Library Guides: Graphic Design: Images

Online Images - Library Content

Artstor This link opens in a new window
Image database featuring images from some of the world's leading museums, photo archives, scholars, and artists in one easily-navigated repository. It is the most comprehensive image resource available for educational and scholarly use, with many rare and important collections.
Britannica ImageQuest This link opens in a new window
Over 3 million copyright-cleared images including photographs, graphics, and icons.
Students can use these professionally-produced images for projects, course work, web pages, and college publications. Instructors can quickly find images for course development, faculty research, lesson plans, and classroom activities.

Cite and reference all images used in your work.

Search for images that are free to re-use.

Check the license terms for individual images.

Creative Commons
Search for content licensed for re-use. Check the terms on individual items for attribution requirements.
Google Advanced Image Search
Use Usage rights filter - "Creative Commons licenses". Check for license terms or other notices regarding use.

more...
Wikimedia Commons
Public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips)
Flickr Commons - Advanced Search
Limit your search to Creative Commons images or be sure to check the license terms on individual images.
Pexels: Free Stock Photos

Pixabay
A site with over a million photos, illustrations, vector graphics and videos free to use for any purpose. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
The Noun Project
The Noun Project has thousands of icons uploaded by graphic designers from around the world. Many of these symbols are available for free. Sign up for a free account to download the images. The icons with a Creative Commons license can be downloaded for free as long as you credit the creator. Downloaded Creative Commons images will come the citation for the icon included. Learn More:

Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)
VADS is online resource for visual arts. It has provided services to the academic community for 12 years and has built up a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.

The New York Public Library Digital Collections
This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, posters, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more. The New York Public Library recently enhanced access to all public domain items in Digital Collections so that everyone has the freedom to enjoy and reuse these materials. More information on NYPL and public domain access can be found here: https://www.nypl.org/research/collections/digital-collections/public-domain
Metropolitan Museum of Art.: Met Collection
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has made all public domain works in its collection available online for both scholarly and commercial purposes. You are welcome to use images of artworks in The Met collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain, or those to which the Museum waives any copyright it might have, for any purpose, including commercial and noncommercial use, free of charge and without requiring permission from the Museum. To identify these images, look for the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon (Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon) directly below the image: