LibGuides: Public Domain Media & Content: Public Domain Images

Public Domain Image Collections

The following digital libraries, archives, and repositories provide access to public domain photos, illustrations, graphics, and icons.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Includes digitized primary sources from libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions throughout the U.S. Some of the digitized items reside in the public domain. Check the Rights Information on each item record to confirm copyright status. Public domain works can be found by filtering your searches on "Unlimited Re-Use".
Flickr Commons
Flickr Commons is a subset of Flickr that provides access to photos free of copyright restrictions from partnering cultural institutions located throughout the world. These images are designated with a "no known copyright restrictions" statement.
Getty: Open Content Program
The Getty provides access to more than 160,000 images of digitized artwork from its collections that are in the public domain. This includes photos, paintings, drawings, maps, text and manuscripts, and other artifacts.
Google Books: Free Books
Google Books provides full-text access to more than 10 million books in the public domain. This search tool limits results to just public domain works. Check these publications for photos, illustrations, maps, etc.
HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of digitized publications from libraries and archives around the world. It includes many public domain and open access works, which are available to the public. Access to collections still under copyright are restricted to only certain libraries. Many of these publications include photos, illustrations, and maps.
Internet Archive (Rights-Free)
The Internet Archive provides free access to millions of digitized books, images (photos, illustrations, cover art, maps, etc.), texts, audio recordings, videos, and software programs from around the world. Check the Rights field on each item record to identify public domain and Creative Commons-licensed works.
Library of Congress: Digital Collections
The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Many items are in the public domain. Check the Rights statement on each collection page and catalog item record.
Library of Congress: Free to Use and Reuse Sets
This portal provides access to a subset of LOC digital collections that are in the public domain, have no known copyright, or have been cleared by the copyright holder for public use. This includes books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Nearly 20,000 high-quality images of art from their collection have been released into the public domain. Look for the “download” option beneath the photo of the artwork.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Open Access Collections
The Met in New York City provides open access under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) to more than 375,000 images of artworks from our collection to use, share, and remix—without restriction.
National Gallery of Art: Free Images and Open Access Collections
The NGA provides access to over 50,000 public domain images in their permanent collection. use the "Browse for Free Images link to filter your search on just their public domain materials.
National Library of Medicine: Digital Collections
NLM digital collections include public domain images, video, audio, maps, and text.
New York Public Library: Digital Collections
NYPL's Digital Collections includes over 300,000 public domain still images, textual works, cartographic materials, notated music, and digital images of 3D artifacts. This link filters specifically on public domain materials in the collection.
Open Clip Art Library
Online repository for high quality public domain vector graphics on the Internet. All graphics submitted to the project should be waived of all rights, including copyright, according to the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a community of creatives who share copyright free images, videos, and audio files. All content is released under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain), which makes them free to use and modify even for commercial purposes. Attribution is not required.
Smithsonian Open Access (Main)
The Smithsonian provides open access to more than 2.8 million images, videos, and other digital assets from its collections, which have been released into the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Select the Open Access Media checkbox under the Search box to filter on those collections.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository of free images (photos, illustrations, maps, etc.), videos, sounds and other multimedia files. Content includes Creative Commons licensed, GNU Free Documentation licensed, or public domain content. Check the Licensing field on each item.

Digital Scholarship Librarian

Colleen Robledo Greene

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Public Domain Media & Content: Public Domain Images

Public Domain Image Collections

Digital Scholarship Librarian

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