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. 19 shown for “Albumen print of Stephen Johnson” — 64 records examined, 37 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-10 10:57 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.
Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary), by Paul Gauguin

Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary)

Paul Gauguin · 1891

Public domainThe Met
Albumen print of Stephen Johnson

Albumen print of Stephen Johnson

Artist not stated in the record · 1864-1865

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fort Johnson, by Unknown

Fort Johnson

Unknown · 1861–65

Public domainThe Met
Stephen Johnson Field, by Unidentified Artist

Stephen Johnson Field

Unidentified Artist · c. 1877

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque), by Georges Seurat

Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)

Georges Seurat · 1887–88

Public domainThe Met
Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature, by Unidentified

Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature

Unidentified · 1868

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
[Group of 8 Early Stereograph Views of British Monuments, Memorials, and Tombs], by Lennie

[Group of 8 Early Stereograph Views of British Monuments, Memorials, and Tombs]

Lennie · 1850s–1910s

Public domainThe Met
The Supreme Court of the United States, by Alexander Gardner, 17 Oct 1821 - 10 Dec 1882

The Supreme Court of the United States

Alexander Gardner, 17 Oct 1821 - 10 Dec 1882 · 1867

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Satyr, British Museum, by Stephen Thompson

Satyr, British Museum

Stephen Thompson · 1869–72

Public domainThe Met
Albumen print of a man with moustache

Albumen print of a man with moustache

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1900

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Julia Jackson, by Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Jackson

Julia Margaret Cameron · 1867

Public domainThe Met
Albumen print of Harriet Tubman

Albumen print of Harriet Tubman

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1908; printed ca. 1920

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Electro–Physiologie, Figure 64, by Adrien Tournachon

Electro–Physiologie, Figure 64

Adrien Tournachon · 1854–56, printed 1862

Public domainThe Met
Alexander Hamilton Stephens, by Unidentified Artist

Alexander Hamilton Stephens

Unidentified Artist · c. 1861-65 (after earlier photograph)

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Cabinet card of Carrie

Cabinet card of Carrie

Artist not stated in the record · 1900-1905

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Carte-de-visite portrait of Walter W. Johnson

Carte-de-visite portrait of Walter W. Johnson

Artist not stated in the record · 1868

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Albumen print of three members of the Boyd family, by Unidentified

Albumen print of three members of the Boyd family

Unidentified · 1890-1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Margaret Fuller, by Josiah Johnson Hawes, 20 Feb 1808 - 7 Aug 1901

Margaret Fuller

Josiah Johnson Hawes, 20 Feb 1808 - 7 Aug 1901 · c. 1870 (after 1846 daguerreotype)

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Albumen print of African American Odd Fellows in front of a grandstand, by Unidentified

Albumen print of African American Odd Fellows in front of a grandstand

Unidentified · 1890-1930

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. 276 matched · 24 examined · 17 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.7 shown
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 2897386 matched · 40 examined · 20 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 2026-09-10 10:57 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.