Photo by George

The Commons

Help us catalog the world’s public photo archives.

The Commons Help us catalog the world’s public photo archives.

Welcome!

The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world's public photography archives.

Please help make the photographs you enjoy more discoverable by adding tags and leaving comments. Your contributions and knowledge make these photos even richer*

Participating Institutions

FAQ

Rights Statement

A random sprinkling of our participating institutions...

  • Nationaal Archief
  • Archives of the Law Society of Ontario
  • National Galleries of Scotland Commons
  • Museum of Hartlepool
  • Camden Public Library (Maine)
  • Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons
  • UL Digital Library
  • State Library of New South Wales collection
  • Miami U. Libraries - Digital Collections
  • Faculty of Music, Trinity Laban
  • Nova Scotia Archives
  • National Library of Norway
  • Halifax Municipal Archives
  • Het Nieuwe Instituut - Architecture Collection
  • tyrrellhistoricallibrary
  • National Library of Scotland
  • Netherlands Institute of Military History
  • Vancouver Public Library Historical Photographs
  • VCU Libraries Commons
  • Keene and Cheshire County (NH) Historical Photos
  • Directorate General of Press and Information
  • National Library of Sweden
  • Dundas Museum and Archives
  • nha.library
  • The Library of Congress
  • Swedish National Heritage Board
  • bibliothequedetoulouse
  • Smithsonian Institution
  • Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State
  • NASA on The Commons
  • The National Archives UK
  • Deseronto Archives
  • Galt Museum & Archives on The Commons
  • UBC Library Digitization Centre
  • National Archives of Estonia

A Commons Sampler

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:

  1. To increase access to publicly-held photography collections, and
  2. 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!!