Kites are named for birds of prey in English, dragons in German, comets in Spanish, and wind zithers in Chinese — each language encoding a different cultural metaphor for the same simple frame of paper and string. Hunter Dukes’s collection for The Public Domain Review spans five centuries and a dozen countries, from Conrad Kyeser’s demonic windsock in a 1430 military manuscript to Hokusai’s illustration of an exiled samurai riding a giant kite, from Athanasius Kircher’s Jesuit psy-op kite inscribed “WRATH OF GOD” to Marco Polo’s account of binding “some fool or drunkard” to a man-lifting frame for naval augury. The collection moves through Chinese legend (Mozi’s wooden kite that crashed after three years of work), Mughal India’s kite-flying festivals, Ottoman sailors’ charts of the invisible constellation shukur yulduz, and the prehistory of aviation — Lawrence Hargrave’s box kites, the Wright brothers’ studies, and George Pocock’s 20-mph kite-drawn Charvolant carriage. Sixty-nine images across paper, woodblock, engraving, and early photography, held together by a single thread: the human urge to send something skyward and watch it pull.
The Art of Kite Flying (1430–1929) — Public Domain Review
Kites have been called paper eagles, dragons, comets, and wind zithers — this collection of 69 images across 5 centuries traces their journey from Chinese legend through Mughal festivals to aviation precursors.