
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"The Duck quaketh... The Wolf howleth" — from what many consider to be the first picture book for children, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658). More in our essay here:
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In the Image of God: John Comenius and the First Children’s Picture Book
In the mid 17th-century John Comenius published what many consider to be the first picture book dedicated to the education of young children, Orbis...
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Before Cousteau, way before @Octonauts, explorer Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez was bringing images of the undersea world to the surface, from his artist’s sketch pad inside a glass and steel diving bell:
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En Pleine Mer: The Underwater Landscapes of Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez
Images from colour pencil drawings made while the artist was submerged in a diving bell.
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Happy #WorldLizardDay! Here's an x-ray of a Green Lizard, from an early volume of X-rays produced by Josef Maria Eder, a director of an institute for graphic processes, and Eduard Valenta, a photochemist, both from Austria. More here:
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Early Experiments with X-Rays (1896)
Photogravures from one of the first series of X-rays ever produced, including, in addition to the skeletal forms of animals and human limbs, carved...
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The underside of the Great Water Lily by William Sharp, creator of the very first chromolithograph on American soil. More "lillistrations" here:
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William Sharp’s Chromolithographs of The Great Water Lily (1854)
Six magnificent images of Victoria amazonica, believed to be the very first colour-printed lithographs produced in America.
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The underside of the Great Water Lily by William Sharp, creator of the very first chromolithograph on American soil. More "lillistrations" here: ...
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A few illustrations from William Elliot Griffis’ Korean Fairy Tales (1922). Read the whole book, and see more of its images, here:
The Public Domain Review
William Elliot Griffis’ Korean Fairy Tales (1922)
Vivid retellings of Korean folktales by an American scholar and Protestant minister, including several stories about the sprite Tokgabi.
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