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ARTstorDigital images (over 1 million) in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities and the social sciences.
NYPL Digital GalleryProvides access to over 672,153 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.
Ad*AccessImages and information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
World Digital LibraryLinks to over 5,000 primary documents and images from collections around the world. Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Search by date, era, country, continent, topic, and type of resource.
The Digital Public Library of America brings together photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.
The DPLA offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Users can browse and search the DPLA’s collections by timeline, map, format, and topic; save items to customized lists; and share their lists with others. Users can also explore digital exhibitions curated by the DPLA’s content partners and staff.
Many archives have now posted their photography collections on Flickr.
Films
Internet Archive"Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies & music, as well as 150 billion archived web pages."
European Film GatewayGives "access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials."
The Travel Film ArchiveThe Travel Film Archive is a collection of travelogues and educational and industrial films - many of them in color - that show the world the way it was between 1900 and 1970. Search films by keyword, or location, filmmaker, decade subject.
A collection of ephemeral video materials (industry, advertising, and educational films ) from the 20th century. The Internet Archive has digitized almost 2,100 of the films in the Prelinger Collection of which there are over 3,600 flims.
This collection of newsreels from 1929-1967 was created by Universal City Studios. It was produced twice a week and covered a wide variety of political and social topics.
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Sound Recordings
National JukeboxThe Library of Congress provides historical sound recordings to the public, free of charge. Recordings were made between 1901-1925 and issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Wikimedia CommonsFree access to images, sound, and video files in the public domain.
British Library Archival Sound RecordingsOnline collections from one of the world's largest sound archives, including sounds from: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and the environment.
Petrucci Music LibraryGoal is to create a virtual library containing all public domain music, as well as music from composers who are willing to share their work with the world without charge.
JamendoJamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Share your music, download your favorite artists!
Alan Lomax Sound RecordingsThe Sound Recordings catalog comprises over 17,400 digital audio files, from 1946 into the 1990s. Alan Lomax is most famous for his work in the penitentiaries, plantations, and lonely farms of the Mississippi Delta, where he made recordings traditional African American culture. He also made recordings in the remote communities of the Caribbean, Europe, and North Africa.
Free Music Archive"The Free Music Archive offers free downloads under Creative Commons and other licenses."