Guest post by Elizabeth Simmons, Graduate Academic Assistant, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office
Need free digital images of works of art for using in classroom presentations, papers, research, or online? You’re in luck! In May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York released a treasure trove of nearly 400,000 digital images of public domain works in its collection. The Met encourages the use of these images for noncommercial, scholarly purposes, as part of its Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) Initiative.
Search the Met’s online collection, and any work identified with the acronym “OASC” can be downloaded for use in noncommercial scholarly work, including:
• Theses, dissertations, and other school projects
• Conference proceedings
• Classroom presentations/lectures
• Journal articles
• Non-commercially produced textbooks and educational materials
Additionally, the images can be used in any media format (print, electronic, film, etc.).
The Met just asks that you cite these images with the creator, source, and the URL “www.metmuseum.org”. See the museum’s Terms and Conditions for complete information about what you can do with these images.
Discover even more image resources for your presentations, online learning modules, and teaching materials in the UBC Scholarly Communication & Copyright Office’s Image Sources Guide.
Image Citation: Boating, Edward Manet, 1874. H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929. www.metmuseum.org.