Celebrate Public Domain Day: Honoring Betty Boop and Piet Mondrian

On January 1, Public Domain Day, we celebrate the release of numerous creative works into the public domain, making them free to use and reinterpret. This year marks the entry of several notable works from 1930, spanning literature, film, and art. Notable entries include Betty Boop’s first appearance as an animated poodle in “Dizzy Dishes,” Piet Mondrian’s “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow,” and José Clemente Orozco’s Prometheus mural. In literature, we now have access to “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper, “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner, and “The Murder at the Vicarage” by Agatha Christie.

Several 1930 films are also entering the public domain, such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s “L’Age d’or,” Hitchcock’s “Murder!,” Greta Garbo’s “Anna Christie,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and “King of Jazz.” This period was marked by significant artistic and technological developments, with works produced under the shadow of the Great Depression and post-World War I disillusionment. These newly available works bring both nostalgia and inspiration, reminding us, as the Little Engine says, “I think I can. I think I can.”