I had heard of the Flickr project of “no known copyright” historic photographs, but for some reason had never really spent much time exploring The Commons.
Though less than a year old, The Commons hosts tens of thousands of copyright-free historical photos from 17 cultural institutions including the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library.
Included in The Commons so far: Southworth and Hawes 19th century daguerreotypes from the George Eastman House collection, William Goodyear’s photos of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (from the Brooklyn Museum), and Frank Hurley’s photo prints from the 1911-1914 Austalasian Antarctic Expedition from the State Library of New South Wales.Dedicated Flickr users act like amateur historians in The Commons, tagging, researching and analyzing the worlds’ visual heritage. Thus, 67,176 tags were added by 2,518 unique Flickr users, and info on more than 500 photos has been verified by the Library of Congress and moved into the library’s permanent records.
[From With Flickr Layoffs, Whither ‘The Commons’? | Epicenter from Wired.com]
Well, if you can access Flickr (sorry, Aunt P), you should definitely check out The Commons. So freaking cool! There’s also a separate group dedicated to The Commons.