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Art & Art History

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Visual Resources Center

Permissions, Copyright & Fair Use

Library Subscribed Image Databases

Images in these databases have their uses restricted to educational or research purpose by the terms of the library's subscription, and are not suitable for publication (except for those images in ARTstor marked as IAP - images for academic publishing). Downloads are typically restricted to sizes appropriate for projecting.

Public Domain and Creative Commons Images

These large databases contain millions of images on many subjects, almost all images are either in the public domain (made before 1928) and thus can be used without restriction, or made available under a creative commons license which allows free reuse with certain restrictions such as always attributing the creator.

Museum & Library Collections Online

Many museums have started making high quality images downloadable without permissions (for art objects in the public domain). The following museums have made at least some of their images available for free re-use. You can explore a database of museums with Open Access image policies at the OpenGLAM website

Some museums restrict access to high quality images, and only allow smaller images to be downloaded. To get the high quality images you may need to request permissions and sometimes pay a fee.