Historical Portraits, Photographs, Maps and Illustrations

World History – General

 

A Clip Art History - Public Domain images of the History of the World. Also Natural History and Fancy letters suitable for school projects

Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World's Transportation Commission - Library of Congress Collection

From Old Books - Collection images scanned from various old books that are now in the public domain. Searchable. Used to be under http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/

Old Book Illustrations  - Images scanned from old books. States that images on the site are the works of artists who "...have been dead for over seventy years, which makes them part of the public domain in many countries." Searchable by keywords.

"The Secret Museum of Mankind" - collection of anthropological photographs published in a 1935 book without copyright. Scanned and released under a CC-NC license, but images should be public domain, at least in the US, since they are faithful reproductions of PD images. (Warning: strong 1930's racist P. O. V.) 

World History – World War I

The Heritage of the Great War has several colour pictures from World War I (likely all PD, since the effort taken to scan/reproduce them probably fails to qualify for being a derivative work).

Photos of the Great War many images of World War I, scanned in from public domain resources. Slight usage notice, which is probably compatible with GFDL (requires attribution and link, as does GFDL, requests e-mail notice of usage).

World's Armed Forces Forum (gallery for images taken from the French Ministry of Culture's website) hosts more colour images of World War I (likely all PD, since the effort taken to scan/reproduce them probably fails to qualify for being a derivative work). 

British History (United Kingdom) - General

Newgate Prison Calendar - Images from The Newgate Calendar. Mostly crimes and criminals from the 18th century. Also other works at http://www.exclassics.com

Punch Magazine John Leech Archive - John Leech sketch archives 1841 until 1864 from Punch magazine The page states they are long out of copyright and that they are believed to be public domain. 

United States History – General

America As It Was - a huge resource for vintage postcards in the US, organized by state. Any postcard first published in the US before 1978 without an explicit copyright notice is PD. Lots of photos, aerial views, and maps of many US locations.

America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotypes - Library of Congress Collection

American Memory - Library of Congress American Memory site (Check copyright information for the separate items before deciding to use them!)

American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and other Printed Ephemera - Library of Congress Collection

Cities and Towns – U.S. Library of Congress Collection

Freedom's Fortress: the Library of Congress, 1939-1953

Military Battles and Campaigns – U.S. Library of Congress Collection

New York Public Library Digital Gallery - New York Public Library. Over 700,000 images scanned from books. Including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. There is a per-image usage fee even for public domain images.

September 11 Documentary Project - Library of Congress Collection

U.S. History Images - Public domain images from United States history.

William P. Gottlieb Collection – U.S. Library of Congress

Yale University - Beinecke Library Archive - Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library's online collection of digital images. Most will be {PD-art}. 90,000 images from rare books and manuscripts, search by keyword. 

United States History – 1492 Discovery, Exploration and Maps

Discovery and Exploration

Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training

Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal

General Maps

Hotchkiss Map Collection

Louisiana: European Explorations and Louisiana Purchase

Mapping the National Parks

Panoramic Maps

Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives
– Library of Congress

Rochambeau Map Collection – Library of Congress

Washington As It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak – Library of Congress

Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890 from Mystic Seaport – Library of Congress 

United States History – New England Settlers Experience

Early Virginia Religious Petitions – Library of Congress

The Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, 1600-1925 – Library of Congress 


United States History – American Revolution

American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789 – Library of Congress

Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789  – Library of Congress

The Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606-1827 – Library of Congress 


United States History – Portraits of the Presidents

By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies – Library of Congress 


United States History – Native American Experience

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest – Library of Congress

Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images  – Library of Congress

North American Indian Photographs – Library of Congress

Omaha Indian Music – Library of Congress 


United States History – African American Experience

The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920 – Library of Congress

African-American Sheet Music – Library of Congress

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 – Library of Congress

The Church in the Southern Black Community: Beginnings to 1920 – Library of Congress

Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress – Library of Congress

Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870 – Library of Congress

Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 – Library of Congress 


United States History – The Wild, Wild West and Pioneer Days

The James Madison Papers, 1723-1836  – Library of Congress

History of the American West – Library of Congress

Pioneer Trails: Overland to Utah and the Pacific, 1847-1869 – Library of Congress

Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910  – Library of Congress

The Northern Great Plains: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections (Hultstrand Collection)  – Library of Congress

The Northern Great Plains: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections (Pazandak Collection)  – Library of Congress

Railroad Maps, 1828-1900  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Asian American Experience

Chinese in California, 1850-1920 


United States History – Civil War, Reconstruction and the South

The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana – Library of Congress

Band Music from the Civil War Era  – Library of Congress

Civil War Maps  – Library of Congress

Civil War Photographs  – Library of Congress

Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment: Selections from the Tilton C. Reynolds Papers  – Library of Congress

Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society  – Library of Congress

Washington During the Civil War: the Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865  – Library of Congress

First Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920  – Library of Congress

Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida's Natural History, 1884-1934  – Library of Congress

Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip  – Library of Congress

The South Texas Border: Photographs from the Robert Runyon Collection  – Library of Congress

Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia  – Library of Congress 


United States History – 19^th Century Pop Culture

America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets   – Library of Congress Collection

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten  – Library of Congress

Hispano Music & Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection  – Library of Congress

Historic American Sheet Music  – Library of Congress

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1860   – Library of Congress

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885  – Library of Congress

The Nineteenth Century in Print: the Making of America in Books and Periodicals (Cornell University)  – Library of Congress

The Nineteenth Century in Print: the Making of America in Books and Periodicals (University of Michigan)  – Library of Congress

Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection  – Library of Congress

Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1778-1996  – Library of Congress

Shaping the Values of Youth: A Nineteenth Century American Sunday School Book Collection  – Library of Congress 


United States History – The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Inventors and Inventions

Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress, 1793-1919  – Library of Congress

Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies  – Library of Congress

Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Industrial Revolution and Labor Movement

Child Labor in America 1908 – 1912 - Child Labor in America 1908 - 1912 by Lewis W. Hine  – Library of Congress

Haymarket Affair: Chicago Anarchists on Trial  – Library of Congress

Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904  – Library of Congress

Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Women’s Suffrage Movement

By Popular Demand: Votes for Women’s Suffrage Pictures  – Library of Congress

Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party  – Library of Congress

Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Early History of Film

America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 - Library of Congress Collection

Origins of American Animation  – Library of Congress

Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916  – Library of Congress

The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906  – Library of Congress

Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901  – Library of Congress

Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film  – Library of Congress 


United States History – 20^th Century Pop Culture

Baseball Cards  – Library of Congress

By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s  – Library of Congress

Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939  – Library of Congress

Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982  – Library of Congress

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten  – Library of Congress

Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua  – Library of Congress 


United States History – News photos, Panoramas and Stereoscopes

Photographs from the Chicago Daily News  – Library of Congress

Small Town America: Stereoscopic Views from the Dennis Collection  – Library of Congress

Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs  – Library of Congress

Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company  – Library of Congress 


United States History – World War I

Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914-1919  – Library of Congress

Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919  – Library of Congress 


United States History – Great Depression 1929 - 1940

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940  – Library of Congress

By the People, For the People—Works Projects Administration Posters, 1935-43  – Library of Congress

Documenting America: Photographs From the Great Depression to World War II, FSA-OWI (black and white)  – Library of Congress

Documenting America: Photographs From the Great Depression to World War II, FSA-OWI (color) – Library of Congress

Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937 to 1942  – Library of Congress

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Thousands of on-line, copyright free photographs of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Great Depression and the New Deal, and World War II.

Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection  – Library of Congress

Woody Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song: Correspondence, 1940-1950  – Library of Congress 


United States History – World War II

Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar  – Library of Congress

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Thousands of on-line, copyright free photographs of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Great Depression and the New Deal, and World War II.

World War II Poster Collection over 300 posters issued by U.S. Federal agencies  – Library of Congress

World War II Military Situation Maps  – Library of Congress