Public Domain
Media Sources

When Lisa began producing videos, she was frustrated by the lack of public domain materials to practice with, namely music. As a career portrait photographer, familiar with copyright law, she was committed to working with source materials free of licensing restrictions.

The following media list began as a memory aid to efficiently return to useful websites. It expanded into a resource for other creators and school staff that Lisa mentored. 

At the time each website was added to the list, Lisa reviewed the fine print to verify copyright licensing.

**Online text can and does frequently change – it is the user’s responsibility to verify licensing for its intended use.

What is public domain?

Public Domain and CC0 licensing do not require author attribution and may be used for personal and commercial purposes.

Clip Art

Clker.com – Clip Art
(Free membership required)

Logomakr
clip art for creating a logo
(must give credit to ‘Logomakr.com’ if used.)

Pixabay – Over a million high-resolution vector graphics
(Free membership required -Donations are solicited for use – optional)

Vector Icon Clipart

Fonts

Font Squirrel

Google Fonts

Music & Sound Effects

Archive.org – a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more

Danosongs.com
(Requested $10 donation for a pack of 77 Royalty-Free songs.)

FreeMusicArchive.org – good search tools. Licenses require research. (Many music files on this site are not free.)

FreeSound – sound effects contributed by members. Registration required.

Library of Congress – collections with audio recordings

LibriVox – public domain audiobooks

Library of Congress Audio Recordings – must hunt for downloadable files

Moby Gratis – free music for independent filmmakers, nonprofits and students (application form required)

Musopenmostly sheet music for musicians

OpenMusicArchives.org – UK Public domain music

Public Domain 4 U – genre list, some are CCO licensed, oriented for music education

Public Domain Hymnsspoken song lyrics

Public Domain Review – searchable audio files housed at LOC

USGSAudio – Earth Science audio clips, podcasts, interviews

Vintage Worship Albums – preserving classic worship music from Harvestime organization

YouTube Music and Sound Effects Library
YouTube Audio Library Note: Click on “Attribution not required” to see media that has been released under a Public Domain license.

Zapsplat
Professional sound effects, foley, and music.
Download three MP3 files at one time before a mandatory ‘rest’ period of 10 minutes.
Commit to monthly or weekly donations for unlimited downloads.

Photos & Illustrations

Art Institute of Chicago – 50K images – paintings, sculptures & illustrations

Biodiversity Heritage Library (Flickr)- 2,100,000 images – animals, plants, bugs, and ocean-related.

Calisphere – University of California Collections – libraries, archives, and museums. 1,700,000 images, texts, and recordings.

Europeana Collections – over 2,100,000 images from thousands of European archives, libraries and, museums.

EveryStockPhoto – good search tools

Flickr
(Free membership required)

Flickr – British Library Public Domain Collection
Over 1 million historic images from the British Library

Flickr Commons
British Library
Library of Congress Galleries
Library of Congress Albums

Forestry Images – Trees & Plants, Invasive Species, Urban Forestry & Wildlife – free membership required, some use restrictions, read the fine print.

FreeStockPhotos.biz – Animals, nature, people, food & vintage collection

FreeVintageIllustrations.com – Nature, Birthday, Animals, Science, Food & Holidays

iNaturalist – Lisa’s CC0 plant & animal contributions

The Met – Famous Art and Images (must search for Public Domain licensed)

Internet Archive on Flickr

Civil War Era Photographs
   Harpers Weekly – Victorian Era illustrations
  The Mark Lane Express Agricultural Journal – Victorian Era illustrations

Library of Congressmillions of items including images, books, newspapers, maps, musical scores, sound recordings, film, video, and more
 Lawrence & Houseworth historical photograph collection

Microlab – 7,000+ Images made with a microscope (medium-resolution)

New York Public Library

Old Book Illustrations

Pexels
(Donations are solicited for use – optional)

Picryl
Easy small and medium-size image download. Large images require a donation.
Time-period slider to pinpoint images for a particular year or era.

Piqsels
Large images & Public Domain Licensing

Pixabay – Over a million high-resolution images
(Free membership required -Donations are solicited for use – optional)

Pixabay – Lisa’s photo & video contributions

Project Apollo Archive (Flickr) NASA & astronauts & space

Public Domain Archive

Public Domain Review – images, books, film, and audio

Smithsonian Open Access – 2,800,000 images that you can download, share, and reuse.

StockSnap – High-quality, high-resolution images.
(No membership required)

Unsplash – over a million high-resolution photos

Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Images
(No membership required)
sorted by History by Subject

Video Clips

California Revealed – Historical archival materials from California Revealed in partnership with over 200 universities, libraries, and historical societies across the state.

Internet Archive – Books, Music, Videos & more

Pinterest – Video Clips

Pixabay – 6,000 + high-resolution videos
(Free membership required -Donations are solicited for use – optional)

USGS – Earth Science related videos

Videvo  – Stock Clips

Lisa’s Pinterest Boards

over 6,000 images and growing
(Free membership required)

Animals
Art
Dragonflies
Food
Insects & Butterflies
Misc.
Objects
Plants
Peculiar History
People
Outer Space
All Boards

*If you return here for media that is useful, please consider making a donation.