LibGuides: Art: Finding Images

Using Images

Check out this handy guide to finding images on the web, developed by Ruth S. Thomas, Art/Art History Bibliographer, Boston University Libraries.
Peruse the College Art Association's Best Practices for Fair Use in the Visual Arts
Check out the Copyright Crash Course from the University of Texas Libraries.

If you want to give people the right to share, use, and even build upon a work you’ve created, you should consider publishing it under a Creative Commons license (it's free and simple).
If you’re looking for content that you can freely and legally use, there is a giant pool of Creative Commons-licensed creativity available to you:

More about Creative Commons

Wanna Work Together? from Creative Commons on Vimeo.

A database contains journals in which articles are published.

To discover articles on topics of interest to you, search our databases - listed by subject here.
If you need to find a specific article and you know the title of the journal in which it is published, search for it in Journal Finder.
If you need to find images, try one of the databases listed on this page.

Art and Architecture Complete This link opens in a new window Indexing, abstracts, and an image collection covering a variety of subjects, including antiques, art and art history, interior and landscape design, and much more.

CAMIO
Catalog of Art Museum Images Online; access over 50,000 images of works of art from American museums.

Art & Architecture - Courtauld Institute of Art
Over 40,000 images from the Courtauld Institute of Art in the UK.
Flickr: The Commons
"The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer."
Google Cultural Institute
A collaboration between Google and museum partners to provide access to high-quality art images.
Library of Congress: Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.
Life Photo Archives
Hosted by Google: search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today.
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
"With over 20 million items in its continually growing collections, the Archives is the world’s largest and most widely used resource dedicated to collecting and preserving the papers and primary records of the visual arts in America."
Wikimedia Commons
A database of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

Death to the Stock Photo
Sign up for free monthly photos from professional photographers, which you are free to reproduce, add to a collection, or make adaptations to.
NASA.gov Images
NASA images are in the public domain. Use these high quality photos to create something new!
The Noun Project
Free clip art icons.
Open Clip Art
Freely usable, user submitted clip art.