Open access images
ARTSTOR
Artstor’s public collections offer approximately 1 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Anyone may view and download these collections at library.artstor.org; no subscription or login required, but consult the rights data in each record to see if and how an image can be reused.
The public collections are also discoverable alongside the core collections of Artstor Digital Library for University of Warwick staff and students.
IMAGES ON COLLECTION WEBSITES
The Art Institute of Chicago recently updated its website and released a searchable database of high-resolution photographs of works in the collection. Many of these images are identified as "public domain" allowing them to be used freely, even for commercial purposes. Select "Public Domain" in the filter menu and you wil find a full-resolution download link on the page. Check the copyright notice for each work.
The Barnes Foundation collection website enables visitors to explore thousands of works in the Barnes’s unparalleled collection based on aesthetics, and download high-resolution images of over 1,400 works that are in the public domain. The “Public Domain” categorization is used when the Barnes believes a work to be free of known restrictions under copyright law. The Barnes makes the images available for high-resolution download without charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial.
To view images go to the online collection, enter keywords, and when finding the image of interest press the DETAILS tab for rights information and download form.
The Getty - Open Content Program
The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.
Currently, there are over 110,000 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute available through the Open Content Program, including more than 72,000 from the Research Institute's Foto Arte Minore archive, which features photographs of the art and architecture of Italy over 30 years by German photographer and scholar Max Hutzel (1913–1988). Other images include paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities, sculpture, decorative arts, artists' sketchbooks, watercolors, rare prints from the 16th through the 18th century, and 19th-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks.
Select "Open Content Images" on the Getty Search Gateway.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Image and Data Resources
Neraly 400,000 images of artworks in The Met collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain, or those to which the Museum waives any copyright it might have, for any purpose, including commercial and noncommercial use, free of charge and without requiring permission from the Museum.
Go to the The Met Collection and select "Pubic Domain Artworks" and "Artworks with Image".
NGA Images (National Gallery of Art)
More than 45,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels each of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial. Users do not need to contact the Gallery for authorization to use these images. See Policy Details below for specific instructions and notes for users.
Go to the Advanced Search page and select "Open Access Available".
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Everyone has the freedom to enjoy and reuse these materials in almost limitless ways. The Library now makes it possible to download such items in the highest resolution available directly from the Digital Collections website. More than 210,000 of the of the items in the NYPL Digital Collections are now in the public domain
Go to the NYPL Digital Collections and tick "Search only public domain materials" in the search box.
Smithsonian Institution: Open F|S
Open F|S, a project to digitized all the collections of the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Freer Study Collection, with more than 40,000 works being made available for high-resolution download. Images can be used for all non-commercial purposes.
Sweden’s Royal Armoury, Skokloster Castle, and The Hallwyl Museum (LSH)
Over 41,000 pictures of objects and museum environments from the Royal Armory, Skokloster Castle and Hallwyl. The images are free to download and use, and are tagged with Creative Commons licenses and copyright information.
Wellcome Images
Includes high resolution images drawn from the historical holdings of the Wellcome Library, released under a Creative Commons license.
The majority of works in the Center’s collection are in the public domain. If a work is believed to be in the public domain and free of other restrictions, the Center’s digital images of the work in its online collection catalogue are made freely available. The rights status of the work is displayed in the online collection catalogue record.
IMAGES AVAILABLE ON FLICKR
The British Library Flickr Commons Photostream
Over 1,000,000 images available under Creative Commons licence taken from books in its collection.
Over 5,000,000 images available under Creative Commons licence taken from books in its collection. Enter a search term in the Photostream search box.
Library of Congress Public Domain images
Images that come from the archives of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. which are are believed to be in the public domain. It is the responsibility of the user,to verify that they are NOT covered by copyright.