All of the below links come from Wikipedia - This is the page I got them from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources This is an awesome resource. Please check it out. Additionally, you can type 'public domain photos', 'public domain images' or 'public domain clip art', - into your favorite search engine (mine is Google - soon to control the world).
Additionally - and very importantly:
"The presence of a resource on this list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are in the public domain. You are still responsible for checking the copyright status of images before you" use them
I would just suggest that you make sure that the images you are using are public domain images.
I repeat (for extra emphasis): **Be SURE about the images you use - make certain they are public domain**
If you are unsure - do not use them.
I repeat (for extra emphasis):
Most of these websites make that pretty clear ***but if you are unsure - I would advise NOT to use it.***
I hope that this helps:
History
Historical images
- http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html Library of Congress American Memory site (Check copyright information for the separate items before deciding to use them!)
- http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/ - public domain images of American Political History
- http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngillus.htm Images from The Newgate Calendar. Mostly crimes and criminals from the 18th century. Also other works at http://www.exclassics.com
- http://www.fromoldbooks.org/ Collection images scanned from various old books that are now in the public domain. Searchable. Used to be under http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/
- http://www.john-leech-archive.org.uk/ John Leech sketch archives 1841 until 1864 from Punch magazine The page states they are long out of copyright and that they are believed to be public domain.
- http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/ Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library's online collection of digital images. Most will be {PD-art}. 90,000 images from rare books and manuscripts, search by keyword.
- http://digitalgallery.nypl.org New York Public Library. Over 500,000 images scanned from books. Including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. There is a per-image usage fee even for public domain images.
- http://www.oldbookillustrations.com/ Images scanned from old books. States that images on the site are the works of artists who "...have been dead for over seventy years, which makes them part of the public domain in many countries". Searchable by keywords.
- America As It Was - a huge resource for vintage postcards in the U.S., organized by state. Any postcard first published in the U.S. before 1978 without an explicit copyright notice is PD. Lots of photos, aerial views, and maps of many U.S. locations.
- "The Secret Museum of Mankind" - collection of anthropological photographs published in a 1935 book without copyright. Scanned and released under a CC-NC license, but images should be public domain, at least in the US, since they are faithful reproductions of PD images. (Warning: strong 1930's racist P.O.V.)
Specific periods
Art
Visual arts
Note: Accurate photographs of two-dimensional visual artworks lack expressive content and are automatically in the public domain once the painting's copyright has expired (which it has in the US if it was published before 1923). All other copyright notices can safely be ignored.
Music
Old photographs, photographers and their subjects
Books
- http://books.google.com - Scanned in books & historical documents. Keyword searchable. Great source for diagrams/illustrations. (not all public domain, many still in copyright)
- http://gutenberg.net - Scanned in books. Searchable.
- http://www.bookscanning.com - Scanning of public domain books without destroying them. Great source for non-destructible scanning. (This site provides scanning services of printed Public Domain Works. Customers pay a fee for an editable soft copy of the selected work.)
Logos and flags
Postage stamps
http://www.theworkofgodschildren.org Collection of high-resolution Roman Catholic images of the Saints and the events in the history of Salvation. All pictures have been released into the public domain.
http://www.coolnotions.com/PDImages/pd_StoryOfTheBible.htm Collection of Public Domain pictures from the Bible.
General collections
- http://ushistoryimages.com/ - A growing collection of free images related to United States history.
- http://www.freephotos.lu/ Free public domain photos. For private and commercial use.
- RepublicDomain.com is a place for free public domain photos and desktop wallpapers.
- http://www.public-domain-photos.com - Thousands of high quality public domain photos
- Les photos gratuites de GratisNette thousands of free photos for private and non commercial use
- Public Domain Pictures - Free high quality public domain pictures for commercial and personal use - Sorted in categories, ability to search by keywords. Todays photographs, no old scanned pictures or low resolution images
- Copyright free, high-quality scans from pre-1920 books - Categorized and searchable. Click "free images" on the left navigation.
- Public Domain Photos - Free for commercial redistribution and alteration - Moka Gallery - All photo from this site is 100% free for use (old domain: moka.t2i.info) !
- Scans of art from pre-1922 books and various photos, free for any use
- Easy Stock Photos - Royalty free stock photos, pictures, images and information in the public domain - Collection of public domain photos organized by category in image galleries.
- http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/ - Scans of engravings and other artwork from a personal collection of old books, magazines, and post cards. Updated regularly.
- http://www.wpclipart.com - Public Domain clipart optimized for use in word processors. Browsable via site treeview and thumbnail pages. Complete collection also downloadable from ibiblio.
- http://www.gutenberg.net/catalog/ - Project Gutenberg: 12,000+ books, only a few illustrated, but the number of illustrated books increases from week to week. There are thousands of PD images available.
- http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/ - GIMP Archive: 32,000+ Royalty-free photos, organized by keyword.
- http://www.openclipart.org/ - This project is an archive of public domain clip art. The clip art is stored in the W3C scalable vector graphics (SVG) format.
- http://www.clker.com/ - Easy to search public domain images, directly usable in openoffice.org
- http://opendomain.blogspot.com/ - public domain images from various sources in one-a-day blog format.
- http://pdphoto.org/ - Large collection of mostly public domain photos. Read the license for each picture before use; also, model releases may not have been obtained for all photos.
- http://www.logodesignweb.com/stockphoto/ - Small but growing public domain stock photos released by photographer.
- http://srufaculty.sru.edu/david.dailey/public/public_domain.htm - Scanned and colorised etchings claimed to be PD images.
- http://www.freephotos.se/ - Small personal photographic collection dedicated to the public domain.
- http://www.mathpuzzle.com/loyd/ Images of pages of a 1914 book of puzzles
- http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/sacredspiral/ - Public Domain Pagan Clipart
- http://content.lib.washington.edu/costumehistweb/index.html - This collection includes 417 fashion plates from 1806-1914 from some of the leading fashion journals of the time.
- http://publicdomain.photopress-spain.com/ - Public Domain Spain Photo Gallery. Photo archive containing a collection of free, public domain images and photos of Spain.
- http://www.PublicDomainFootage.com/ - Public domain archival stock footage and newsreels.
- http://www.vintagepixels.com/ - Large database of historical, high quality, free-for-use images. People can also share their archived photos.
- http://www.pdclipart.org - 25,000+ Public Domain Clip Art (great for printing). Categorized & searchable.
- Public Domain Image Gallery Hundreds of categorized photos free for public use. Images added frequently.
- Public Domain Depot A collection of public domain photos and resources with many original photos from the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
- Historical News A growing collection of historical newspaper articles. The focus is on forgotten history.
Computer-generated public domain images
Public domain image meta-resources
Uncategorized links
U.S. Government sites
Search Engines
- everystockphoto.com - Searching over 4.3 million public domain and creative commons photos including wikipedia and NASA. Free user accounts with drag and drop collections, and other features.
- PicFindr.com - Searches a hand picked collection of public domain-, free stock photo-, and photo community sites. Includes the ability to search by rights! (whether you need to give credit, ask permission or not)
- Spffy.com - Searches one billion stock photos and video, including free images, public domain, creative commons, royalty-free and rights-managed.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources"
Best Regards,
Neil