Laura Gibbs

Welcome to the Public Domain, THE PICNIC (1930) 🐕

🐾 Little Rover barked onto the scene as Minnie’s dog in THE PICNIC (1930). He’d get a new name (Pluto) & a new owner, Mickey Mouse, the following year.

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

Welcome to the Public Domain, THE MALTESE FALCON (1930) 🦅💎

🕵️ Sam Spade is on the Case of the Disappearing Copyright as The Maltese Falcon novel joins the public domain.

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

The New Year has come,
A fresh and rosy child;
See! he clasps the hand
Of a lady young and wild.

With images by Walter Crane, and verse by his daughter Beatrice, this illustrated series of poems (ca. 1899) personifies the months of the year: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/crane-months

Welcome to the Public Domain, ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930) 🎭

😂 Nothing to do with soup. The Marx Brothers return in this 1930 adaptation of their stage musical. Laughs abound in the public domain.

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

Happy Public Domain Day 2026! Each January 1st is Public Domain Day, when a new crop of works have their copyrights expire and become free to share and reuse for any purpose. Here's our highlights for 2026.

Happy Public Domain Day! At the start of each year, a new set of works is freed from copyright — ready to be shared, reused, and reimagined. See our highlights — Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Langston Hughes, William Faulkner, and many more. #publicdomain

All Books Book catalogue

Happy new year! Why not start 2026 with some reading?

All of our books are open access & available to read freely. Our rigorously peer-reviewed, prizewinning titles cover a wide range of topics so you'll be sure to find something of interest:

buff.ly/lPaKuSN

Happy browsing! #OpenAccess #OAbooks

Public Domain Day 2026 Montage by S. Dudley, featuring images of: -All Quiet on the Western Front -Animal Crackers -Livin' in the Sunlight--Lovin' in the Moonlight -As I Lay Dying -The Little Engine That Could -Mickey & Minnie Mouse -Nancy Drew's The Secret of the Old Clock -King of Jazz -The Maltese Falcon -Pluto -Betty Boop -The Cat Who Went to HEaven -Dream a Little Dream of Me -Ash Wednesday -Morocco -Georgia on My Mind -I Got Rhythm -Murder at the Vicarage -Blondie

Happy #PublicDomainDay, everyone! As of today, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 have entered the U.S. public domain, including Animal Crackers, The Maltese Falcon & I Got Rhythm.

More info via Duke University's Center for the Study of the #PublicDomain: web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicd... 🗃️📜

Welcome to the Public Domain, ARCTIC ANTICS (1930) ❄️

🐧 Another 10 Silly Symphony shorts join the public domain. No rattling bones like last year's THE SKELETON DANCE, but we do get up to some Arctic Antics 🐻❄️

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #PublicDomain

Welcome to the Public Domain, GEORGIA ON MY MIND (1930) 🎶

The song that captured hearts & became a state anthem in 1979—and now, in 2026, it belongs to everyone.

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #PublicDomain #CopyrightFree

Welcome to the Public Domain, I GOT RHYTHM (1930) 🎷

Rhythm changes + a swinging 32-bar progression x now free for everyone to play = remix & rediscover!

Who could ask for anything more?

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay #PublicDomain #CopyrightFree

Welcome to the Public Domain, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) 🎖️

🎬 The third film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards is a realistic look at World War I. Experience the first filmed adaptation now in the #publicdomain.

Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD by Watty Piper (the version most people know) is inspired by earlier versions including one called "The Pony Engine" ...and you can listen to it as read by Boris Karloff (!) at @archive.org:
archive.org/details/lp_l...
...details: fabelizing.blogspot.com/2025/12/1930...

screenshot of the Readers Theater version of Little Engine That Could at the Internet Archive with illustration showing the Train pulling train cars full of toys

the encouraging clown has a major role in the readers theater Little Engine that I've created :-)
plus speaking roles for the teddy bear with no neck, the giraffe with the long neck and the baby elephant too!
I just uploaded my readers theater version to the @archive.org:
archive.org/details/litt...

Happy #PublicDomainDay! I've created an audio recording of THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD and uploaded the audio to the @archive.org ...and I've created a Readers Theater version, also available at the Archive!
details and embedded audio from the Archive here:
fabelizing.blogspot.com/2025/12/1930...

snippet of Little Engine That Could script with illustration of the train pulling toys stuck on the track and the toys standing outside the train in the snow

screenshot of article about Readers Theater: Open the Language Classroom Curtains to Readers Theater

thanks to @s-dudley.bsky.social, a super-fun project for #PublicDomainDay:
Readers Theater of LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD which enters #PublicDomain in 2026.
here's a screenshot... I'll be back with whole thing on January 1!
learn more about Readers Theater here :-)
www.mindbrained.org/2024/02/open...

Ahistorical nonsense & completely distorts what MSIs are and do 🙄

Earlier this year, we celebrated SINGIN' IN THE RAIN entering the #publicdomain—but it was just one moment in a much bigger story. ☔️

On January 1, 2026, even more culture joins the public domain.

