ART 216: Finding Images

This online gallery features works on exhibit from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that have moved into the public domain. There are a few restricted images, so be sure to double check the license.

Lists hundreds of general and topic-specific resources that users can browse when looking for public domain images. Be sure to double check the license status of each image before using.

List of agencies and collections holding public domain images. Good resource for other copyright information as well.

Lists government agencies by topic that hold public domain images; each agency or institution will hold hundreds, if not thousands, of images. Of particular interest may be the Smithsonian collection and the American Memory (Library of Congress) collection. Be sure to check licensing on each image.

Searches images licensed through Creative Commons across platforms, including Flickr, Google Images, and Wikimedia Commons, among others.

This amazing bibliography of image resources, curated by subject librarians, features “quality digital image collections spanning more than 85 subjects, including over 950 digital collections”. The guide is browsable by subjects such as art, architecture, design, area studies, and horticulture, and also features many science, medical, and social science collections.

Searches images licensed through Creative Commons available on Flickr; relies on user tags to identify images.

Includes specific instructions to apply license language to regular web searches; learn how to search Google Images, Flickr, and more by type of license.