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...

  • Galt Museum & Archives on The Commons
  • Colección Amadeo León - Boconó
  • UC Berkeley, Department of Geography
  • Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University
  • National Library of Scotland
  • UA Archives | Upper Arlington History
  • Cornell University Library
  • Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland
  • LSE Library
  • Liberas
  • NSW State Archives and Records
  • Arkivverket (National Archives of Norway)
  • The Gallen-Kallela Museum
  • nha.library
  • The U.S. National Archives
  • Texas State Archives
  • OSU Special Collections & Archives : Commons
  • The British Library
  • East Riding Archives
  • Vestfoldmuseene | Vestfold Museums
  • Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons
  • The Library of Virginia
  • Stockholm Transport Museum Commons
  • National Library of Norway
  • National Galleries of Scotland Commons
  • Salt Research
  • Camden Public Library (Maine)
  • JWA Commons
  • Swedish National Heritage Board
  • Vancouver Public Library Historical Photographs
  • Royal Australian Historical Society
  • National Museum of Denmark
  • UVicLibraries
  • Center for Jewish History, NYC
  • Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

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!!