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Category: Digital Image Collections

UK Affirms that Photographs of Public Domain Art Are Fair Use

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

A recent article by Allison Meier talks about the decision as to whether high quality photographs of artwork in the public domain can and should be considered fair use.  Here is a link to the article: http://hyperallergic.com/261496/uk-affirms-that-photographs-of-public-domain-art-are-fair-use/

Lorenzo Lotto, "Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia" (16th century), oil on canvas. (via National Gallery/Wikimedia). The image on Wikimedia through the Google Cultural Institute is one of the high resolution images of public domain art protected against new copyright.

 Lorenzo Lotto, “Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia” (16th century), oil on canvas. (via National Gallery/Wikimedia). The image on Wikimedia through the Google Cultural Institute is one of the high resolution images of public domain art protected against new copyright.

Metropolitan Museum Initiative Provides Free Access to 400,000 Digital Images

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

More than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use—including in scholarly publications in any media—without permission from the Museum and without a fee. The number of available images will increase as new digital files are added on a regular basis. 

In making the announcement, Mr. Campbell said: “Through this new, open-access policy, we join a growing number of museums that provide free access to images of art in the public domain. I am delighted that digital technology can open the doors to this trove of images from our encyclopedic collection.” 

Additional information and instructions on OASC can be found on the Museum’s website at http://www.metmuseum.org/research/image-resources/frequently-asked-questions.

LA County museum makes 20,000 images available for free download

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

Two years ago LACMA made a relatively small number of its image holdings available for free download in an online library. From that beginning of 2,000 images, the museum recently expanded its downloadable collection by ten-fold, making 20,000 images of artwork available for free. This represents about a quarter of all the art represented on LACMA’s site. They’ve chosen images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain and developed a robust digital archive with a richer search function than most museums.

Walters Art Museum collection

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

Walters Art Museum

http://art.thewalters.org/

The Walters Art Museum announces the launch of its redesigned works of art website with the removal of copyright restrictions on more than 10,000 online artwork images through a Creative Commons license . In addition to being able to download these images for free, the site introduces a new look and feel, and enhanced searching, tagging and community collections features. The website now has additional information about the artworks, including nearly a century of history concerning exhibitions and conservation treatments

LACMA Image Collection

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

 

In this collection will find a growing body of high resolution images (between 10–40 MB) from our encyclopedic collection which we believe to be in the public domain—available without restriction, free of charge.* From ancient sculpture to Impressionist masters, from scroll paintings to Mesoamerican pottery.

This image library represents our commitment to making the breadth and depth of the museum’s collection broadly accessible online and to the widest possible audience. LACMA plans to continue adding to this library over time.

Screenshot from the LACMA Image Library website

 

Digital Image Collection wiki

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

This wiki was begun by a graduate student doing an internship at Wellesley College. It has lists of resources you can use to find a variety of images. The copyright restrictions may vary but they are usually noted on the image websites. Here is an example of one of the entries on the wiki:
“Mark Harden’s “Artchive” contains images of many essential works of art covered in any survey course. You won’t find many obscure artists or rare works here, but if you need a high-quality reproduction of one of the essentials this is an excellent resource. The site is easy to navigate by the alphabetical listing of all the artists and periods/styles on the left of the screen. Each entry has some text and a list of images towards the bottom.”

Historic Cities

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

The website Historic Cities is a partnership between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish National and University Library. It contains historical maps, literature, and documents, and the sites creators are interested in user contributions. Maps of the Holy Land, Ancient Jerusalem and maps of over 50 countries are available in high and low resolution.

Images from the History of Medicine/ Image Database

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) provides access to nearly 70,000 images in the collections of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM). The purpose of the IHM database is to assist users in finding and viewing visual material for private study, scholarship, and research. The images present a comprehensive and fascinating visual record of the history of medicine, from 16th-century woodcuts to early dental cartoons to posters dealing with the AIDS epidemic. It is the users’ responsibility to determine compliance with the law when reproducing, transmitting, or distributing images found in IHM. Users can search by catagory or browse all images. More information about the collections can be found here

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Posted on by Mcnamara, Keri

NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library’s collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. It is a great resource! The site allows you to browse by subject, names, or topic. Some of its collections include:
Classic Illustrated Zoologies and Related Works, 1550-1900

Classic Illustrated Zoologies and Related Works, 1550-1900

Illustrated books from the 16th century to the early 20th depicting the animals of the world. Based on the scholarly bibliography of the same title by Miriam Gross, published in Biblion, The Bulletin of The New York Public Library in 1994.

Nature Illustrated: Flowers, Plants, and Trees, 1550-1900

Nature Illustrated: Flowers, Plants, and Trees, 1550-1900

Thousands of art and scientific prints, illustrating medicinal plants, spectacular garden flowers, exotic tropical blooms, trees and ferns. Includes many different printmaking techniques, from woodcuts to stipple engravings to color-printed lithographs.

If you like the site the library has recently made some of its collection available in the Flickr Commons