LibGuides: Graduate Thesis Submission Guide: Open Access Images

What is Open Access?

"Open access is a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined 'open access' when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it - that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements."

(From the web page "What is Open Access? — Open Access.NL. See more at "https://www.openaccess.nl/en/what-is-open-access")

Open Access materials have no copyright restrictions and should be sought out first when locating third party materials.

Open Access Image Resources

The links below provide access to images that are in the public domain or have been made available for reuse and can likely be used in for small run scholarly publications and theses free of charge. Always check the rights statement associated with each image to make sure that you are abiding by the terms of use, which may include a specific format for the credit line.

Artstor Public Collections
Publicly available images on the Artstor Platform with varying terms and conditions. Search the list at this link for "Open Artstor", to gain access to Public Domain or Creative Commons resource sources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum, and others.
flickr Commons
Images from over 40 participating museums, libraries, and archives which are freely available for use and tagging. There are no known copyright restrictions on images on this site.
Google Image Search with Filters
Billions of images found on web pages. Copyright Restrictions apply in most cases, there are filters available to point to images that are open access or are made available with a Creative Commons License, which means you can use it as long as you follow the license.
Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse Digital Collections
A small set of samples of the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Whenever possible, each collection has its own rights statement which should be consulted for guidance on use. Learn more about copyright and the Library's collections. To search all digital collections, go to: https://www.loc.gov/collections/
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. Terms and conditions of use vary. Browse Public Domain Images Only.
US Government Image Sources List (Partial)
Images created by the government are automatically in the public domain. Agencies with rich sources of images include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, NASA, and the United States Geological Survey.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. Museums, such as the Walters Art Museum, are beginning to make their content available through this site. Many images on this site may be used freely. See Terms and Conditions of Use for more information.

Stock Photography Sites

Pexels
You can find thousands of high quality public domain images on Pexels. Search for various keywords and images of all kinds of topics. Public domain images on Pexels can be downloaded and used for free even for commercial purposes.
Pixabay
Over 2.4 million+ high quality stock images, videos and music shared by our talented community.
Unsplash
Unsplash photos are made to be used freely for commercial and non-commercial purposes (but not sold!). Attribution is not required but appreciated.

Museums with Open Access Policies

Below is a selection of museums that provide open access to portions of their collections. For links to more museums, see the following resources, which include some links to European institutions.

"Open access image libraries – a handy list." Apollo Magazine, February 28, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2021

"Public Domain Images For Artists." MoMa.co.uk. Retrieved March 4, 2021

Art Institute of Chicago
Explore thousands of artworks in the museum’s wide-ranging collection—from our world-renowned icons to lesser-known gems from every corner of the globe—as well as our books, writings, reference materials, and other resources. Use show filters, scroll down and select public domain. When you click on an open access image, the Creative Commons public domain designation appears beneath the image on the left side of your screen. Those images that are not open access will not have the CC0 designation or a download button.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. It has a uploaded over 150,000 illustrations in the public domain to Flicker each with a link to the high resolution download.
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art has nearly 40,000 open access images available. After selecting open access, the thumbnails of all open access images appear with the CC0 designation beneath them. Select an image to download by clicking on the thumbnail and a download button will appear to the right of the image. The image is delivered in a zip file along with a text file with the meta data that can be used to cite the work. The Museum asks that you consider citing the source as explained in its Open Access policy.
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum has over 150,000 public domain images available. Click on the title of the work for its complete meta data and provenance. The download button is located beneath the full image. The download is offered in various sizes including JPEG files large enough for print publication. You will be asked two brief questions about how you intend to use the image. The Museum asks that you credit Getty's Open Content Program.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art includes a check box for only public domain images and the search results are returned in thumbnails. Click on the thumbnail to get to the meta data and the download option. LACMA offers a TIFF download in addition to a JPEG which is useful for print publications. LACMA includes their open access policy in their website terms of use complete with impenetrable legalese. LACMA does not ask to be cited.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has thousands of open access images available that can be filtered by using the open access check box. The Met launched its Open Access policy in February 2017. It does not ask for attribution when you use an Open Access image.
National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art (click on advanced search below the search bar, then select open access and run your search). The search results return a page of thumbnail images. The thumbnail opens up to a single image page with complete meta data. You can download images suitable for print publication using the download icon that has two bars beneath it. Or you can choose low resolution images (the download icon with one bar beneath it. The Gallery's Open Access policy asks users to give credit.
National Palace Museum, Taiwan
Taiwan’s National Palace Museum has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks, encompassing 8,000 years of Chinese art from the Neolithic age to the present. In 2015, the Museum adopted open data policies to make its collections images and research materials more accessible to the public.
Smithsonian Open Access
Welcome to Smithsonian Open Access, where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Walters Art Gallery
The Walters Art Gallery provides access to thousands of open access images. There is not a way to filter on open access images, but you are able to see the status of the images on the image record. In its Image Rights, Reproduction, and Terms of Use, the Gallery asks that you provide them with information about your project if you are making scholarly or commercial use of a CC0 designated work.
Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery has nearly 200,000 digital images available from its collection. There is no filter that allows you to limit the search results to open access images only. You need to click through the thumbnails to see whether a download of the image is available. If the work has been designated CC0. In its Terms of Use, the Gallery asks that you credit it so that others can find and benefit from the collection.
Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art has over 50,000 public domain images that you can filter on from the search page under the Rights box. When you download an image, you are provided with a formatted caption.