Public Domain Images

If you are like me, you need and use images in your genealogy work. Because I have finally gotten tired of remembering where these materials are to be found, I have created this listing. Feel free to use these sites for your work, too.

• Creative Commons Search Portal
• Creative Studio– Elevate your creativity with our outstanding creative suite of professional
• design resources and advanced creative tools
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) – They aggregate content from libraries, archives, and museums across the U.S., and there’s a lot of public domain content you could link to for historical context.
• Europeana – A digital platform for European cultural heritage, offering a wide variety of public domain images, audio, video, and texts from across Europe.
• Flickr Commons
• Free-Images.com
• Kaboompics– In Free Photos We Trust.
• Library of Congress– This portal features content that is free to use and reuse.
• Library of Congress – Prints & Photographs Division – This one’s especially rich in American history and contains images that could relate to WWII, the Holocaust, and early 20th-century social and political movements.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art– Open Access
• Morguefile
• The National Archives (UK) – They have a treasure trove of public domain images related to British history, which might also have historical relevance to some of your genealogical research
• National Gallery of Art has an open access policy for images of works of art in our permanent collection which the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are available for download free of charge for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial
• New York Public Library Digital Collections – A very rich source of historical and genealogical images, especially those related to American immigration and the early 20th century.
• Openverse– Openly Licensed Images, Audio and More
• pexels– Public domain images of high quality.
• PICRYL– Public Domain Media Search Engine
• Pixabay– Stunning royalty-free images & royalty-free stock
• PIXNO– Public Domain Images
• Public Domain the world’s best collection of public domain art and design resources.
• Public Domain Image Archive from the Public Domain Review
• Public Domain Pictures
• Public Work is a visual search engine for public domain content. Explore 100,000+ copyright-free images from The MET, New York Public Library, and other sources
• Unsplash– Public Domain Pictures | Download Free Images
• U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) – Another solid option for U.S. history, particularly related to military history, WWII, and genealogical research.
• Wikimedia Commons – This site is constantly updated, and you might find newer or more obscure historical images related to your topics of interest.

Should you encounter any problems or frustrations, please use our contact page to let me know. If you have links you believe I need to present here, please use the ManyRoads contact page for that as well.

Credits and Licensing

Compiled by Mark Rabideau, Opa & Professional Genealogist.

All materials licensed: CC BY-ND 4.0 by eirenicon llc.