Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Foundation, California, United States
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Description icon-questionA descriptive note detailing the content and context of the digital collection.

Wikimedia Commons is a “media file repository” of public domain and freely-licensed educational media content, including images, sounds and video clips. Launched on 7 September 2004 by the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Commons uses the “wiki-technology” that is the same technology used in Wikipedia. Wikmedia Commons also aggregates files from other projects, including Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikivoyage, Wikispecies, Wikisource, and Wikinews. As of October 2015, there are more than 28.7 million files in more than 120,000 collections. Users can conduct a keyword search or browse the content by topic, type, author, location, license and source.

Collection Type icon-questionBroad terms that define the type of digital collection

Subject icon-question Broad terms or phrases that describe, identify, or interpret the digital image collection and what it depicts or expresses. Values were obtained using the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) by the Getty Research Institute.

Style Period icon-questionTerms that define the styles, art periods, movements, etc. whose characteristics are represented in digital image collection. Values were obtained using the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) by the Getty Research Institute

Work Types icon-questionTerms that identify the kinds of works in the digital collection being described. It typically refers to a work’s physical form, function, or medium in digital image collection. Values were obtained using the Thesaurus For Graphic Materials (TGM) by Library of Congress.

Openness icon-questionOpenness of the digital collection determined using the 4R activities by Wiley (2010).

Allow Reuse, Redistribute, Revise and Remix for educational and non-commercial purposes

Allow Reuse, Redistribute, Revise and Remix for educational and non-commercial purposes

Notes on Usage icon-questionAdditional notes on the terms of use on the digital images in the collection.

Images provided on the site are either on public domain or under varied free and open licenses. In general, users are allowed to “copy, use and modify any files here freely“. For those images under licenses, information on permitted uses and attribution requirements are provided for each image.

Please read and follow the “Permission Details” with respect to each image before using it.