Victorian sexuality is often thought synonymous with prudishness, conjuring images of covered-up piano legs + ankle-length skirts. @drmatthewgreen uncovers a quite different scene in the sordid story of Holywell St, 19th-century London's epicentre of smut https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-secret-history-of-holywell-street-home-to-victorian-london-s-dirty-book-trade

Born #onthisday in London in 1795, John Polidori. As well as being the long-suffering personal physician to Lord Byron, he is also the creator of the first modern #vampire story: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-poet-the-physician-and-the-birth-of-the-modern-vampire #OTD

In an essay about the British and American fascination with rocking chairs and upholstery springs in the 19th century, @hunterdukes discovers how simple furniture technologies allowed armchair travelers to explore worlds beyond their own: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/postures-of-transport

Coloured lantern slides from Norway in the early 20th century: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/lantern-slides-of-norway-ca-1910?utm_content=buffer4d150&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

The Reverse of a Framed Painting (ca. 1670) by Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts.

More on this remarkable painting and other trompe l'oeil by Gijsbrechts in our latest post: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/reverse-of-a-framed-painting

#OnThisDay in 1888, George Eastman patents the very first roll film camera and registers @kodak as a trademark. It revolutionised photography, making it truly portable. The first Kodak cameras produced circular snapshots, only 2.5 inches in diameter: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/kodak-no-1-circular-snapshots #OTD

Considered the oldest complete seventy-eight card tarot deck in existence, the 15th-century Sola Busca — named for the family of Milanese nobles who owned it for some five generations — is also one of the most mysterious: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sola-busca

#OnThisDay in 1942, Eric Ravilious became the first British war artist to die on active service in WW2, when the aircraft he was in was lost off the coast of Iceland. Frank Delaney re-visits the work of this understated, yet significant figure: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/time-and-place-eric-ravilious-1903-1942 #otd

"Diagram of the Winds", one of several medieval cosmographic diagrams found in a 12th-century English manuscript. See more of its wonderful cosmographic imagery here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cosmography-manuscript-12th-century

Gregorio Astengo explores the innovations employed in early issues of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, the world's first scientific journal — new forms of image making which pushed the boundaries of 17th-century book printing: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/more-lively-counterfaits