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Our Image Sources and Licenses

Our Image Sources and Licenses

We print only images from collections that allow free reuse. This page names each one, says what the license means, and links to the official page. We credit each collection as a plain source. We do not use logos, and we do not claim a partnership or an endorsement.

National Gallery of Art

  • License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0). The National Gallery of Art says images of works it believes are in the public domain are free for any use, commercial or not, with no need to ask permission.
  • Official page: Open Access at the National Gallery of Art
  • Our credit line: From the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
  • What it means: CC0 means the owner has waived their rights as far as the law allows, so anyone can copy and share the work, including for commercial use.

Cleveland Museum of Art

  • License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0). The museum's open access program says CC0 images and data can be downloaded, shared, remixed and reused without asking permission, and that CC0 works do not require attribution.
  • Official page: Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access
  • Our credit line: From the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • Note: The museum says that citing it does not imply its endorsement. We follow that rule.

Rijksmuseum

  • License: Public domain or Creative Commons Zero (CC0). The Rijksmuseum's data policy says this material can be used freely, including for commercial purposes, without asking permission. We use only items the museum marks as public domain.
  • Official page: Rijksmuseum information and data policy
  • Our credit line: From the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
  • Note: The museum asks people to credit the Rijksmuseum even when it is not required. We do.

USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection

  • License: Public domain in the United States. The paintings were made by artists working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are held by the National Agricultural Library.
  • Official page: USDA National Agricultural Library finding aid for the collection
  • Our credit line: From the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, National Agricultural Library.
  • What it covers: The finding aid describes fruit and nut watercolors made from 1888 to the 1930s.

Biodiversity Heritage Library

  • License: Most of the library is older material in the public domain in the United States. We use only items that the library marks as public domain or as having no known copyright restrictions. We do not use items that carry a Creative Commons license with a non-commercial term.
  • Official page: About the Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Our credit line: From the collection of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  • Note: The library says it also works with rights holders to share some in-copyright works under Creative Commons licenses. Those items are not part of our shop unless their license allows commercial use and we credit it as the license requires.

Other public-domain libraries

These libraries put old natural history books online and mark the scans with the Public Domain Mark 1.0, which means the work is free of known copyright and can be used for any purpose, commercial or not. We use only scans that carry that mark or a plain public-domain statement. We found most of these plates through the BibliOdyssey blog, which featured them over many years.

How we credit

Every print page names the artist, the title, the date, the source collection and the license. The credit is a factual line, such as "From the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art." We do not use any collection's name or logo to suggest that it sells, makes or approves our canvases.

Questions about an image

If you think a credit is wrong or an image should not be here, email [email protected] with the print page link. We will check it and fix it.