Research Guides: Find: Photographs: Photographs

Photographs

This guide offers hints and tips to help you find photographs, as well as general rules for using them. Photographs are intellectual property. Reuse of photographs requires an understanding of copyright, attribution and citation.

Photo by Chantel Lewis CC 0.

Search Tools

ARTstor
Database of over one million high-quality images, useful not only for the fine arts but as a general image resource.
AP Newsroom (EBSCO)
Photos from the Associated Press, illustrating major news events and important figures over the last 160 years.

Google Images > Photo Filter
Use the Advanced Image Search to specify image sizes (small, medium, or large). Google Image retrieves images based on text in the caption, on the page near the image, and other factors. Images retrieved may be copyright protected.
Digital Public Library of America
Brings together the digitized images and media of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

Europeana Virtual Library
European digital library

Wikimedia Commons
Database of millions of freely usable image and media files.
Flickr
Search millions of crowd sourced images, many available via a creative commons license.
Free Images
Photo sharing site with 1000s of images. Usage restrictions are given for each photo.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
The digitized images from the Library of Congress includes photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
Denver Public Library Digital Collections
Digitized archival resources from the Denver Public Library, with photographs, building images, and other items.
Wellcome Library
Over 100,000 high resolution images including manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements are freely available through Wellcome Images. All CC-BY
Life Photo Archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, from the 1750s to today.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
Smithsonian Collections
More than 10,000 images from the Libraries’ collections.
Yale University Library Digital Collection
More than 100,000 digital images are searchable and viewable by the public.
Unsplash
All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Unsplash.