Research Guides: Copyright and Fair Use : Finding Images

Image search tip using Google

To search for online image archives on specific topics, try customizing Google search terms.

In the Google search box, type the keywords for the topic you are researching.
- Tip: it's better to use broad topics for this type of search
Add the type of material you are trying to find
- Photographs
- illustrations
Then add the type of collection you are trying to find.
- Digital collection
- Archive
- Repository
- Catalog

Example Google search:

Racial segregation in schools photographs OR illustrations archive

Alexa Hight - Scholarly Communication Librarian

Alexa Hight

She/Her/Hers

Email Me

Contact:

361-825-2588
alexa.hight@tamucc.edu
Bell Library, Room 115

Free stock images

These websites contain free-to-use stock images. Some of them have advertisements for images that you do need to pay for though, so pay attention to what you're using.

Online Image Databases and Archives

250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives (OEDb)
Hundreds of libraries and archives exist online, from university-supported sites to accredited online schools to individual efforts. Each one has something to offer to researchers, students, and teachers. This list contains over 250 libraries and archives that focus mainly on localized, regional, and U.S. history, but it also includes larger collections.
Artstor Digital Library
The Artstor Digital Library is the most extensive image resource available for educational and scholarly use. Their collections feature visual media from leading museums, photo archives, scholars, and artists, offering many rare and important collections available nowhere else.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Discover 35,259,924 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.
Europeana Collections
Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitized items – books, images, music, artworks and more. Explore the dedicated thematic collections on art, fashion, music, photography and World War I containing galleries, blogs and exhibitions to inform and inspire.
Google Arts and Culture
Explore collections from around the world with Google Arts & Culture, created by Google Cultural Institute.
Library of Congress - Digital Collections
Search historic photographs, presidential papers, and more from the Library of Congress in numerous subject areas.
National Archives - Digital Photography Collections
Digital Photography Collections contains four main categories: General, 19th Century, 20th Century, and 21st Century.
Political Cartoons: Seriously Funny (Library of Congress)
The Library of Congress offers thousands of political cartoons from across centuries of U.S. and European history online.
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress)
Catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and other units of the Library of Congress. Includes photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. **Not all photographs are available online.**
Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Center
Diverse collection of materials, including almost 3.9 million digitized images.
White Castle Digital Collection (Ohio History Connection)
Historical collection of White Castle corporate archives, It contains photographs, negatives, motion picture films and audio recordings documenting the evolution of White Castle restaurants from the five-seat hamburger stands of the 1920s to the larger restaurants with drive-throughs and parking lots common today.
WorldImages
The internationally recognized WorldImages database provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It contains approximately 100,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery.

Images in the Public Domain (free to share and use)

British Library (images from books)
The British Library’s collections on Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images. The images are taken from 17th, 18th, and 19th century books spanning maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colorful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings, and more.
Flickr Commons
The Commons partners with institutions from around the world to share hidden treasures from the world's public photography archives.
Internet Archive (images from books)
Extracted images from over 600 million pages of digitized text dating back more than 500 years and in the public domain.
Library of Congress (free to use and reuse sets)
Features items from the Library of Congress' digital collections that are free to use and reuse. Each set of content is based on a theme and can include books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings, and more.
LIFE Photo Archive (hosted by Google)
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
National Archives (public domain images - Flickr)
This set features images from the U.S. National Archives that are believed to be in the public domain. The NARA collection includes photos from presidential libraries, such as the LBJ Library. It also includes materials that may come from the archives of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, the White House, and other parts of the U.S. government.
Open Education Database (guide to free image collections)
A guide to some of the online image collections containing free, high-quality and hi-resolution still images.