Bishop’s Cap Cactus. Native to the highlands of northeastern and central Mexico, it gets its name from its resemblance to a bishop’s mitre. More from French botanist Charles Lemaire’s Iconographie descriptive des cactées (1841) here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/illustrations-from-a-descriptive-iconography-of-cacti-1841
Detail from the ceiling of the Arena Chapel, in Padua, magnificently adorned with Giotto frescoes in ca. 1305.
One of the many beautiful images featured in our essay “Primary Sources: A Natural History of the Artist’s Palette” by @philipcball — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/primary-sources
Illustration from The Living Forest (1925), by the Canadian painter Arthur Heming who — having been diagnosed with colourblindness as a child — worked for most of his life in a distinctive palette of black, yellow, and white: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/tribal-life-in-old-lyme-canadas-colorblind-chronicler-and-his-connecticut-exile
New look. Illustration from a Book of Hours attributed to an artist of the Ghent-Bruges school and dating from the late 15th century. More rainbow-coloured “grotesques” here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/rainbow-coloured-beasts-from-15th-century-book-of-hours @BeineckeLibrary
Today is #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay. Here’s “Two Owls”, a 1921 print by Dutch artist Julie de Graag.
Buy as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/two-owls
And more on the good work of owl conservation here: https://www.owls.org/
Sniffing ozone, 1910.⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ One of the many bizarre photos in High Frequency Electric Currents in Medicine and Dentistry (1910) by champion of electro-therapeutics Samuel Howard Monell, who did “more for static electricity than any other living man”: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/high-frequency-electric-currents-in-medicine-and-dentistry-1910
Drawing and etching by Thomas Rowlandson, from The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1809–1812) which follows the good doctor’s adventures about the countryside in search of the perfect scenery. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dr-syntax
Details from a 15th-century manuscript titled Vaticinia de Pontificibus depicting gloriously surreal portraits of various Popes in the midst of the prophecies relating to them. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-prophecy-of-the-popes-15th-century
Stereograms from the first ever publication on a Neanderthal skeleton, L’Homme Fossile de La Chapelle-aux-Saints (1911).
A special viewfinder combined these stereograms to give the illusion of three dimensions. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/neanderthals-in-3d-lhomme-de-la-chapelle
Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell — who died #onthisday in 1922 — goes to kiss his wife Mabel while she stands in one of his spectacular tetrahedral kites. See more of these wonderful creations (and the kiss realised) in our post here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-graham-bell-s-tetrahedral-kites-1903-9 #OTD
The Great Norway Serpent, or Sea Orm, is the most famous of the many influential sea monsters depicted and described by 16th-century ecclesiastic, cartographer, and historian Olaus Magnus, who died #onthisday in 1557. Joseph Nigg explores: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/olaus-magnus-sea-serpent #OTD
Details from the “August” entry — complete with wild swimmers — in the “Labors of the Months” section of the Très Riches Heures, 15th century. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/labors-of-the-months-from-the-tres-riches-heures #wildswimming #august
Details from The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke by the British painter Richard Dadd, born #onthisday in 1817. Read more on the man and his mesmerising work in Nicholas Tromans’ essay — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/richard-dadds-master-stroke #OTD
“Friendship books” were the #Facebook of the 17th and 18th centuries (without the ads and data mining). Here’s a fine example of one begun in 1795 by the aunt of the poet Felicia Dorothea Browne: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-friendship-book-of-anne-wagner-1795-1834 #FriendshipDay
Lifting this 19th-century painting of fruit from its frame reveals something a little saucier lurking beneath… https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-concealed-erotic-paintings-of-sommonte-19th-century