Public Domain Images on Flickr

For some it will be old news, but Flickr has a section called The Commons, filled with photos believed to be in the public domain. Here's one of the repository's most recent additions, a 1952 photo of "Santa Claus handing out treats to nine young women on the beach."



Holiday hijinks aside, the repository boasts the participation of a wide assortment of international libraries, museums, and institutions, all attempting to make photos believed to be in the public domain available to the public. The Flickr community is asked to help tag photos with information so that it becomes a usefully searchable archive. If you're looking for photos for an online course or other project it would be worth a closer look.

Here's a sampling of the sorts of images available, any of which can be clicked to visit the image's page on Flickr: