image archives

Next to coffee, public domain images are my favorite addiction. The New York Public Library introduced a way to get your public domain fix when it announced its enhanced public domain collections–making it easier for users to search, remix and create with the rich offerings of images, manuscripts, sheet music, and even data–all free of copyright restrictions.

For the genealogist, this means even more opportunities to find great images, such as stereoscopic photographs, menus, sheet music, and even medieval illuminations, to illustrate an ancestral experience video. Users searching the NPYL digital collections can filter with an easy “Search only public domain materials” checkbox that appears magically when clicking in the search box.

Even better, the item descriptions offer citations in MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian format. I love you New York Public Library.

A search on “Savannah” led me to a collection of stereoscopes that includes the view at right of a man standing on the wharf by the Savannah River. The 3-D effect really pulls you into the shot.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Enable your public domain habit. Learn more at nypl.org/research/collections/digital-collections/public-domain. Before you go there, download some helpful worksheets at http://bit.ly/AncestorTools to brainstorm some ancestor story ideas and generate some search terms.

Source citations:

Kimball, Shana. “Free for All: NYPL Enhances Public Domain Collections For Sharing and Reuse.” nypl.org. New York Public Library, 5 Jan. 2016. Web. 8 Jan. 2016. http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/05/share-public-domain-collections

Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. “Coffee House” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 10, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/af816b78-c712-c09e-e040-e00a18062945

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Along the wharf of Savannah River, Savannah, Ga.” (1895) New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 11, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-596a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

The Commons (on Flickr) https://www.flickr.com/commons

The Commons On Flickr is a collective effort by archives worldwide to “share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives.” The site encourages users to add tags and information to help catalog images. The FAQ has a wonderful explanation of “No Known Copyright Restrictions” which can help when deciding how to use and share images. When searching, use the “Search the Commons” lower on the page (rather than the generic Flickr search box at the top) to confine your search to the Commons.

Participating archives add to the Commons on Flickr as they digitize images, so revisit this site periodically for potential “new” finds.

A search on “Savannah” also took me to the Internet Archive Book Images collection. So images are not just limited to individual photographs. An amazing tool for finding images in books! Some entries included the text appearing in the book, providing more context for the image.

The Commons on Flickr is just one of the amazing sites I share in my image rich FREE eBooklet No Pictures? No Problem! 7 Great Sites for Finding Photos From Your Ancestor’s World. Request your free copy by clicking here or click on the book cover.

Image credit: 1945. Toni Frissell, sitting, holding camera on her lap, with several children standing around her, somewhere in Europe. (LOC)

New York Public Library Makes Public Domain Easy

Resource Spotlight: The Commons on Flickr

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