If you don’t know about this site then run, don’t walk, over there. I just got their latest email and now up are all sorts of interesting stuff, including Shin-Bijutsukai – Japanese design magazine. They have the 1901 and 1902 issues.
Here’s what they say about themselves:
The Public Domain Review
The Public Domain Review aspires to become a bounteous gateway into this whopping plenitude that is the public domain. We aim to help our readers explore this rich terrain by surfacing unusual and obscure works, and by offering fresh reflections and unfamiliar angles on material which is more well known.
As well as providing a home for a diverse range of interesting works and curiosities, we also hope to encourage readers to further utilise the various online archives in which these works are originally housed. To this end we have also put together a “Guide to Finding Interesting Public Domain Works Online”.
We also hope to act as a platform for writers and scholars to write about more unusual and obscure works which they might not get a chance to do elsewhere.The ArticlesEach week we feature an article exploring material in the public domain. Contributors include leading scholars, writers, critics, artists, archivists, scientists and librarians. We are now accepting open submissions.
The CollectionsIn addition to the articles, we have begun collections of public domain films, audio, images and texts. Trawling through the brilliant Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons and other such sites, we bring you a continuously growing and curated slice of what the public domain has to offer.
The NewsletterSign up to get our free fortnightly newsletter which shall deliver direct to your inbox the latest brand new article and a digest of the most recent collection items. Visit here to subscribe and get a sneak-preview of what to expect.
Behind the ScenesAlthough works may have been created long ago and so themselves are in the public domain, this unfortunately doesn’t always mean that their online digital versions are too. All too often they are published under a restrictive license. We are working behind the scenes with institutions (universities, libraries, museums, etc.) to work to get them to fully open up their online public domain material, so that works in the public domain remain in the public domain when they go online. We understand that often institutions rely on selling the rights to high quality images for much needed revenue, but this is not to stop lower resolution images being made freely available with no restrictions on use.
We believe the public domain is an invaluable and indispensable good, which – like our natural environment and our physical heritage – deserves to be explicitly recognised, protected and appreciated.
