Artstor is a continually expanding image database from museums, archives and libraries all over the world. High-resolution images are derived from a variety of media including art, design, architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, fashion, and costume - from various periods and cultures throughout history.
Finding openly licensed images
An openly licensed image is an image that you can reuse according to the licence conditions, without having to ask permission from the copyright owner. Creative Commons licenses (CC licenses) are a common open license for images.
Google's image search engine includes a Usage Rights filter. Choose Tools > Usage Rights > Creative Commons Licenses to find openly licensed images. You will still need to check the image copyright to see what kind of Creative Commons license has been applied, and how you are licensed to use it.
A search hub for historical pictures, sound files, videos, texts and objects from New Zealand’s archives, galleries, libraries and museums. You can filter the results by Usage to find images that you can share and modify.
The media arm of Wikipedia. A very large collection of freely usable (open content licensed) media files to which anyone can contribute. Includes photographs, animations, and video footage.
Images (photographs, drawings, maps, objects and artworks) from European archives, libraries and museums. Clearly marked copyright status on each image allows you to easily see which are openly licensed.
Online photo management and sharing application with excellent search options. Choose All creative commons in the license chooser to find openly licensed photographs.
Over 3 million professionally designed icons and vector art, as well as a growing collection of photographs. Most material is either public domain (copyright free) or available under a Creative Commons license.