Library Guides: Resources: Images

Getting Started with Images

Where to find images:

About images

Some of the Library’s databases allow you to search exclusively for images, figures, or tables. Instructions for each database are included below. All databases may be accessed from the A-Z Databases page available on the top ribbon of the Library page.

Gale

After running your search, click images. Notice copyright information ill appear at the bottom of the image.

EBSCOhost

If searching in EBSCOhost hover over “More” in the top banner, then “Images”. Images will reveal two options—Image Quick View Collection and ISCTRC Image Collection. We recommend selecting Image Quick View Collection. The Image Collection search screen appears. Enter your search terms in the search box. Under Search Options you may select a specific Image Type if applicable.

ProQuest

ProQuest allows you to search individually indexed visual data representations, such as charts, tables, illustrations, and other data-rich figures using the Figures & Tables search. The Figures & Tables search is the first link located under the Advanced Search heading.

Enter your search terms in the search box. Under Search Options you may select a specific Figure/table type if applicable.

Public Domain Images

Public domain images may be reproduced, altered and distributed without permission. This is because either because their copyright expired (and was not renewed), or because the author specifically released his/her images to the public domain. However, when using websites, it is important to check each image to make sure it is within the public domain and has no restrictions on its use. Some images may be used for educational purposes, but not commercially.

Additionally, materials that you use or download must cite the author/creator and the original source.

Finding Images

CC Search
A federated search tool for finding content available under a CC license.
Digital Public Library of America
DPLA is an all-digital library that aggregates metadata from libraries, museums and institutions around the country. It provides an easy to use search interface. Individuals can create search guides or "Primary Source Collections" which are useful for researching topics.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
High-quality open images from the Met.
Pexels
All photos on Pexels can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use.
UnSplash
Free, high-resolution images published under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia allows you to search photos under Creative Commons licenses, GFDL, and public domain images.

Archives Library Information Center
Includes many collections of photos from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
One of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and is Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books.
British Library
Over a million images included on Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose.
Calisphere
Free public gateway to more than 200,000 digitized items — including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts.
Europeana
Online collection of content from European libraries, archives, museums and other institutions. Once you run a search in their search bar, you can limit your results to items that are freely usable or available under a Creative Commons license using the facets under Copyright in the left menu.
Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library has licensed all of its images in the Digital Image Library under a CC BY-SA license.
From Old Books
Provides over 3,500 free images from old rare antique and vintage books.
Internet Archive Book Images
Flickr has made 2.6 million public domain images from books available to the public.
Library of Congress Prints & Photos
Much of the collection is public domain. However, it is your duty to determine if the photo you wish to use has any restrictions.
National Library of Medicine: History of Medicine
Most but not all of the exhibitions are in the public domain. Clicking on "Metadata" near the bottom of the page will generate a popup window with information that includes rights usage for each page.
New York Public Library
The NYPL provides low-resolution images which are free to use for personal, educational, or research purposes, but not commercially.
Old Book Illustrations
Provides images scanned from old books which have become part of the public domain.
Public Health Image Library of the CDC
Includes images of parasites and microscopic images of viruses.
Welcome Collection
Find thousands of Creative Commons licensed images from historical library materials and museum objects to contemporary digital photographs.

Clip Art Etc.
Created by the University of South Florida, this site has a free classroom license; students and educators may use the clip art for non-commercial classroom projects.
Clker.com
Provides hundreds of thousands of free clip art & vector images that you can download or embed anywhere at no cost.
i2Clipart
Online sharing network that allows users to create, share, and download royalty-free public domain vector clipart images.
Open Clip Art
Allows you to search clip art images and collections, which may be downloaded and edited. If you choose to edit the image, you can do so on the site - add text, change colors, add shapes and stickers, re-size, enhance, etc. The altered image can then be downloaded onto your computer.
Publicdomainvectors.org
Offers copyright-free vector images in popular .eps, .svg, .ai and .cdr formats. To the extent possible under law, uploaders on this site have waived all copyright to their vector images. You are free to edit, distribute and use the images for unlimited commercial purposes without asking permission.
Vecteezy
Explore thousands of graphics created by vector artists from all over the globe. All the graphics are free to download and, depending on the license, free to use in your projects.
Vector4Free.com
Site dedicated to free vector graphics. All Adobe Illustrator AI, EPS, PDF, SVG, Corel Draw CDR files free to download.

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. For more information about the Creative Commons licenses, click here.

