Copyright-free Images

Whether you are seeking images to illustrate a lesson or your students want graphics for multimedia presentations, these sites can help you get started. To download an image from the Internet, move your cursor over it, then click and hold down the mouse button (Macintosh) or right click (PC) and choose the "save" option. (Note on copyright.)

The imageide@s collection offers images that focus on Wisconsin's ethnic and cultural diversity, geology, biology, landmarks and history. These images are catalogued by subject, graded level and key word.

The NOAA Central Library Photo Collection features 10,000 digitized images of weather and space, shorelines and coastal seas, and marine species ranging from the great whales to minute plankton. These photographs are in the public domain. Students and teachers may use them but must credit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System features images of wildlife and habitats. Unless otherwise noted, these images are in the public domain, but be sure to credit the photographer and the agency that provided the picture.

U.S. Department of the Interior Photo Library contains links to several sources for photographs from several federal agencies.

NASA’s Planetary Photojournal has almost 2,000 images of Earth and other planets from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Teachers or students may use them in the preparation of course or instructional materials.

Hubblesite Gallery includes images of planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and much more. Images may be used for educational and research purposes without permission, but the source (AURA/STScI) must be acknowledged.

The NASA Multimedia Gallery, lists all of NASAs many images in one place.

Images of the Antarctic provides copyright-free photographs of Antarctica and the subantarctic. Among subjects are seals, ships, penguins, huskies, and scenery.

The National Park Service has an extensive Web site with individual entries for most national parks. Try the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore for lighthouse photos, Mojave National Preserve for desert plants and animals, and so on.

Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students from the Orange County Public Schools. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) provides photographs of ancient, medieval, Renaissance European and non-western art and architecture. Each image includes a concise description, and images are indexed according to their inclusion in a number of widely used undergraduate art history survey textbooks. Students and teachers may use these image resources in any application that is both educational in intent and non-commercial in nature. Please give credit to "AICT/Allan T. Kohl."

CalPhotos is a collection of over 48,000 images of plants, animals, fossils, people, and landscapes from the University of California Digital Library. Users can browse or search the collection. Copyright restrictions vary from photo to photo, but are clearly indicated.

CanPix Gallery is an image base of over 3,500 pictures and audiovisual resources for Canadian Studies. The images may be browsed by category or by time period, and many of the images, such as portraits of early explorers like de Champlain, Hudson or Drake will be useful for US history students. Images may be used for educational purposes.

The Emilio Segre Visual Archives, from the American Institute of Physics, contains thousands of photographs of physicists and astronomers. Images are for noncommercial and educational use only; any public use (such as a Web site) requires written permission.

The World War I Image Archive contains hundreds of historical photographs divided by categories such as heads of state, refugees, aviation, weapons and equipment, and more. Images may be used by teachers and students but credit must be given to the archive.

Historic Photographs Online from the National Military History Institute provides photographs of 19th- and 20th-century wars. All photos are in the public domain.

American Memory is the online collection of the Library of Congress, with thousands of historical photographs, maps, and documents that can be browsed by collection or searched. Teachers and students may use most of the images, but be sure to abide by any copyright notices included in the collections. Several sample collections:

• Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies

• Around the World in the1890s

• Selected Civil War Photographs

• Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz

• America from the Great Depression to WWII

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery provides free and open online access to hundreds of thousands of images. Categories include arts and literature, cities and buildings, history and geography, industry and technology, nature and science. Images may be freely downloaded for personal, research, and study purposes only.

The Smithsonian Institution Photographic Services Home Page provides a database of images taken by Smithsonian photographers. Categories include air and space, art, people and places, science and nature, and technology and history. The image files are available for non-commercial, personal use.

The World Factbook, from the Central Intelligence Agency, includes maps and flags from every country, all in the public domain.

Flags of the World provides larger images of flags and information about each. A "coloring book" features black and white drawings of flags that can be colored in.

The WikiMedia Commons WikiMedia Commons is a great place to find copyright-free images especially of people. Copyright information is listed for each image. Please note: This search engine may find images that are inappropriate for school viewing.

Google Image Search and AltaVista Image Search allow users to search the Web for images on the topic of your choice. Please note: This search engine may find images that are inappropriate for school viewing, and many images may be copyright protected.

Find music for student projects at the Royalty Free Music site. This company offers a free program for schools.

Copyright Note: Always check copyright information for any image you plan to use. Most sites include instructions on how to give credit for images that you download and include in lessons or presentations.

It's never too early to teach students about copyright infringement. You may want to consider making appropriate use of copyrighted images one of your evaluation criteria for multimedia projects.

Wisconsin Model Academic Standards D.4.3, D.8.3, and D.12.3 for information and technology literacy suggest ways to teach respect for intellectual property. See the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia for specific information.

The Text-only menu provides accessible and printer-friendly access to the Surf Report Archives.

Please contact us if you have questions or suggestions for the Surf Report!