Research Guides: Finding Images: Finding Images Online

Tips for Using Google Images

Google Images is a quick and easy way to find many images by keyword, however, it is not always the most accurate source of visual information. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using Google Images:

Always check the source of the image to see if it is reputable. The website where the image was found is listed below each image on the search results page.
Keep in mind that images found on the Internet may have been altered for size, color, pixelation, etc.
Google uses your browsing data to show results tailored to your browsing habits. One person's Google Image search may look different from another person's Google Image search.
Just because you can download and save the image from Google, does not mean the image is unprotected by copyright. You can refer to the Copyright Research Guide that is linked to at the top of this page for more information.

Google Images

GLAM: Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Online Image Databases

Front Elevation (drawing), New York Public Library, Main Building, New York. Carrere & Hastings (Collection of NYPL).

Below is a list of digital repositories that contain high-resolution images available for public browsing and download. This list is not intended to be comprehensive; it lists curated and searchable collection databases containing high-quality images in a browsable interface. Each collection listed will have its own set of guidelines regarding download restrictions, copyright, and fair use. Read the guidelines carefully as you explore each resource. You can always refer to the NYU Copyright Research Guide for questions about individual image use in your work.

Museums and Archives: Digital Collections for Fine Art and Photography

New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections
The NYPL Digital Collections contains 890,331 items and counting—from books to videos, maps to manuscripts, illustrations to photos, and more. Use the "Search only public domain items" option to filter your results to items with no known U.S. copyright restrictions.
Brooklyn Museum Online Collections
Brooklyn Museum's digital gallery contains over 90,000 digitized images from its collections. Users can browse, save, research, comment and tag. Wide-range of cultures, regions, and temporal periods represented.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Open access images of artworks in the Los Angles County Museum of Art
The Museums of the City of Paris
Paris Musées offers as Open Content (i.e. making available without charge and without restrictions) 150,000 digital reproductions in High Definition of works in Paris museums.
Met Museum Collection Online
Browse the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art online. Use the "Open Access Artworks" link to browse more than 406,000 hi-res images of public-domain works in The Met collection that can be downloaded, shared, and remixed without restriction.
Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) Collections Portal
Digital images New York’s past through photographs, drawings, and maps from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Virtual Asian American Art Museum
"The Virtual Asian American Art Museum has brought together curators and art scholars with art and archives collections from individual collections and institutions around the world to invite you to experience Asian American art."
Archives of American Art - Smithsonian Institution
The Archives of American Art is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America. Their vast holdings are a vital resource to anyone interested in American culture over the past 200 years and consist of more than 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures. The Archives also houses the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art.
National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
The Smithsonian has launched its Open Access Initiative. Images of objects from the NMAAHC collection are now available to view, download, and share through a CC0 license.
Europeana
Europeana works with thousands of European archives, libraries and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education, and research. Europeana provides access to millions of books, music, artworks and more.
Art Institute of Chicago Collection Online
Browse the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago online. Easily locate artworks by subject by using the suggested keyword tags below the search bar.

Online Digital Collections for History and Social Science

Ad*Access Project
The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera (18th- 20th century): LOC
Database of digitized online images of broadsides and other printed ephemera from the collections of the Library of Congress. The genre search option allows for limiting searches to advertisements, menus, programs, catalogs, etc. Information about date, publication source, and company being advertised is provided for each image.
Cabinet of American Illustration
Contains more than four thousand original drawings by American book, magazine, and newspaper illustrators, made primarily between 1880 and 1910. The collection includes illustrations for magazines, novels, and children's books; cartoons; cover designs; and sketches for posters.
Getty Images Black History and Culture Collection
30,000 rarely seen images of the Black diaspora in the United Kingdom and the United States that date back to the 19th century drawing from the domains of politics, sport, music, culture, military, and celebrity.
Life Photo Archive (Google)
A digital collection of millions of photographs from LIFE magazine from 1750s to today.
National Archives Native American Images
The images in this archive portray indigenous Americans, their homes, and activities. The images are from the records of 15 Government agencies within the holdings of the Still Picture Branch (RRSS) of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Old Book Illustrations Image Archive
Old Book Illustrations offers a wide range of public domain, royalty-free restored images scanned from old books.
Images from the History of Medicine (NLM)
Comprising almost 70,000 images from the Prints and Photographs Collection as well as other collections held in the History of Medicine Division, IHM is one of the largest image databases in the world dedicated to images of medicine, dentistry, public health, the health professions, and health institutions.

General Image Search

Creative Commons Search
A general database for searching multiple types of creative commons media.
VADS
Over 100,000 images from over 300 art and design collections in the UK, free for educational use
Flickr Commons
Cultural heritage institutions share photographs from their collections, supported by the Library of Congress.
Luna Commons
A variety of collections of images from various sources covering history, social science, and the arts.