About Lazarus Library
Our Mission: Preserving Old Books in an Increasingly Digital World
There are thousands of fantastic books in the public domain. As the world continues its shift from print to digital resources, many of these books are in danger of being forgotten. We don’t want the sands of time to cover them up without a trace, so we started Lazarus Library as a way to preserve these texts and revitalize them as accessible, discoverable websites.
Why are you so interested in old books?
The short answer: Because they’re amazing!
The slightly longer answer: Our founders have been accumulating old and out-of-print books for decades. Our homes are the kind where all the book shelf real estate has long been claimed, so piles of books have a way of encroaching on every flat surface. Erasmus put it best:
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” — Erasmus
When we found a great title, we either scanned it or hand typed it into a digital format. Over the years, our shelves and hard drives became stuffed with more things that fascinated us. We got cookbooks from the 19th century. We found old guides to occult magic. We got our hands on the very best nautical encyclopedia 1891 had to offer. Eventually, we realized we had so many great titles that we started Lazarus Library to share them with the world.
Doesn’t AI make books obsolete?
You’re asking the wrong people. We’re amazed by what AI can do, and it’s even helped us wrangle a lot of the data for this project. AI tools are incredibly powerful and can be invaluable parts of many tasks. When you ask a Large Language Model a question, it will give you an answer. Increasingly, it may even give you a pretty good answer!
Still, there’s no substitute for actually getting elbows-deep in the source material, especially on a fascinating topic that really grabs you. Answers are great, but the journey to that answer is part of the reward. By keeping these books in an accessible, interactive format, we hope we can maintain a bit of that magic.
What sites make up Lazarus Library?
We have grouped our books into a handful of thematically consistent sites. They include:
- Historical Foodie — A collection of classic cookbooks, epicurean texts, and cookery manuals. Whether you need a recipe for bullfrogs or want to know the history of baked Alaska, we’ve got you covered.
- Garden Handbook — A compendium of amazing horticulture and botanical texts. It’s got everything from descriptions of great manor house gardens to ancient medicinal uses of plants.
- Meta Encyclopedia — Our collection of historical dictionaries, glossaries, and encyclopedias covering everything from industrial processes to Shakespeare.
- History Bard — History told from history’s perspective. The site includes primary sources on political and military history, fashion design, and much more.
- Nature Encyclopedia — A compendium of texts about the world, including natural history, gemstones, and much more.
- Forgotten Trivia — Fun facts and amazing trivia that you’ll want to share with your friends. You probably never wondered, “What queen was compelled to drink out of a cup made from her father’s skull?” After a few minutes on Forgotten Trivia, you will.
Aren’t some of these books offensive or outdated?
They certainly are. These books are old, and they reflect the social and scientific ideas of the era in which they were published. Some of these notions are offensive or hurtful to modern audiences. Some may be outright dangerous — thankfully, we no longer think that lead is a miracle cure — or scientifically inaccurate. We would never suggest otherwise.
That said, we firmly believe that there’s value in presenting these texts in their original form whenever possible. It’s important to know what our predecessors thought, and shining a light on the outdated notions helps emphasize how far we’ve come. By publishing these texts, we’re not endorsing every idea within them. We’re sharing a historical record.
Before we publish a book on our sites, we carefully review it and add editor’s notes to give necessary context or correct factual errors on each page. Some images that may be offensive to modern readers are blurred out by default, but you can click through to see the original version. Again, we’re not endorsing these images, but we want to maintain them as historical artifacts. If something’s truly dangerous or offensive, we want to note it.
If you find something that needs our attention, drop us a note at info@photoop.com, and we’ll take a look.
There’s an old book I’ve been searching for everywhere. Do you have it?
Maybe! We’ve got hundreds of public-domain texts in our backlog, and we’re bringing new ones online every day. If you’re looking for a specific title, drop us an email at info@photoop.com, and we’ll see what we can do.
Some of our texts have never been published to the Web for public use. Others exist online, but they’re scans or PDFs that are clunky to read. Our goal is to make it easier to really find the great information these volumes contain. With the help of modern technology, we can also use the books to create quizzes, charts, maps, and other fun add-ons that may not be present in the original texts.
What is the public domain?
The public domain encompasses creative works that aren’t protected by copyright law. In the United States, these works are largely old ones whose copyright protections have expired, government documents, or works that were never covered by copyright in the first place. Public domain works are free for anyone to use, share, or adapt into new forms. Our goal with the Lazarus Library is to transform as many public domain books as we can into accessible, discoverable websites.
Do you own the copyrights to the books you publish?
No. Nobody does. The original text of every work we publish is in the public domain. We do hold the rights to our website designs, our editorial notes on the texts, and any original articles, charts, or other images we create based on these texts.
Is the public domain the same in every country?
No. Every jurisdiction has its own rules about copyright and intellectual property protections. The texts we feature are all in the public domain in the United States. Your jurisdiction may have different rules, so check them before using any content from our sites.