LibGuides: Using Images in Research and Presentations: Finding Images

Creative Commons Search

Creative Commons (CC) Search is a great place to start looking for images with a Creative Commons license, which means that they are free to use as long as you attribute them properly. CC Search provides guidance on attribution.

Creative Commons Search
Search form offering convenient access to search for Creative Commons licensed content provided by other independent organizations, including many of the other resources listed on this page like Flickr and Wikimedia commons.

Google, Flickr, and Wikimedia Commons

Some common sources for images and photos online are Google Images, Flickr, and Wikimedia Commons. A lot of the content found in these resources is protected by copyright, meaning that you're breaking the law if you use it without permission from the creator. However, there are ways to make sure that you can legally use what you find!

Google Images
Google's image search engine.

Type your search terms
On the results page, click "Tools" underneath the search box.
Click the dropdown menu for "Usage Rights" and click one of the options
if you plan to modify the image, click "Creative Commons licenses"
If you're using the images for a school project, that counts as noncommercial!

Google image search for "photographer" showing usage rights options

Flickr: The Commons
Images from 50+ international cultural heritage institutions, with detailed information and any known licensing restrictions. Most photos have no known copyright restrictions.

Users may register if they wish to leave comments on any individual photo, provide descriptive tags and add photos. Participating institutions include: George Eastman House, Getty Research Institute, New York Public Library, Smithsonian Institution, NASA, the national archives of the USA (NARA), the national archives of the United Kingdom, the national archives of Norway, the national archives of the Netherlands.

Type your desired search in the search box in the top right.
On the results page, click the dropdown menu that says "No known copyright restrictions."
Change that dropdown menu to one of the other options, except for "Any license."

Wikimedia Commons
A media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content. It acts as a common repository for Wikimedia Foundation projects, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here.

Almost all of the content in Wikimedia Commons can be reused freely as it is either licensed under an open license (like Creative Commons) or in the public domain.
There isn't a good way to limit your search results to a specific use in Wikimedia Commons, so be sure to check the rights for each image.
Usage rights and license information can be found by clicking on the "More Details" button when viewing the image.

Example of Wikimedia "More details" icon and Creative Commons attribution

For more information about reusing images from Wikimedia Commons, see their guide.

Reusing content outside Wikimedia
Information for those who wish to reuse material (text and/or graphics) from Wikimedia Commons on their own website, in print, or otherwise.

Modern Photographs & Stock Images

Pixabay
This huge collection of open access images requires you to create a login, but it's free to use, and easy to search!
Unsplash
This collection provides large, high-resolution photos that are totally free to use and modify for any purpose. They include mostly travel, nature, and still-life images
Pexels
Contains over 1600 high-resolution images, with 30 more added every week!
Life of Pix
This copyright-free gallery is made possible by Leeroy Advertising Agency in Canada. Free for personal and commercial use.
The Gender Spectrum Collection | Vice
"The Gender Spectrum Collection is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models... This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities..."

Artwork Images

ARTstor
Over 1.5 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences. Gives help on citing artwork correctly. NOTE: ARTstor prohibits any commercial use of their content.

Provides over 1.5 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, including an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. Community-built collections comprise contributions from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.

Collections are used for teaching and study in a wide range of subject areas, including art, architecture, music, religion, anthropology, literature, world history, American Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, and more. All UM affiliates may search and view images; registration required to download images and use the software tools.

Note: To access the images via the mobile interface, you need to create an account through ARTstor. Access ARTstor via the library's website and click on the "Register" link at top right. Create an account; use that email / password to login to ARTstor mobile.

British Library Images
The British Library has made many thousands of historical art images available to the general public via Flickr. Note that these images are considered to have "no known copyright restrictions"

New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Free access to over 800,000 images from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs, and more.

National Gallery of Art Images
The National Gallery of Art provides images of many beautiful works free to the public, as they believe the works in are in the public domain.

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"With the launch of NGA Images, the National Gallery of Art implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are now available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial. Users do not need to contact the Gallery for authorization to use these images. They are available for download at the NGA Images website (images.nga.gov). See Policy Details below for specific instructions and notes for users." See full policy here.

Historical Photographs

The U.S. National Archives Catalog
Find photographs that are in the public domain. Be sure to check the Details section of the photo's record for Access and Use Restrictions.
The U.S. National Archives | Flickr
Since 2009, the U.S. National Archives have uploaded more than 16,000 public domain photos to Flickr. Images are also in their online catalog, but the Flickr photostream is more browse-able.
New Old Stock
This historical photos are copyright free. There's a search box hiding in the top left corner, so you can type what you're looking for, like "old men" or "seaside"

Smithsonian Open Access
Nearly 3 million 2D and 3D images from the Smithsonian Institution's 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

Clip Art

Open Clip Art
This is a collection of user-created clip-art. Some of the images are better than others, but there are plenty choose from, with no watermarks.
Tango Icons (through Wikimedia Commons)
This is a collection of open-access icons. Many of them are work or technology-related, but some are miscellaneous. These are similar to the emojis that you may have on your phone or chat apps.
Public Domain Vectors
Publicdomainvectors.org, offers copyright-free vector images in popular .eps, .svg, .ai and .cdr formats.

Science Images

Animal Diversity Web
Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan. Thousands of species accounts about individual animal species. These may include text, pictures of living animals, photographs and movies of specimens, and/or recordings of sounds.

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NOTE: University students write the text of these accounts and their accuracy is not guaranteed.

Biodiversity Heritage Library
Books, journals, and other materials on biodiversity from a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries. Provides free access to hundreds of thousands of volumes from the 15th to the 21st centuries.
MedPix
- Why choose this? Free database of over 50,000 internal body images, organized by disease, body location, and patient profiles.
- Target audience: Nursing students and nurses, allied health professionals, medical students, physicians, and others interested in medical knowledge.
- What it covers: Diagnoses and images of diseases, injuries, and conditions, both common and rare.
- Special features: Optional quizzes

NASA Images
NASA hosts several image collections, including photographs taken by astronauts and images from the Hubble Space Telescope. As works created by the federal government, they are in the public domain.

Smithsonian Open Access
Nearly 3 million 2D and 3D images from the Smithsonian Institution's 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Specimens
Gross and microscopic images of pathology specimens. All should have Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licenses.