- Public Domain Image Archive
- URL: https://pdimagearchive.org/galleries/all/random/desc
- Rights: https://pdimagearchive.org/about/
- Online archive of non-copyright images, ranging from photographs, art, and other visual media that has been digitized and that falls under the public domain. Based in the United Kingdom, this database draws from a wide variety of established sources: aggregators such as The Internet Archive and Flickr, and institutions such as the British Museum and the United States Library of Congress. While the number of scholarly providers is high, most of them are North American, European, or otherwise western in nature, which is reflected in the nature of the digitized items.
- Project Gutenberg
- URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/
- Rights: https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html
- Online database of thousands of digitized texts, ebooks, and documents of varying historical, cultural, religious, and social significance. Most digitized texts are in the public domain and free to use without permission, excepting regular citations. Ebook collections span all genres and styles, extending between medieval sources to the past century. However, this collection does specialize more in text in English and other European languages more so than global sources. As such, sources are entirely text-based, but vary widely in subject matter, form, and function.
- Smithsonian Institute
- URL: https://collections.si.edu/search/about.htm
- Rights: https://www.si.edu/termsofuse
- Online database and catalog of most items currently collected by the Smithsonian Institute across all of its affiliated museums and institutions, including the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, and many others. As such, items in the catalogs vary widely in terms of subject matter and origin, but a majority pertain to North American and European history, with large focuses on other areas such as Africa. The majority of items are digitized for online viewing and use, sorted by their respective collections, including many primary sources of different forms, from photographs and art to videos and audio clips.
- Prelinger Archives
- URL: https://archive.org/details/prelinger?tab=about
- Rights: https://www.panix.com/~footage/prelarch.html
- Online digital archive for video media, founded in 1983 and since in collaboration with The Internet Archive and the Library of Congress. Specializes in audiovisual media preservation from a wide range of traditional to non-traditional backgrounds, including amateur, educational, commercial, and industrial films and home videos. Specifically, the Prelinger Archives focus on the acquisition and preservation of non-mainstream audiovisual media that might not be recorded or remembered elsewise. Sources range from individual people to U.S. corporations, non-profit organizations, and educational and community institutions. Also emphasizes collections of significant cultural, social, and historical videos and films.
Digital Humanities Issues, Tools, and Resources