Research Guides: Design: Images

Images for Free Reuse

Creative Commons Image Search
Over 500 million images, available for reuse for free. License terms and credit info differ.
Jay Mantri
Photographer Jay Mantri has made available a number of his photographs to be reused free of charge by assigning them a Creative Commons 0 license.
Magdeleine
High resolution photos in the public domain.
Nappy
High-resolution images of black and brown people.
Old Book Illustration
Public domain illustrations available for reuse.
Unsplash
Open access database for finding beautiful stock images that are free to use and in the public domain.

Research Databases for Images

Google Patents
Google Patents allows you to search recent and historical patents in the United States.
Oxford Art Online - Image Search
Contains 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts and photography from prehistory to the present day. Topics include, artist biographies, patrons, writers, cultures, countries, towns, styles, movements, theories, subject matters, iconography and more. Access to over 100,000 art images from the Bridgeman Art Library. Links to images elsewhere on the web.
WikiArt
WikiArt is an open access database of high quality images of artwork, many of which are in the public domain. Those that are not in the public domain are of a lower image quality, and cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes.

Copyright Guidelines for Using Images

Did you know? The images and other media you find online are most likely protected by copyright, regardless of whether any copyright statement is displayed. Copyright protection applies instantly and automatically when a new work is created; no copyright notice or registration is required!

Learn more about using images legally from this guide: Using Images: Copyright Guidelines for the Use of Images in Education

Copyright Resources

Image Source: Unsplash.

Charles Eames, Upholstered Chair, 1961, Image from United States Patent and Trademark Office.