New York Public Library

U.S.A. / Over 100,000 ~ images available
Content

New York Public Library collection hosts rich and diverse set of topics: history, decorations, costumes, flora and fauna, waterfalls, furniture, travel, posters, urban themes, manuscripts, Japanese drawings and many more.

There are prints, illustrations, stereographs, maps, colorful drawings, paintings, postcards and even menus.

Majority of the works originate in the United States, but there is a significant amount of images from France, Italy, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain and Russia. Date of creation begins with the 15th century manuscripts, but the 19th and 20th centuries are most widely represented.

Artists include William Hogarth, Paul Louis de Giafferri, Marcus Elieser Bloch, Richard Lepsius and Giovanni Battista Piranesi among others.

Illustrations (47,198)
Prints (43,535)
Maps (10,678)
Manuscripts (3,962)
Drawings (3,171)
Illuminations (3,020)
Portraits (2,845)
Scientific illustrations (1,441)
Design drawings (1,224)
Costume design drawings (806)
Paintings (704)

How to find images?

1. Visit https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/.
2. Activate search field and press ‘Enter’.
Now you can see all collection items.

Direct link:
862,741 images on 28/09/2019

Themes
Themes

If you wish us to curate this collection for creators, make it searchable by keywords and easy to use, please consider supporting our platform.


Some subjects by the provider:
Antiquities (3,652 images)
Botany (3,419 images)
Flowers (2,788 images)
Trees (1,540 images)
Architecture (1,324 images)

Authors
Authors

If you wish us to curate this collection for creators, make it searchable by keywords and easy to use, please consider supporting our platform.

Is the digital scan under an open licence?

Not all digital scans in this collection are under an open licence. Open licence is applied only to those digital scans where the original work is believed to be in the public domain in the U.S. Where digital scan is under an open licence, it is available to be downloaded in high resolution.

How to find them?

Use a filter:
1. Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’)
2. Make sure ‘Show only public domain’ is selected.

283,982 images on 28/09/2019
303,557 images on 16/08/2020 (19,575 more)

OR

Check images individually:

1. Go to the image page
2. See if you have an option to download an image

More information by the provider:
About 

Is the original work in the public domain?

Not all original works in this collection, which are under an open licence and available to download in high resolution, are in the public domain in the European countries. 

This is because the New York Public Library is in the U.S. and guided by the copyright law of the U.S. It applies open licence to digital scans where original works are believed to be in the public domain in the U.S

How to find images which you can reuse in most of the European countries?

A. Focus on older content:
1. Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’)
2. Choose a date range up to 1949
Search results you get are now more likely to be in the public domain in most of the European countries.

B. Now, after you limited results, check each image individually:
1. Go to the image page
2. Identify all the authors and contributors
3. Find the death date of the last living author (dates are available)

If the last living author has passed away more than 70 years ago, most likely, his/her works are in the public domain in most of the European countries. 

__________

However, if you intend to use images for commercial purposes you might want to do additional checks to assess any risk. 

Please note, it is always your personal responsibility to make sure the original work is out of copyright in all countries where you distribute your new creative works. The supplier of the digital scan cannot guarantee this. 

How to continue searching?

Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’). Use a filter: 

  • topic
  • name
  • collection
  • place
  • genre
  • publisher
  • division
  • type
  • date range
How to view search results?

Go to the main page with all collection items (see section ‘How to find images?’). Here you can sort by title, date created, date digitised and sequence.

 

How to continue browsing?

Go to the landing page for curated sets, such as recently digitised items, recently digitised and updated collections, photography collections.

How to view an image?

Go to the image page. Here you can zoom in/out, rotate and print.

 

How to view image metadata?

Go to the image page. Here you will see:

  • title
  • type
  • genre
  • date
  • division
  • artist
  • collection
  • topics
  • timeline
  • suggested credit line
How to download?

Go to the image page. See download options you have for that particular image (various sizes and formats).

How to attribute?

Artist name, Title, Date. The New York Public Library. Open licence (e.g. CC0 ) + a link

Share your new creative works using hashtags #RevivoStories#Nypl @Nypl!


Attribution guidelines are based on goodwill. They are not legally binding, but they are a secret way how to:
– Say ‘thank you’ to the most friendly for creators museums, archives and libraries.
– Encourage the release of new open collections for creativity.
– Inform and equip your fellow creators with new powers.

So far we added 3 collections, currently work on 5 new collections from 35 in total (constantly growing). Contribute to help us grow from 32, 000 to 1,000,000 images faster!