Unlock the Past: Public Domain Day 2025

On January 1, titles published in 1929 entered the public domain in the United States, including more than 76,000 items in the HathiTrust collection. With 60,380 titles also available to global readers, you can explore the richness of 1929’s written word from anywhere. Think of the possibilities — classic novels (Look Homeward, Angel), groundbreaking research (Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture), and perhaps even a forgotten cookbook that could bring whimsy to your every day (The Dictionary of Dainty Breakfasts).

At HathiTrust, we believe that knowledge shouldn’t gather dust. By preserving digital copies of published works, we ensure that these treasures are not only safe but also lawfully available to readers and researchers. Our member libraries contribute digitized titles to our ever-growing collection, making it a collaborative effort that spans the globe. 

And don’t forget that our Copyright Review Program ensures that every day is Public Domain Day by investigating copyright status to open new titles all year long.

Explore the HathiTrust items that have entered into the public domain in 2025 in the following collections:

1929 Publications Collection

Worldwide Collection January 2025

 

You’ll find the following titles and thousands of others:

A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
Contributed by University of California

Gods’ Man, A Novel in Woodcuts 
By Lynd Ward
Contributed by University of California

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
By Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop
Contributed by Penn State University

Vidas cruzadas
By Jacinto Benavente
Contributed by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

The Savarin Cookbook: Cooking for Profit
By Baptistin Allevi
Contributed by Cornell University

Harriet Hume, A London Fantasy
By Rebecca West
Contributed by University of Michigan

A Room of One’s Own 
by Virginia Woolf
Contributed by University of California

Thanks to John Mark Ockerbloom’s blog, Everybody’s Libraries, and his Public Domain Day Countdown, for inspiration.