Finding Images

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.

A curated list of links to digital photography collections spanning the 19th-21st centuries.

Search across an array of digital library collections. To locate images, enter a search term and then limit your results to images by scrolling down to "Type" and selecting "Images." You can also limit to a specific date range.

The Internet Archive includes over 1.2 million images contributed by users, which include individuals, libraries, and museums.

"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."

An array of images including historical maps, photography, book illustrations, posters and fashion spreads.

This collection holds snapshots, professional photography, found images and everything in between.

This regional collection of digital images includes photos, maps, postcards and other primary documents relating to the Hudson Valley.

Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) provides online access to images from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) historical collections. IHM includes image files of a wide variety of visual media including fine art, photographs, engravings, and posters that illustrate the social and historical aspects of medicine dating from the 15th to 21st century.

Over 100 topical collections of photos and other primary documents from the United States and other areas of the world.

Hosted by Google, allows you to search images from the history of the magazine.

A for profit library of images from thousands of photographers. It costs money to download and use images from this collection.

This collection of more than 9000 NASA press release photos spans the American manned space program, from the Mercury program to the STS-79 Shuttle mission.

Find images from Flickr users that can be reused with various licensing stipulations (attribution, non-commercial use, etc.)