LibGuides: Art: Finding Images

Curious about Copyright?

Like any other resource, images are generally protected by copyright. For more on copyright and fair use, visit our Copyright Basics Guide.

Images can also be licensed under Creative Commons, which allows for a standardized way to grant the public permission to use creative work under copyright law. There are six different types of CC licenses, which are detailed on the "About CC Licenses" webpage. For help determining which Creative Commons license you'd like to use, or for any Creative Commons questions, please reach out to Anna at aboutincooper@westfield.ma.edu.

Public Domain Image Resources

British Library
Over one million images from the British Library, including illustrations, maps, photographs, and more. All available for download without copyright restriction.
Getty Open Content Program
The Getty has made over 150,000 images of public domain art and archival material in the Getty collections freely accessible.
Library of Congress
This page specifically features items from LoC's digital collections that are free to use and reuse as you'd like.

Museum & Cultural Heritage Organization Image Repositories

Europeana
Europeana provides cultural heritage enthusiasts, professionals, teachers, and researchers with digital access to European cultural heritage material. Why? To inspire and inform fresh perspectives and open conversations about our history and culture. To share and enjoy our rich cultural heritage. To use it to create new things.

We give you access to millions of cultural heritage items from institutions across Europe. Discover artworks, books, music, and videos on art, newspapers, archaeology, fashion, science, sport, and much more.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thousands of images of objects and art from the Met's collections. Search functionality allows you to narrow by type/material, date, location, and whether the image is open access.
Musee d'Orsay - Paris
The national museum of the Musée d'Orsay opened to the public on 9 December 1986 to show the great diversity of artistic creation in the western world between 1848 and 1914. It was formed with the national collections coming mainly from three establishments:
National Gallery of Art - Washington, DC
From Byzantine altarpieces to pop art, learn all about paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and other works in the collection. Browse the collection and make connections among objects you know and newly discovered masterpieces.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s first collection of American art and one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States, is an unparalleled record of the American experience.

More than 7,000 artists are represented in the collection, including major masters, such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Helen Frankenthaler, Christo, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Lee Friedlander, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Martin Puryear, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Victoria and Albert Museum - London
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is the world's leading museum of art and design. Search the Collections is a working database providing online access to over 1.1 million catalogue records and over 293,000 images of objects in the collection.

Free Contemporary & Stock Photographs

Flickr
Flickr has a wide array of photographs on their site, and you don't need to log in to download photographs.

Search for a topic first, and then look to limit your search to different license types, like "All Creative Commons" or "No known copyright restrictions." Be sure to double check the rights of any photographs you use from Flickr.
nappy
Stock photography of Black and Brown folks, offered completely free. Always be sure to credit the artist.
pixabay
Includes 2.7 million free stock photography from a number of creators. Photos on pixabay are licensed with a CC0 license, meaning you don't have to give credit legally -- but it's always good practice to do so.
unsplash
Includes free stock photography from a wide array of creators. Always be sure to credit the artist!

Citing Your Images

Even if the image you're using is in the public domain, it's still good practice to cite it. Just as you would cite information that you use from an academic journal article, book, or other information source, so should you cite your images. Please make sure to check the individual style guide that your professor has asked you to use (like MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, or APA).

Generally when citing images, here is the information that you should include:

Creator's name
Title of work
Date of composition
Medium (photograph, painting, etc)
Name and location of the institution housing the work (i.e. MFA Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc)
Image hyperlink

____________________________

Here's an example of an image citation using Chicago Manual of Style:*

Lewis W. Hine, In an Old-Fashioned Textile Mill (Spinner), 1912, gelatin silver print, 5 x 6 15/16 in., Getty, Los Angeles, CA, https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/106RJ4#full-artwork-details.

*Please note that the text spacing and indentation may not represent what's required in CMoS; always double check with the manual.*