This page offers a selection of digital resources which students and faculty can use to browse for images, including materials such as historical and modern artwork, photographs, digitized primary sources, etc.
Please see the box below for links and brief descriptions for each resource. You will find a combination of digitized library, museum, and gallery collections; newspapers; and more.
For questions about searching a specific database or locating a specific type of material, please contact the library! We would be happy to assist you.
This list is a short selection of sites which offer digital collections from prominent libraries, museums, and galleries. For a longer list of options which offer digital artwork in the public domain or under a CC0 license, please visit our Free Use Images page.
Thousands of searchable images, including those from significant historical collections. Images are free to download and reuse but must be credited to the British Library Board.
The Library of Congress Digital Collections is a repository of digital images, historic newspapers, early audio recordings, manuscripts, motion pictures and books, as well as "born digital" materials, such as selected Web sites. View the Rights page of each collection to find reuse guidelines.
Searchable online database of digitized artwork from the Cleveland Art Museum. Images are under a CC0 license.
Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitized items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for. Also included are thematic collections on art, fashion, music, natural history, photography and World War I with related galleries, blogs and exhibitions.
The Internet Archive's Images collection contains digital images uploaded by Archive users which range from maps to astronomical imagery to photographs of artwork. Many of these images are available to be downloaded.
The Collection Online, the primary digital collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Images have a CC0 license.
NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art (U.S.). More than 51,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.
New materials are added daily. The collection features prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Explore and reuse millions of digital items from the Smithsonian’s collections. Also includes datasets, 3D tools, a learning lab (for curricula & lesson plans), and developer tools.
More than 250,000 images from Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video.