Research Guides: Open Images: Find Open /Public Domain Images

Find Open Access and Public Domain Images

Best Bets for Finding Images

Creative Commons Search (now Openverse)
Creative Commons Search is a tool that can help you search other databases (Europeana, Flickr, Jamendo, etc.) for images, music, video, and other media protected under a Creative Commons Licence.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons contains over 27 million freely usable media files, including images, sounds, and videos. The highest quality items are ‘Featured’ by the site and appear in picture of the day and picture of the year selections.

Other Image Sources

Digital Public Library of America
Over one million images from US public libraries, many images are in the public domain, but check as licences can vary.
Europeana
Europeana is an archive of millions of digitized items from European cultural heritage institutions. Multiple formats (image, video, text, sound) are available. Please read licences of images as they vary.
Flickr Commons
Flickr Commons is a repository for historical images from cultural heritage institutions such as libraries, museums, and archives. Most material has “no known copyright restrictions” and is free for noncommercial use. Please check licences.
Flickr Creative Commons
Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license. You can browse or search through content under each type of license.
I-Open
Open Access Biomedical Image Search Engine
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All images require attribution, and are licenced under various levels of Creative Commons licensing unless licensing is not listed on an image which means you should contact the journal. Collection is from The Open Access Subset of PubMed Central (PMC), a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the Indiana University hospital network, the Orthopaedic Surgical Anatomy Teaching, and the Collection at the USC Digital Library.
New York Public Library
This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Smithsonian Open Access
Smithsonian Open Access lets you download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to nearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from the Smithsonian collections This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Wellcome Collections (UK)
Find thousands of Creative Commons licensed images from historical library materials and museum objects to contemporary digital photographs. Science Images.