This month, the team at The Public Domain Review launched a new project aimed at artists, illustrators, designers, and creatives of all stripes. Containing 10,000+ items, the Public Domain Image Archive is a vast trove of illustrations, prints, scans, and more, all downloadable and free for use.
The database offers a functional search that allows users to sort by artist, time period, style, and theme. For those seeking maximum visual stimulus, there’s also an “Infinite View” option that collates images of all types into a navigatable grid.
Included in the collections are 19th-century drawings that turn maps into farcical figures, vivid fish renderings by Louis Renard, and satirical black-and-white cartoons from the censorship-laden Prohibition era.
Curators plan to add more entries to the database each week, so be sure to check back for updates. And, if you’d like more deep dives into copyright-free works, check out the public domain archive on Colossal.
