A vital public good

A vibrant, rich, growing corpus of public-domain books is a vital public good - similar to parks, the infrastructure of basic services, and other hallmarks of any advanced society.
~Tom Peters

For Art Thursday, images from the Public Domain Review:

The Circulating Library
George Spratt, ca. 1830

Owl with Two Owlets Sitting on Branch
Henri De Groux, 1895

Study of a Hand with Needle
Henricus Wilhelmus Couwenberg, ca. 1830

The Mansion of the Plates
Katsushika Hokusai, ca. 1830

The Night-Blowing Cereus
Robert John Thornton, 1807