Subject Guides: New Media/Intermedia: Images

Library Database of Images

ARTStor
Nearly 1 million images. Can create a free account to save and share images.

Nick Cave, Soundsuit
Exhibited at Jack Shainman Gallery, Winter 2009
Photographer: Larry Quall

Selection of Museums & Libraries with Online Images

Art Institute of Chicago Collections
Over 77,000 works and basic information about works of art from all areas of their encyclopedic collection.
British Library Online Gallery
Includes old maps, online exhibitions, photographs, ephemera, and more.
British Museum Collection Search
Can limit to images.
The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art Database
Includes over 62,000 images and media files, over 3,000 texts, and several projects documenting artist groups, art organizations and events.
Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Collection Online
Scholarly online catalogue of images from the Seattle Art Museum.
Hearst Museum of Anthropology Portal
From University of California, Berkeley. With the exception of objects and media for which the Museum does not hold copyright, this work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. By downloading any information or images from this site, you agree to the terms of that license.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Thousands of images of artworks are available for download, without charge, under the Getty's Open Content Program. Look for the Download button under the image.
Library of Congress' Online Photos, Prints, and Drawings
Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Collection
Browse images by artist/maker/culture, object type/material, geographic location, date/era, or department.
MoMA Collection
Search for nearly 9,000 artists and over 50,000 works online.
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston: Images
Includes istorical portraits, examples of different art movements, images of objects from numerous cultures, and illustrations that span the Museum's collection.
New York Public Digital Library
Free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
Photographs from UMaine's Special Collections Department
Special Collections houses historical materials related to Maine, including an ever-expanding online collection of digitized photographs.
Smithsonian Libraries Image Collection
Book illustrations, photos, drawings, and other images from across the Libraries.
Wellcome Images
100,000 high resolution images including manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements, freely available from the Wellcome Library's visual collections.

Images and Copyright

Use this decision tree to help you decide if you can use an image you found for a particular purpose (click on the image below to enlarge).

Selection of Advertisement Databases that Include Images

Ad Access Duke University)
This free, online database consists of searchable images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
Ad Respect
Searchable collection of LGBT-themed television and print ads.
Ads of the World
Advertising archive, featuring creative work from across the globe. Includes print, tv, radio, among other categories.
The Advertising Archives
British and American advertisements, spanning the years from the mid 19th Century to the present day.
Emergence of Advertising in America (Duke University)
EAA presents over 9,000 images that illustrate the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. Ads run from 1850-1920.
Vintage Ad Browser
This site aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, contributor submissions, books, magazine & comic book scans, and more.
Vogue Archive
The Vogue Archive is a complete searchable archive of the magazine American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the most recent month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images.

Additional Image Sources on the Open Web

Gigi: The American Antiquarian Society Digital Image Archive
Includes photography, fine art, prints, postcards, other ephemera, and over 600 digitized political cartoons produced in the United States between 1764 and 1876.

Political cartoon from mid-term elections of 1862. Listen to an explanation of this cartoon from the AAS.

accessCeramics
Growing collection of images of contemporary ceramics by recognized artists.
Archnet
Open, online architectural library with a focus on Muslim cultures.
Art Resource
High quality images of works of painting, sculpture, architecture and the minor arts from most of the worlds major museums, monuments, and commercial archives.
Black Illustrations
Beautiful, FREE illustrations of black people for your next digital project.
Creative Commons Search
Find images that you can use and remix for free, across several open archives.
Europeana Photography
Includes images and documents from 50 European institutions in 34 different countries. Most are either in the public domain or available for use under a Creative Commons license. You can limit your search to free, re-usable images.
Flickr
Free photo sharing site; can search for images with Creative Commons licenses.
Gender Spectrum Collection
Stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models. Free to use, with attribution. Not to be used for commercial purposes.
Google Images
Searchable images from content on the web. Can limit results to images with Creative Commons licenses (i.e., free to use under certain circumstances). On the search results page select "Tools," and then pick from the options under the "Usage rights" dropdown menu.
Images of Empowerment
A free library of images celebrating women’s lives and their work in 11 countries around the world. Free for noncommercial use.
Nappy.co
High resolution photos of black and brown people. Free to download, modify, share, distribute, or use without attribution (although attribution is appreciated).
Pexels
Free, high quality stock photos. Pexels also provides free stock video searches as well!
PicJumbo
Free, online stock photos.
Pixabay
Over 1.6 million high quality photos, illustrations, vector graphics, and videos. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Shutterdial
An image search engine that lets you search photos based on camera settings, to facilitate experimentation and study of photography.
U.S. Government Agency Image Galleries, Photo Libraries, and Digital Collections
Many of the images are in the public domain and not under copyright.
UnSplash
Free online stock photos. No attribution needed.
Wikimedia Commons
A collection of over 36 million freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
Women of Color in Technology Stock Photos
Stock photos that address gap in visible representations of women of color engaging in technical tasks. Free to use with attribution.

Museo "a visual search engine that connects you with the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rijksmuseum, the Harvard Art Museums, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the New York Public Library Digital Collections."