Here are three more of my favourite sites and resources found on the famous internets.
This time i’m featuring websites that contain huge libraries of public domain images. I already featured Rawpixel on a previous post, but these are such a great type of visual resource, it’s worth digging out some more examples to share.
The majority of the content on these sites is provided under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence, which means that you can pretty much do whatever you please with them (including commercial applications). Disclaimer: please do check the stated licence terms, when you find something that you like.
Smithsonian Open Access
Bookmark This 004.1
si.edu/openaccess
A Winter Wonderland themed collection ©The Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Open Access program releases millions of visual assets to the public from across its associated museums, research centres, archives, and the US national zoo.
Photomicrograph of Stellar Snowflake No.990, Wilson Bentley ©The Smithsonian Institution
As you can imagine, you can rather lose yourself browsing random artifacts here! Look how beautiful this snowflake is. The idea of it being available for us all to view and potentially use, rather than being locked away in a vault is a truly lovely thing.
Space Shuttle Discovery 3D model ©The Smithsonian Institution
What is particularly cool (and possibly unique) about this library, is that there are even 3D models that you can freely download and make use of — like this Space Shuttle!
British Library
Bookmark This 004.2
flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/albums
©British Library / Flickr
The British Library has joined in the party with a very interesting Flickr feed, offering access to over a million reproductions of vintage illustrations, photographs, maps, and even advertisements (interesting as they certainly are, I would think carefully about how you are using the latter!).
Extract from The Bashful Earthquake, and other fables and verses by Oliver Herford ©British Library / Flickr
These are helpfully curated into sub-collections, such as Cats, Space & Science Fiction, Valentine’s Day, and Ghosts & Ghoulish Scenes; to name but four!
Extract from Otto of the Silver Hand. Written and illustrated by H. Pyle ©British Library / Flickr
The scans available aren’t bad at all, but keep in mind that you are able to order higher resolution versions from the British Library if needed.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Bookmark This 004.3
flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums
©Biodiversity Heritage Library / Flickr
Supported by The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a worldwide group of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries who are collaborating to digitise their collections and make them freely available to the public.
©Biodiversity Heritage Library / Flickr
And what a resource this is! This library has over 300,000 scans of vintage illustrations and photographs of flora and fauna of the natural world.
©Biodiversity Heritage Library / Flickr
I can image making use of these beautiful assets in collage work, or any project with a need to visually evoke the 18/19th century.
And there’s more!
There seems to be something of a global movement to digitise and share museum and gallery collections, which is a wonderful thing. I’d also recommend bookmarking these resources:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Rawpixel Public Domain
- Rijksstudio by Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum
- Getty Museum Collection
- Open Access by the The Met, New York
- Public Domain Collection by The Art Institute of Chicago
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Header Image: by fidaolga on Adobe Stock.
