- ◊ about us
* indicates a metasite of links to imagebases.
Advertisements
Ad*Access, 1911-1955 (Duke University)
Adflip, 1940-present
Ads (Advertising World, University of Texas, Austin) *
Advertising Archives (London, England)
Early Advertising of the West [U.S.] (University of Washington)
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920 (Duke University)
Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements (American Memory, Library of Congress)
Sears Archive, 1886-present (search Homes and Products)
Visual Information Access, search VIA for l9th-century trade cards and advertisements as subject (Harvard University)
Clip Art
The Icon Browser (Computer Science Department, Pisa University, Italy)
Illuminated Manuscripts
Bodleian Libray Manuscripts (University of Oxford)
DScriptorium: Medieval Manuscripts*
Enluminures (in French libraries)
Manuscripta Mediaevalia (in German libraries; click on Datenbank)
Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts (Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum in The Hague, The Netherlands)
Miniatures from the Topkapi Museum (Istanbul)
Maps
Historical Map Web Sites (Perry-CastaReda Library Map Collection, UTexas, Austin) *
Historical Maps of the United States (Perry-CastaReda Library Map Collection, UTexas, Austin) *
Mapping History (University of Oregon)
Maps on Other Web Sites (Perry-CastaReda Library Map Collection, UTexas, Austin) *
People: Pictures and Portraits
American National Biography BU
AP Images (Associated Press) BU
Foto Marburg: Portraits (click on Bildindex, then Portrats; mainly German)
Historical Figures (international) (Perry-Castaneda Library, University of Texas at Austin)
History of Economic Thought (international)
ILN (Illustrated London News) "Personalities"(mainly British)
Images from the History of Medicine, NLM (international)
Images of African Americans from the 19th Century (Schomberg Center, NYPL)
Images of Physicists (international) *
Inventor Archive (Lemelson-MIT Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Joconde: Personnages et êtres imaginaires and Autres personnages
Labor Arts (mainly US)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: People (includes Nobel Laureates)
Legal Portraits Online (type in lawyer's name or lawyers, Middle Ages to the late twentieth century, Harvard Law School Library)
Librarians' Index to the Internet: Portraits (international) *
National Portrait Gallery (London)
National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC)
Oxford Biographical Dictionary (British) BU
Philosophers: The Window: Philosophy on the Internet (international)
Photographic Portraits of American Artists (Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian)
Pictures of Famous Physicists (University of Frankfurt)
Poets' Corner: Faces of the Poets (American and European)
Prints and Photographs (P&P) Online Catalog
(Library of Congress, search 1 collection or all 54 simultaneously, sample images only)Scientific Identity: Portraits by research discipline (Smithsonian)
Tax History Museum ( Joseph J. Thorndike, public service initiative from Tax Analysts)
Photography
AP Images BU
BUBL LINK's Photographs and Photography *
Flickr: The Commons, public photography archives photostreamed (museums, libraries)
George Eastman House Photography Collection
ILN (Illustrated London News) Picture Gallery (1842 to today, mainly British)
Life Photo Archive hosted by Google (1750s to today)
New York Public Library Picture Collection
Neweum (today's front pages and limited archive of historical events beginning in 2003))
Pictures and Picture Stories (Reuters, current events)
Smithsonian Photographs Online
Wikipedia Commons (freely usable media files: photos, sound, and multimedia)
Public Domain
American Memory, Library of Congress: " The Restriction Statement that accompanies each American Memory collection provides known information regarding ownership of materials in the collection. If known, we include contacts for permission. In some cases the Restriction Statement will indicate that material in a particular collection may be used freely; in other cases the Restriction Statement may only be a starting point for your inquiry."
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Digital Images Online: " The Library may be able to assist in identifying the copyright holders. It is not necessary to seek the Library's permission to publish texts or images (unless the University is identified as the copyright holder.) The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library should, however, be cited as the source."
Images of American Political History: " Posting online by Dr. William J. Ball. All images are believed to be in the public domain. Please do not contact me for permission to use them."
Images You Can Use, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa*
"Locating public domain images," by Lorrie A. Knight, College & Research Libraries News, January 1998, 11-13. Some of the links are now defunct. Try Googling site titles.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery: "Images may be freely downloaded for personal, research, and study purposes only."
Perry-Castañeda Library, University of Texas at Austin, Portrait Gallery (Historical Figures): " The images in this collection are in the public domain. You do not need to ask for permission to use these images."
Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Library of Congress: "Copyright restrictions."
Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures from Old Books: "They are mostly public domain (copyright-free, out of copyright) here in Canada, and often in other countries too, unless otherwise noted..."
"Visual resources online; digital images of primary materials on public Web sites," Annie Blecksmith, College & Research Libraries News, vol. 69 no. 5, May 2008.
Web Gallery of Art: "... intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers."
World War II Posters, Northwestern University: " Materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office are in the public domain and, as such, not subject to copyright restriction. However, the Library requests users to cite the URL and Northwestern University Library if they wish to reproduce images from its poster database."
Go To Sciences
Ruth S. Thomas, Art/Art History Bibliographer
rthomas@bu.edu (617) 353-3714