Open Access Resources

Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.

Beautiful illustrations from natural history books, field guides, travelogues, etc: plants, animals, landscapes, and more. Most images are licensed CC-BY for easy reuse.

Provided by the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) and contains over 6,000 images.

Election data displayed in a variety of ways by Prof. Mark Newman of the University of Michigan. Older data maps are available from the FAQ page. CC licensed.

An archive of federal websites and the changes that happen when the administration changes. Searchable and browsable.

Millions of photographs uploaded by users. To search for reusable images, in ”Advanced Search”, choose from the pull-down menu the type of license needed (e.g. 'all creative commons' or 'modifications allowed' etc.).

The website has become a treasure house of American cultural richness - documentaries focused on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different kinds of communities. The films have unusual subjects and talkers who do not speak "broadcast English."

Free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects.

The Digital Library also includes audio, video, and documents. Most materials are public domain--all are open access.

American Memory, Prints & Photographs, Maps, Film, National Jukebox, and many more digital collections. Plus loads of subject guides and blogs, like Picture This, highlighting great resources

Over 25,000 CC0-Licensed photos that have been scanned and indexed from top stock sites.

While all the images on the Met's website are copyrighted and licensed for educational and personal use only, they mark images where the source artwork is in the public domain (searchable). These images include licensing for scholarly publication.

700,000 images (and growing) from NYPL's historical collections. Free for "individual private study, scholarship and research only."

Illustrations from old books in the public domain.

A curated collection of open access image collections

Creative Commons licensed and public domain images and audio

Creative Commons licensed image search engine. "Age appropriate" filters and citation info provided.

Provides 1,000s of free stock photos, vector graphics and illustrations. All images and videos are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.

Over 125,000 high resolution images from this Amsterdam museum, free for use and reuse. Creating an account also lets you create collections, highlight details, and share sets.

This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

"Visual poetry" by painter and comics-maker Martin Vaughn-James.

All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons 0, which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes.

Maps. Also environmental and map related educational materials.

Tens of thousands of images from the London Wellcome Library, including the Wellcome Library biomedical collections, Tibetan Buddhist paintings, ancient Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, beautifully illuminated Persian books and much more.

Video interviews and lab demonstrations from one of the primary publishers in chemistry. Labs are connected to articles in the publisher's open access journals.

Math and science video modules at a high school level from MIT.

Historic stock footage and archival video clips and photo images from the 1890s to the 1990s. An astonishing collection of video and images, mostly from government sources.

Advertising, animation, conference presentations, lectures, digital shows, etc.

Khad Academy is a nonprofit providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Use the search box at the top of the screen for your topic to find a large range of videos and other resources.

MIT Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive

Open access music and sheet music. They are also planning a music theory textbook.

Videos about the Archives, of events, and archival footage from the collections.

Full length video from the full range of Public Broadcasting shows. Some shows have limited online availability; be sure to check the expiration date under Details.

Science videos related to the weekly show and more. Subject categories are along the left side. Also available are podcasts of the weekly show, blog posts, and teacher resources.

Over 800 (as of 11/2010) videos from TED conferences, events, and partner events. CC licensing, and subtitles (in English, with additional languages added through the TED Open Translation Project).

Free stock video footage, either CC licensed (BY-3.0) or licensed by the company for easy use in non-commercial and commercial projects. Be sure to check which license is used, so that you know if you have to include the individual clip in your credits! Ad-supported, registration required, no fees.