Want to celebrate what’s next? Join our events ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomainDay

From "Shtetl, My Destroyed Home: A Remembrance" (1922), a set of 30 lithographs by Jewish artist Issachar Ber Ryback, who died #onthisday in 1935. The series pictures Ryback's village in Ukraine before it was destroyed in the pogroms following WW1: publicdomainreview.org/collection/s...

shifting from Americas to Europe, a lovely book entering #PublicDomain in 2026:

TALES OF A BASQUE GRANDMOTHER
by Frances Carpenter

the first of her "Grandmother" books :-)

borrow it now at @archive.org
archive.org/details/tale...

details: fabelizing.blogspot.com/2025/12/1930...
#PublicDomainDay

Geographical Fun (1868), a series of fantastic anthropomorphic maps of European countries, drawn by an unnamed 15-year-old girl who had the idea for the novel maps "when seeking to amuse a brother confined to his bed by illness": publicdomainreview.org/collection/g...

OUT NOW: 'Broken: Illness and Disability in Antônio Francisco Lisboa, Camilo Castelo Branco, Clarice Lispector, Victor Willing, Paula Rego and Ana Palma' by Maria Manuel Lisboa traces the lives and works of major artists and writers through the lens of 'being broken'.

buff.ly/Pqt9rm8

L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) remains the most popular of the Oz books — not least of all because it’s the only one illustrated by W. W. Denslow. See the wonderful illustrations, and more on Denslow's eventful life, here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/w...

December 2025 Newsletter We hope this newsletter finds you well as the festive month of December begins. We write with a big announcement about our new individual membership programme, news of recent publications, and a…

NEWSLETTER: Grab a hot drink and catch up with our December news, including a roundup of our year:

also entering #PublicDomain in 2026: the two volumes of RELIGION OF THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS by Franz Boas; it's available at the @archive.org:
vol. 1 in Kwakiutl archive.org/details/reli...
vol. 2 in English archive.org/details/reli...

#PublicDomainDay

details: fabelizing.blogspot.com/2025/12/1930...

Portrait on silk of opera character

Guardian in *Baicao Mountain* (ca. 1900), from One Hundred Portraits of Peking Opera Characters.

Source: @metmuseum.org

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/0fd3eeb4-983c-48e2-a1b8-ea6323fbaf19

#masks #costumes #theatre #china #opera #fashion #art #publicdomain

We're quickly sliding into the end of 2025, but we've got a final news trunk with #publicdomain titles, a #sharedprint initiative, and a hot tip on downloading a range of pages in a title. #digitallibraries #trusty buff.ly/VTEvVK0

this is so much fun to do! I make sure to go to the Archive when I am lucky enough to be visiting the Bay Area:

Colorful montage of works entering the public domain in 2026, including vintage posters, book covers, comic panels, and film stills. Prominent titles shown include All Quiet on the Western Front, Animal Crackers, As I Lay Dying, The Little Engine That Could, The Secret of the Old Clock, King of Jazz, The Maltese Falcon, The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Morocco, and Murder at the Vicarage. Music titles such as Georgia on My Mind, I Got Rhythm, and Dream a Little Dream of Me appear, along with early cartoon images of characters who would later become Betty Boop and Disney’s Pluto. The collage highlights iconic literature, films, music, and comics transitioning into the public domain.

Poster for the Internet Archive's 2026 Public Domain Film Remix Contest, featuring the "Lockette," a cartoon character with an open lock, seated in a director's chair, legs crossed, and holding a megaphone. Projected on a screen to her right is a frame from the 1930 film "King of Jazz". Illustrated by Freya Morgan.

A noir-style illustrated poster titled “The Case of the Disappearing Copyright.” The Lockette—a cartoon character whose body is an open yellow padlock—cautiously steps out of an open vault marked with a copyright symbol. A strong beam of light shines from outside the frame, casting a large copyright symbol onto the floor. Floating eyes and a magnifying glass with a question mark evoke a detective mystery. Red footprints lead toward the open vault door. Text reads: “Public Domain Day 2026” and “Jan 21st @10am PT: Virtual.” Illustrated by Freya Morgan.

Celebrate the Public Domain with the Internet Archive in 2026!

#PublicDomainDay is nearly here. Works from 1930 & sound recordings from 1925 will soon be open to reuse.

Enter our film contest & join our events! All the details ⤵️
blog.archive.org/public-domai...

#PublicDomain #event #contest

also: so grateful for how @archive.org helps us reuse LibriVox public domain audio like here at my #publicdomain blog, you'll see random LibriVox folktale audio in the sidebar; this link for mobile:
fabelizing.blogspot.com/p/widget.html
you can listen to the audio right there in the blog! enjoy :-)

and another #PublicDomainDay book of Native American traditions, this time myths and ceremonies of the Blackfeet Nation:
THE SUN GOD'S CHILDREN
fabelizing.blogspot.com/2025/12/1930...

already available for borrowing from @archive.org:
archive.org/details/sung...
...and available freely on Jan. 1!