Research Guides: Chester Fritz Library Research How Tos: Finding Images

Using Images Ethically

Just because an image has been shared online doesn't mean you have automatic permission to use it! Keep these points in mind when deciding how you will incorporate images into your public-facing research.

Make use of public domain images. There are no restrictions placed on the use of materials in the public domain. Most image search engines, including Google, will let you limit results to public domain images. Wikimedia Commons and a number of art museums, such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, boast many downloadable public domain images in their collection.
Be aware of Creative Commons licenses. Some artists choose to apply a Creative Commons license to their work, waving some aspects of copyright in order to make it easier for others to respectfully make use of their work.
- All the images in the box below are either public domain or Creative Commons licensed, so you shouldn't encounter copyright issues when using them in any official, public-facing work.
Ask for permission when using copyrighted images. If you really want to use an image that is copyrighted, you can ask the author for permission.
Track down the original image. The place where you find an image may not be where it originated from. Use tools like TinEye and Google Reverse Image Search to determine who originally uploaded the image.
Cite your sources. Remember to give credit to an image's creator. Even with Creative Commons images, you should make a proper attribution.
Remember to make the image accessible. When uploading images, be sure to add "alt text". "Alt text" is a written description of the image used if an image cannot load on a user's device or by a screen reader for the visually impaired.

Research Guides

Finding Images
Provides links to free sources and instructions on how to attribute their use. There are also many links to art collections on this guide.

Images from different sources

General Image Collections

Find Creative Commons-licensed stock photos and images in the public domain. Please also consult our LibGuide regarding images to discover general advice and resources to support image searching.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Gathering of image, text, video and sound collections sourced from libraries and archives across the U.S. Allows searching for images only and limiting results to specific usage licenses.
Internet Archive Image Search
Digital images uploaded by Archive users, which range from maps to astronomical imagery to photographs of artwork. Many of these images are available for free download.
Openverse
Successor to Creative Commons Search that searches open APIs and aggregates results from public image and audio repositories into a single catalogue.
Pexels
Free stock photo and video website. Images on the site can be used without attribution and for commercial purposes.
Pixabay
Website dedicated to sharing royalty-free images, stock photos, GIFs, et cetera. The Pixabay license permits sharing images sourced from the website without attribution and for commercial purposes but prohibits the sale of posted images without meaningful alterations by the vendor.
Wikimedia Commons
Media file repository that shares public domain and freely licensed educational content. It is the common repository for media employed by the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects.

Art, Museum, and Archival Images

Explore the assortment of open images made available through museums and other cultural institutions.

Flickr Commons
Assortment of cultural institutions that have agreed to share and post images on Flickr that have "no known copyright restrictions".
Getty Museum
Public domain images within the Getty collection are freely available for download through their Open Content Program. Note that most images from the present century and several images from the 20th century are still copyrighted and therefore cannot be downloaded. Users can filter search results for "Open Content".
Library of Congress Digitized Images
Historical graphics and photographs available for free use and download.
National Gallery of Art Open Access
Images in the permanent collection of the National Gallery that are believed to be within the public domain are available for direct download. Conducting an advanced search allows filtering images that are available for download.
New York Met
All public domain images in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection are free to use, share, and remix without restriction (Creative Commons Zero license).
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
"Living database" of digitized items from the library's collections. Note that there are some copyright restrictions on particular objects.
Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA)
Curated by the Public Domain Review, the PDIA contains over 10,000 images that are free to reuse. Images are typically historical and oriented towards the arts.
Smithsonian Open Access
Digital images from the Smithsonian Institute's collection that have been licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0), making them free to download, transform, and share.

Government Agency Images

Find public domain images created by the U.S. government.

NASA Image & Video Library
The media library of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is publicly accessible and copyright free.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) Photo Library
Images contributed by NOAA staff that reflect the agency's work monitoring the condition of the United States' seas and skies. All images are within the public domain.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Image Gallery
Digital photographs produced by the USDA Research Service Office of Communications, with agriculture related subjects.

Diverse Image Collections

Use these resources to find Creative Commons-licensed images of people underrepresented by standard stock photo collections.

Center for Better Aging
Creative Commons zero (CC0) licensed images of adults over 50 years old that avoid stereotypes of the elderly
Disabled and Here
Free-to-use and downloadable stock photos of disabled people of color of various body types, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
Gender Spectrum Collection: Stock Photos Beyond the Binary
Stock photo library of images of transgender and non-binary people in everyday settings, absent stereotypes and clichés.
Images of Empowerment
Stock photos of people (primarily women) from the Global South at home and at work. Supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Nappy
High-resolution stock photos of Black and Brown people, all licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
Natural Women Collection
Canva gallery of free-to-use images of women typically underrepresented in stock photo collections.

Other Image Search Tools

Employ these resources to help find (or create!) open access images.

Google Images
In order to search for open images via Google Images, first select "Tools", then "Usage Rights". You can then choose to limit the results to images with "Creative Commons licenses" or "commercial & other licenses".
Humaaans
Mix-and-match vector graphics to create simple illustrations of people. Graphics are licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
Open Peeps
Library of hand-drawn mix & match vector illustrations to create avatars and characters. All content is licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
Tin Eye
TinEye is a reverse image search engine and thus determines where an image came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there is a higher resolution version. To use, you can upload a file from your computer or give a URL to a graphic file on the web.

Medical Image Collections

These specialized resources can help users locate open access images in medical fields.

MedPix
Free online database of medical images, teaching cases, and clinical topics from the National Library of Medicine. Images can be searched by disease category, organ system, and patient profile. Includes CEs and quizzes.
OPENi Biomedical Image Search Engine
National Library of Medicine service that locates images (including charts, graphs, clinical images, etc.) found in PubMed Central open access articles and selected biomedical image collections. Search with keywords or with image file (select the camera icon in the search bar).