Bing Image Feed
Not all images available via Bing's image search are available under a Creative Commons license. However, once you run a search using Bing Images, you can limit your results to appropriately licensed images by clicking on "License" in the menu below the search box. You can also limit by Public Domain images.
Burst
Free stock photo site that is powered by Shopify. All the photos on their platform are offered under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means you’re welcome to use the photos for any purpose.
Creative Commons
Allows you to search open access images with different types of licensing options. Choose the "Advanced Search" option on Flickr to search for images with all types of CC licenses.
Google Images
Not all images on Google Images are Creative Commons licensed. However, it is possible to limit your search results to only images available under a Creative Commons license. To do so, run your search in the standard Google Image search bar and then on the results page, click on search tools just below the search box. A further drop down menu will then appear with usage rights as one of the options. From there, users can limit results to the proper rights. Note, they do not use the exact language of Creative Commons licenses.
Multicolr Search Lab
Allows you to search for Creative Commons-licensed images by color. Users can enter up to five colors simultaneously and will return dozens of images that include all of the selected colors.
Pixabay
All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty-free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.
StockSnap
Hundreds of high resolution images added weekly. Free from copyright restrictions.
UnSplash
Free, high-resolution images published under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia allows you to search photos under Creative Commons licenses, GFDL, and public domain images.

Disability Inclusive Stock Photography
Photos were taken by Jordan Nicholson in an effort to empower business to achieve disability inclusion and equality. Creative Commons license allows others to reuse this stock photography for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to Disability:IN.
Disabled And Here
Free disability-led stock image and interview series celebrating disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). Images provided under License CC BY 4.0.
Gender Spectrum Collection
Stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. These images have been made available to other media organizations through a Creative Commons license under which you may not create derivative work from the images or use the images for commercial purposes.
Images of Empowerment
Library of powerful, positive and high-quality images showing women’s work and family life around the world. All photographs are available—free of charge—to non-commercial users thanks to Creative Commons licensing (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
Iwaria
Free African high quality photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Jopwell Collection
Collection of free images featuring people of color in the workplace.
Nappy
Provides beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else licensed by Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
Natural Women Collection
Canva collection of free images covering bodies of all shapes and sizes, races, ages, disabilities, health conditions, etc. Account sign-up required to download images.
Noun Project
Professionally curated collection of authentic, beautiful images and icons that celebrate diversity and represent a more inclusive world. All photos are available in both free and paid options.
PICNOI
Space where publishers, bloggers, website owners, marketers, designers, graphic artists, advertisers and the like can easily search and find diverse multi-racial images. You do not need to attribute the images, but please give site and link credit to picnoi.
Plus-Size Stock Photos
By depicting everyday activities such as making a salad or reading a book using plus-size models, images are intended to be used by a wide variety of content creators—not just those addressing plus-size issues. While attribution is not required to use the photos, please credit AllGo and photographer Michael Poley of Poley Creative.
Redefining Women
Icons of women licensed under Creative Commons Public Domain CC0 1.0.
UKBlackTech
Collection of diverse images, free to use in your next project. Images can be used, adapted, and shared with others for both personal and commercial purposes. You must include appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
Unsplash Brown Skin
User-created collection of nearly 800 free photos depicting people of color. Check for attribution not when downloading images.
WOCinTech Chat
Free photos of women and non-binary people of color working in the Tech field. You may copy, distribute, and display the images as long as you attribute #WOCinTech Chat or wocintechchat.com.

Free Images
Images are free as long as you adhere to the Image license Agreement. In some cases you may need to notify the artists about using the images and sometimes you need to give credit to them. You can see these restrictions under the image previews, right next to the Download button.
LIFE Photo Archive
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
morgueFile
Offers thousands of free images almost all that have no restrictions or agreements attached. Also, the site requires no login to download the high quality files.
Pexels
All photos on Pexels can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use.
Pixnio
You can use all public domain images from this site for whatever you want, use it freely for personal and commercial use. All pictures are free to download, edit, share, copy and distribute, even sell.
Public Domain Archive
Gallery containing hundreds of high resolution public domain images with new images added weekly.
StockVault
Stock photo sharing website where photographers, designers and students can share their photographs, graphics and image files with each other for free.
UnSplash
Free, high-resolution images published under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia allows you to search photos under Creative Commons licenses, GFDL, and public domain images.

Library of Congress Prints & Photos
Much of the collection is public domain. However, it is your duty to determine if the photo you wish to use has any restrictions.
NASA Images
Includes official NASA photographs from agency photographers. Image collections available both on their website and on Flickr. NASA images are generally not copyrighted.
Archives Library Information Center
Includes many collections of photos from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Complimentary source of high-quality digital photographs available from the Agricultural Research Service Office of Communications.
U.S. Department of Defense Photo Gallery
Searchable library of free downloadable military and defense photos. U.S. Federal Government Public Domain Images – directory of government websites containing public domain images. Restrictions may apply to the images. Review the policies of the individual sites for this information.
U.S. Government Photos and Images
You can easily find images from government websites with this search. Be sure to check the copyright information for each image before using it.

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Requesting materials

Getting Started with Images

How can I search only for images, figures, or tables within the Library databases?

Where to find images:

About images

Gale

EBSCOhost

ProQuest

Public Domain Images

Finding Images

How do I find Images in Gale Databases?

Database Link

To Get Started

FAQs