LibGuides: Textile Design & Textile Practice: Finding images

Creative Commons Image Search Engines

The following websites allow you to search for images licensed under the Creative Commons license. Visit the Creative Commons site for more information.

Creative Commons Search
Search engine for Creative Commons content on websites including Google and Flickr.
MorgueFile
MorgueFile features over 200,000 images which can be used commercially without attribution.
TinEye MultiColor Search Lab
Search Creative Commons images by colour to find images in the exact colour you need. TinEye has extracted the colors from 20 million Creative Commons images on Flickr to make the images searchable by color.

Image Collections

These websites offer a wide variety of images from collections held by museums, galleries and libraries.

Please be aware of the copyright implications of using material found on the internet. The images from these sources will not all be copyright-cleared for reuse except for private study and research purposes.

Public Domain Images

Botanical and Animal Illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Image collection from the Biodiversity Heritage Library focused on aminal and plant illustrations.

Mixed license collections

These collections have search filters to help you find public domain and creative commons images within the collections

Wellcome Collection
Rich and unique image collection with themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science. Many images available under a creative commons licence.
Smithsonian Institution
Creative Commons images from the Smithsonian Collections
The Met
Online collections from the The Met in New York. Many images in the public domain making them available for use. Filter allows you to search for public domain artworks.
British Library Images Online
Europeana
The image collection on Europeana comes from galleries, libraries, archives and museums from all over Europe. Collections include art and fashion.

Copyright protected collections

Re-use normally permitted if it is for private study or education purposes. Images can't be used or adapted for commercial purposes.

Tate
Online digitised collections from Tate art collections
V&A Search the Collections
V&A Search the Collections features objects and images from the V&A's collections.

Non-commercial use of content downloaded from the V&A Search the Collections site is allowed
LIFE photo archive
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. Most images available for personal non-commercial use only.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
This collection is regularly updated with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more. Many images are in the public domain.
RIBA Architecture Image Library
Lo-resolution images available can be used for private study or as part of research for a non-commercial purpose provided full credit to the photographer is given.

Subject guides

Textile Design & Textile Practice: Finding images

Introduction to Searching for Images

Creative Commons Image Search Engines

Image Collections

Public Domain Images

Mixed license collections

Copyright protected collections