Support The Public Domain Review

The Pub­lic Domain Review is a not-for-prof­it project ded­i­cat­ed to show­cas­ing the most inter­est­ing and unusu­al arte­facts in the his­to­ry of art, lit­er­a­ture and ideas — all of which have fall­en into the pub­lic domain and so are free for every­one to enjoy, reuse and share. Start­ed in 2011, the site has cre­at­ed a large and ever grow­ing archive of the beau­ti­ful and bizarre. High­lights from their col­lec­tions include a ghost­ly series of decayed daguer­rotypes, a dic­tio­nary of Vic­to­ri­an slang, a set of 19th cen­tu­ry French post­cards of the year 2000, and a 1930s Michi­gan farmer play­ing the tune of Yan­kee Doo­dle with “hand-farts”.

In addi­tion to show­cas­ing their picks from the world’s dig­i­tal archives, The Pub­lic Domain Review pro­vides a plat­form for lead­ing writ­ers, schol­ars and cura­tors to write about the things they love. A whole host of weird and won­der­ful top­ics are cov­ered, includ­ing an Ital­ian car­di­nal who could speak over 70 lan­guages,  Ger­ard Man­ley Hopkins’s soar­ing mete­o­rol­o­gy of vol­cano sun­sets, Thomas Browne’s list of imag­i­nary arte­facts, and, in an arti­cle from Man Book­er prize win­ner Julian Barnes, a tale of strange encoun­ters with mon­key-eat­ing poets.

It’s a great project, and it needs your sup­port to con­tin­ue. With their ini­tial fund­ing now com­ing to an end, The Pub­lic Domain Review is turn­ing to its com­mu­ni­ty of read­ers to help it con­tin­ue to tell the world about the impor­tance of the pub­lic domain. If you’d like to see the project con­tin­ue, then they need your dona­tions. If you make a dona­tion of $40 or more you’ll get a rather won­der­ful look­ing Tote Bag. Learn more about the cam­paign and donate on their sup­port page. Again, click here to give The Pub­lic Domain Review your sup­port!