Copyright-free images
The Legal Genealogist has said it before and will undoubtedly say it again.
It isn’t possible to overstate the debt that genealogists — and Americans — owe to Carol Highsmith.1
A debt that has just grown by more than 2000…
Images, that is.
Gorgeous, full-color, digital, copyright-free images. Meaning that they are free for us to use. To incorporate into our own work. To help illustrate the places that have been important to our own families.
Carol Highsmith, you see, is a photographer who has been donating her work to the Library of Congress for decades now — with every single image free of copyright restrictions. And just added to the collection are more than 2000 new images, dated 2022, mostly from the western states of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Utah.2
Images like this one, entitled “A lone steer has this remote, mostly dry valley to himself near the small city of Green River (population c. 950 as of 2022) in the western U.S. state of Utah”:
Every last one of them donated to the country.
Calling it “A Photographic Gift to the Nation,” the Library of Congress explains: “Every photograph that Highsmith captures will be given to the Library in her lifetime.”3
The collection appears at the Library of Congress website, and is entitled the Carol M. Highsmith Archive. Its description:
The online presentation of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive features photographs of landmark buildings and architectural renovation projects in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States. The first 23 groups of photographs contain more than 2,500 images and date from 1980 to 2005, with many views in color as well as black-and-white. Extensive coverage of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building was added in 2007. The archive is expected to grow to more than 100,000 photographs covering all of the United States.
Highsmith, a distinguished and richly-published American photographer, has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. Her generosity in dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright free access also makes this Archive a very special visual resource.4
For anyone who wants an image to illustrate a blog post, a genealogy newsletter or journal, a family history or more, this collection is solid gold. Try doing a search for images of courthouses. You’ll find 3232 images as of today. Search for Idaho. You’ll get 573 images, including 316 added from her 2022 travels. Need an image of a garden? You’ll have 2319 to choose from, including 23 added in the 2022 donation. There are 288 images of log cabins. And 6146 involving rivers. And 1604 involving beaches. And…
Poke around in that archive long enough and you’re just about guaranteed to find something you can use — something meaningful to your family and where your people are from.
Highsmith herself says: “I’m very passionate about documenting this moment in time in America and showcasing it to the world. Through the Library of Congress, my hope is that this work will remain a part of our visual heritage for hundreds of years to come.”5
A visual heritage of wonderful photographs.
And now more than 2000 more than we had before.
Thank you, Ms. Highsmith. Thank you.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “More than 2000 more,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 17 Aug 2023).
SOURCES
Image: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith [LC-DIG-highsm-70125]
- See Judy G. Russell, “Through the lens brightly,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 16 June 2014 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 17 Aug 2023). ↩
- See Kristi Finefield, “Ready for Research: A Wide Range of New Pictures,” posted 17 Aug 2023, Picture This blog, Library of Congress Prints & Photos Division (https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis : accessed 17 Aug 2023). ↩
- See Raquel Maya, “A Photographic Gift to the Nation,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin, December 2007 (https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib : accessed 17 Aug 2023). ↩
- “About the Carol M. Highsmith Archive,” Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/ : accessed 17 Aug 2023). ↩
- Maya, “A Photographic Gift to the Nation.” ↩
Much like her photos, Carol Highsmith is a national treasure. I’ve used many of them to illustrate Facebook posts for my library over the years.
Almost perfect! This photo will be going to my “Someday maybe …” file. The only thing missing is the ghost of Edward Augustus Bedell, who died here in 1854. I want him to tell me that his mother is the person I want her to be! Not asking too much, is it?
And if you think that free is too cheap, you can always go to Getty Images and pay $477 for this image: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/the-webb-county-courthouse-in-laredo-texas-news-photo/564086115?adppopup=true
As I am in the UK their website defaults to the .co.uk URL so I can’t check if the US site offers the same image. Either way it’s abhorrent that a reputable company should be ripping people off in this way.
Here’s the same image on the Library of Congress site: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/highsm/item/2014630555/
Yes, it’s on the US site as well. Several image aggregators allow this — and I agree with you: it’s wrong.