You Now Have 2.8 Million Free Images to Use on Your Projects

The Smithsonian Institution releases millions of high-resolution images from across its collections into the public domain

The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, a must-see attraction in Washington D.C. that documents the history and heritage of the United States while also highlighting the world's natural and cultural diversity.

The collection held in its vault is, by all accounts, staggering. It is estimated to have nearly 155 million pieces altogether, including more than 146 million artifacts and specimens at the National Museum of Natural History. The Institution has started digitizing its entire catalog, a process that will take years to complete. Less than 25% of it has been digitized thus far!

The site offers high-resolution 2D images and 3D models, as well as research datasets and collections metadata. The Smithsonian's 19 museums, research centers, libraries, and even the National Zoo have contributed. The database includes content across the arts, sciences, history, culture, and design, from portraits of American historical figures to 3D scans of dinosaur skeletons.

The best part is that you can download and use the majority of it in your creative projects without restriction. Previously, the Smithsonian allowed an individual to download images and models for personal, educational, or non-commercial use.

Since February 2020, however, nearly 3 million images have been licensed under the Creative Commons Zero standard, which waives the Institution's copyright and allows for commercial usage without the need for the Smithsonian permission.

You can even alter or edit these images before sharing them, all for free. This is something that the Smithsonian even encourages. On the website, the Institution features some of the most creative and exciting remixes from users all around the globe. "We are excited to see how people worldwide use this dataset, which represents nearly two centuries of interdisciplinary research, to understand and solve today's challenges," explains Effie Kapsalis, the Smithsonian senior digital program officer.

Highlights from the collection include high-resolution pictures of all kinds of items such as musical instruments, historical artifacts, detailed illustrations of plants, animals, and fruit, 3D models of some of the space vehicles used in the Apollo program, portraits of historical figures, and much more.

You can check it out at the Smithsonian Open Access website.

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