Category: Public Domain Sources

Categories
Digital Humanities Public Domain Sources

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg’s mission is to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. In fact, Project Gutenberg’s website (https://www.gutenberg.org/) says that they approve about 99% of all requests from those who would like to utilize their eBooks and disseminate them , within their various local copyright limitations.

Project Gutenberg states that it is powered by ideas, ideals, and by idealism. The site leverages volunteers and provides them the freedom to offer what books to do, what formats to do them in, or any other ideas they may have concerning “the creation and distribution of eBooks.”

Project Gutenberg claims that they are not in the business of establishing standards and strives to bring eBooks to their readers in as many formats as their volunteers wish to make.

The project encourages everyone to contribute.

Thus, there are no dues, no membership requirements: and still only the most general guidelines to making eBooks for Project Gutenberg.

Their stated goal is to provide as many eBooks in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible.

Rights:
Terms of use and copyright information are listed in the following link (https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html). The site states that most permission requests received do not require a custom response. This is due to the fact that a vast majority of Project Gutenberg eBooks are in the public domain in the US. This means that nobody can grant, or withhold, permission to do with this item as you please. The site does provide access to a further description for “As you please”, including any commercial use, republishing in any format, making derivative works or performances, etc. They recommend to read more about the public domain in Wikipedia.

Categories
Digital Humanities Public Domain Sources

Library of Congress Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints

The Library of Congress’ online Civil War photograph collection (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/about.html) provides access to about 7,000 different views and portraits made during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and its immediate aftermath. The images represent the original glass plate negatives made under the supervision of Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner as well as the photographic prints in the Civil War photographs file in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. These negatives and prints are sometimes referred to as the Anthony-Taylor-Rand-Ordway-Eaton Collection to indicate the previous owners. The Library purchased the negatives in 1943.

Rights:
As a publicly supported institution, the LOC generally does not own the rights to materials in their collections. Users should determine for themselves whether or not an item is protected by copyright or in the public domain, and then satisfy any copyright or use restrictions when publishing or distributing materials from our collections. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond what is allowed by fair use or other exemptions requires written permission from the copyright holder (https://www.loc.gov/legal/).

The site provides an excellent overview of copyright usage (https://www.loc.gov/legal/understanding-copyright/).

Categories
Digital Humanities Public Domain Sources

The Lincoln Collection

The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection (https://www.lincolncollection.org/) exists to interpret and preserve the history and legacy of Abraham Lincoln through research, conservation, exhibitry, and education. The Collection provides Lincoln enthusiasts, students, educators and scholars with one of the world’s most comprehensive and accessible collections of Lincoln artifacts, artwork, photographs, and literature.

When Lincoln Financial Group announced in March 2008 that the Lincoln Museum would close, Lincoln Financial Foundation, which owned the museum collection, was adamant on two points. First, the organization wanted the collection to be donated to an institution capable of providing permanent care and broad public access. Second, the collection would not be broken up among multiple owners. In other words, this collection which had been built over so many decades was not for sale and would remain intact.

In December of 2008 the largest private collections of Abraham Lincoln-related material in existence was donated to the people of Indiana. Today the Collection is housed in two institutions, the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis and the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. This allows the Collection to live on in its entirety, available to the public in various exhibits at all times.

Rights:
https://www.lincolncollection.org/access/image-rights-permissions/

Categories
Public Domain Sources

NASA Commons site on Flickr

Launched in 2008, NASA Images is already making hundreds of thousands of images and thousands of hours of video and audio content available to the public, and the collection is growing daily at no cost to taxpayers.

All photographs on the NASA Commons Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons) account originate from the compilation of archives at NASA Images. NASA on The Commons will allow the media on NASA Images to reach an even wider audience and invite that audience to help tell the story of these photos by adding tags, or keywords, to the images to identify objects and people. In addition the community can engage in conversation by sharing comments to add information, stories, and thoughts. These valuable contributions will help make the images easier to find online and add insight about NASA.

Rights:
There are two locations that provide rights information:

https://www.flickr.com/help/terms

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

Categories
Digital Humanities Public Domain Sources

Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world’s largest cultural and philanthropic organization dedicated to the visual arts. The online collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum comprises Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity; European art—including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts—from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century; and international photography from its inception to the present day. The museum’s archive promotes knowledge and appreciation of art among audiences of all ages throughout the world.

The museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance.

Rights:
The site’s “Terms of Use” page https://www.getty.edu/legal/copyright.html provides guidance on their “Open Content Program” as well content available for use through Creative Commons.

Categories
Public Domain Sources

Prelinger Archives

Prelinger Archives (https://archive.org/details/prelinger) was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 11,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002. Its primary collection emphasis has turned toward home movies and amateur films, with approximately 17,000 items held as of Spring 2019. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. 

Rights:
Rick Prelinger and The Internet Archive hereby offer public domain films from Prelinger Archives to all for free downloading and reuse. Rights information are located on the about page (https://archive.org/details/prelinger).

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