My favorite image sources
As a graphic designer I work with images day in and day out, photographs, illustrations, moodboard imagery, but sometimes the regular platforms let me down. So I've rounded up my favorite image sources, so you don't get into this pickle.
Imagery in the Public Domain (CC0)
Let me first clarify that items on this list are not your classic ‘Unsplashes’ or ‘Pexels’, but a whole other world. I'm talking about Public Domain images of art, manuscripts & photographs, which you can find for free at libraries, museum & other cultural organizations.
You might be wondering libraries? Museums? Their stuff is all old and stuffy and aren't those protected by copyright? Well that is where you are wrong! Not all imagery/ photographs are protected anymore and there's a whole 'nother world out there that you can use in the future.
These databases have lots of imagery that's available in the Public Domain (CC0). CC0, C'est quoi? Well CC0 in essence means: “Digital, online, free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” Meaning artists and creators have given up their copyrights licenses for you to use them, even for commercial usage!
These databases on the list are just a small selection of the abundance out there. I’ve indicated my absolute favorites, and added some more websites with even more sources at the bottom. Inspiration is easy to find, if you know where to look!
My Favorite Databases
NY Library — My favorite as it has such a wide selection and so many items of famous works (like the original Alice in Wonderland drawings) You need to make sure it's Open Access though, but every item has a description and while searching you can also indicate to show you only Open Access items. -https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
Rijksmuseum — This Amsterdam museum is a rich source for art and paintings. The Rijksmuseum encourages you to use their archive for personal and commercial projects. You have to create a Rijksstudio account, but it comes in handy to save items in neatly organized folders - just like Pinterest. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio
Smithsonian Open Access — One of the newest databases, launched beginning of 2020 and now the largest and most interdisciplinary open access program to date. More than 3 million 2D & 3D digital items are accessible. This includes images & data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, & the National Zoo. https://www.si.edu/openaccess/
The Met — you can find EVERYTHING the Met has in it's collection on here - even the clothing items that are not accessible for visitors! Indicate 'Openaccess' when searching for public domain. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection
American Databases
Art Institute Chicago — simple and clean layout but the highlight is the high quality scans of the artworks. https://www.artic.edu/collection
Biodiversity Heritage Library — If you like animals, birds, bugs, plants, the oceans and everything in them then welcome to your new favorite Flickr databases full of images and prints of fauna and flora. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/
Brooklyn museum — Indicate that you want images with 'Creative Commons licenses or no known copyright'. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/
Cleveland museum of arts — https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collections
Getty Museum — https://search.getty.edu/gateway/landing
Harvard Art museum — https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections
Indianapolis Museum of art — http://collection.imamuseum.org/
Internet archive book images — https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) — You can indicate in your search to only search for public domain images only. https://collections.lacma.org/search/site?f%5B0%5D=bm_field_has_unrestricted_image%3Atrue
Library of Congress — You need to use this specific link to find the images in the Public Domain. https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/
Minneapolis Institute of Art —In the search bar on top of your keywords add: rights_type:"Public Domain". https://collections.artsmia.org/search/rights_type:%22Public%20Domain%22
National Gallery of Art — about 53,000 open access images available! After searching make sure to tick 'Image download available', this will give you Openaccess items. https://www.nga.gov/collection/collection-search.html
The Met Timeline of Art history — a lovely website that goes through the history of art and then links to The Met catalogue. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
USA Agricultural Research Service — a small selection and mostly stock photos on agriculture https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/image-gallery/
US National Archives Flickr — all these historic images are freely available on Flickr and don't need permission. https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/sets/
US National Archives Catalog — Even more photos than the Flickr account, but also has a lot of documents so a bit harder to find anything specific. https://catalog.archives.gov/
Wikimedia Commons — Wikipedia for media to use freely! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Yale University Art Gallery — The images that are in the public domain have a download button and don't need permission from the Yale Art Gallery. No download button = not in the public domain. -https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/52875
Yale center for British art — indicate 'Public Domain' under the 'Rights' dropdown. https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/?f%5Brights_ss%5D%5B%5D=public+domain
European Databases
Belvedere museum Austria — https://www.belvedere.at/en/open-content
Birmingham museums — http://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/asset-bank/action/viewDefaultHome?browseType=accessLevels
Gallica — https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/content/accueil-en?mode=desktop
Kunstmuseum Basel — The search is only available in German. http://sammlungonline.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/eMuseumPlus
Lebenbachhaus — The search is only available in German. https://www.lenbachhaus.de/entdecken/sammlung-online
Mauritshuis NL — https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/the-collection/
Munch Museet — The search is only available in Norwegian. https://foto.munchmuseet.no/fotoweb/
Paris Musées — The database that needs some more work as it can often feel a bit buggy, however the collections of 14 Paris museums can be found on here. It’s not optimized for the English language (yet), so get out your best French for more results. If you want to find items that are in the Public Domain indicate 'Image libre de droit seulement'. https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en/
SMK — The search is only available in Danish and English. Select ‘Tick til fri brug’ or For free use. https://open.smk.dk/art?q=*&page=0
The British Library Flickr — The British library still considers the art they have as their copyright, however they set up this Flickr account to start adding pictures to the Public domain! https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/albums
Wellcome collection — The Wellcome Image Collection is a true Cabinet of Curiosities full of scientific and medical images. https://wellcomecollection.org/works
More Databases
Museum of New Zealand — You can search for images with the 'Unrestricted Use' tag to help you find free to use images https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/
Moma — A large overview of the best online collections of public domain images from the British Museum to NASA. https://www.moma.co.uk/public-domain-images/
Northcentral University Library — https://ncu.libguides.com/c.php?g=643288&p=5206716
The Public Domain Review — This website actually is a digital curation of ALL works of art in history and keeps updating when new works fall in the public domain! https://publicdomainreview.org/
All these above I've used in some form, but there are a whole lot more out there, so it's a search sometimes to find the right website. I’ll keep updating the list frequently and hope this list already helps you get out of your creative funk. Do share the post on social media if you found it useful and share it with others!
Let’s work together!
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