Photo by George

The Commons

Your opportunity to contribute to describing the world's public photo collections.

The Commons Your opportunity to contribute to describing the world's public photo collections.

Welcome!

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.

You're invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.*

Participating Institutions

FAQ

Rights Statement

A random sprinkling of our participating institutions...

A Commons Sampler

Mosman Bay Falls
from Powerhouse Museum Collection

Girls skipping at an athletics carnival
from Powerhouse Museum Collection

View from top of Nelson's Pillar, Sackville Street (O'Connell...
from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird], Ballets...
from State Library of New South Wales collection

'Fear' from 'The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals' London...
from National Media Museum

Stockholm, Sweden
from Swedish National Heritage Board

Paris Exposition: Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, France, 1900
from Brooklyn Museum

Paris Exposition: night view, Paris, France, 1900
from Brooklyn Museum

First cars and trains across Sydney Harbour Bridge, March 1932 /...
from State Library of New South Wales collection

More about The Commons

A new way to share photos on Flickr

The Commons was launched on January 16 2008, when we released our pilot project in partnership with The Library of Congress. Both Flickr and the Library were overwhelmed by the positive response to the project! Thank you!

The program has two main objectives:

To increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and
To provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge. (Then watch what happens when they do!)

FAQ

I work for a cultural heritage institution that would like to be a part of The Commons. How do we do that?

Please let us know you're interested by registering here. It helps a lot if you let us know some background about your institution, and direct us to any online photo collections you already have.

How can I get involved?

We've already seen fantastic contribution from the Flickr membership. Your tags and conversations about the content in The Commons has been wonderful! The best way to get involved is to add a tag or two to the photos you see, and if you happen to know anything else about the subject, by all means add a comment.

What's "no known copyright restrictions?"

This new rights statement is being contained to the institutions participating in The Commons, at the account level. It is a requirement for participation in the program that institutions may rightly claim "no known copyright restrictions" on the content they share. More information.

*Any Flickr member is able to add tags or comment on these collections. If you're a dork about it, shame on you. This is for the good of humanity, dude!!