OpenGlyph — Catalogue of the American Public DomainJurisdiction: United StatesRev. 2026.08
Images / art

Two archives, queried live.

Every record below comes from The Met or Smithsonian Open Access and was filtered on that archive’s own rights field before it reached this page. 24 shown for “14c Shanghai China surcharge on 7c Washington single” — 64 records examined, 25 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-01 03:51 UTC · fetched live for this request

Object
Public domainThe Met’s isPublicDomain field is true for this object.
CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian’s metadata_usage.access reads CC0 — a waiver, not an expired term.
Not shownAnything failing its archive’s rights field is dropped server-side and never appears here.
Night-Shining White, by Han Gan

Night-Shining White

Han Gan · ca. 750

Public domainThe Met
14c Shanghai China surcharge on 7c Washington single

14c Shanghai China surcharge on 7c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Old Trees, Level Distance, by Guo Xi

Old Trees, Level Distance

Guo Xi · ca. 1080

Public domainThe Met
8c Shanghai China surcharge on 4c Washington single

8c Shanghai China surcharge on 4c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Summer Mountains, by Qu Ding

Summer Mountains

Qu Ding · ca. 1050

Public domainThe Met
6c Shanghai China surcharge on 3c Washington single

6c Shanghai China surcharge on 3c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru, by Huang Tingjian

Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru

Huang Tingjian · ca. 1095

Public domainThe Met
12c Shanghai China surcharge on 6c Washington single

12c Shanghai China surcharge on 6c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
'Otua fefine (deity figure), by Ha'apai Islands artist

'Otua fefine (deity figure)

Ha'apai Islands artist · Early 19th century

Public domainThe Met
4c Shanghai China surcharge on 2c Washington single

4c Shanghai China surcharge on 2c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
The Classic of Filial Piety, by Li Gonglin

The Classic of Filial Piety

Li Gonglin · ca. 1085

Public domainThe Met
10c Shanghai China surcharge on 5c Washington single

10c Shanghai China surcharge on 5c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Wangchuan Villa, by Wang Yuanqi

Wangchuan Villa

Wang Yuanqi · dated 1711

Public domainThe Met
4c Shanghai China surcharge on 2c Washington single

4c Shanghai China surcharge on 2c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Orchids, by Ma Lin

Orchids

Ma Lin · second quarter of the 13th century

Public domainThe Met
2c Shanghai China surcharge on 1c Washington single

2c Shanghai China surcharge on 1c Washington single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Figures, flowers, and landscapes, by Chen Hongshou

Figures, flowers, and landscapes

Chen Hongshou · one leaf dated 1627

Public domainThe Met
30c Shanghai China surcharge on 15c Franklin single

30c Shanghai China surcharge on 15c Franklin single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Pear Blossoms, by Unidentified

Pear Blossoms

Unidentified · ca. 1280

Public domainThe Met
24c Shanghai China surcharge on 12c Franklin single

24c Shanghai China surcharge on 12c Franklin single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Xiao Yi Obtaining the Lanting Manuscript from the Monk Biancai, by Unidentified artist

Xiao Yi Obtaining the Lanting Manuscript from the Monk Biancai

Unidentified artist

Public domainThe Met
$2 Shanghai China surcharge on $1 Franklin single

$2 Shanghai China surcharge on $1 Franklin single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Frontispiece and Colophons to the Album "Five Old Men of Suiyang", by Various Scholars

Frontispiece and Colophons to the Album "Five Old Men of Suiyang"

Various Scholars

Public domainThe Met
16c Shanghai China surcharge on 8c Franklin single

16c Shanghai China surcharge on 8c Franklin single

Artist not stated in the record · 1919

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
What was queried

Where these records came from.

Two archives are wired, and only two. Each one is filtered on its own rights field — never on a title match, and never on the presence of an image file.

  • The Met Collection API (Open Access)Rights field: isPublicDomain. 26 matched · 24 examined · 4 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.12 shown
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 1272994 matched · 40 examined · 21 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.12 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-01 03:51 UTC, during this request. A completed pass is kept for 24 hours and replayed for an identical search, which is what keeps repeated queries inside Smithsonian’s 30-requests-per-hour allowance. A pass in which either archive failed to answer is never kept — an outage must not be replayed as though it were a finding about the catalogue.

Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress are deliberately not wired. Wikimedia was confirmed, on a live query, to return CC-BY material inside the same result set as genuine public domain works, and filtering it safely has not been designed yet. loc.gov was blocked by bot detection during the source evaluation, so its rights vocabulary has never been observed — and nothing here is built on a field nobody has read.

An image file is a rights claim. It never travels without its field.