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. 14 shown for “Broadside for Blind Tom” — 44 records examined, 26 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-01 07:45 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.
The Boston Massacre, or, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment, by Paul Revere Jr.

The Boston Massacre, or, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment

Paul Revere Jr. · 1770

Public domainThe Met
Broadside for Blind Tom

Broadside for Blind Tom

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1887

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Portal from the Church of San Leonardo al Frigido, by Biduinus

Portal from the Church of San Leonardo al Frigido

Biduinus · ca. 1175

Public domainThe Met
Tom, The Blind Negro Boy Pianist, Only 10 Years Old

Tom, The Blind Negro Boy Pianist, Only 10 Years Old

Artist not stated in the record · 1860

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Instrument case for flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell, by William R. Meinell, American

Instrument case for flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell

William R. Meinell, American · 1879-1884

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Songs, Sketch of the Life of Blind Tom

Songs, Sketch of the Life of Blind Tom

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1876

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell with original instrument case, by William R. Meinell, American

Flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell with original instrument case

William R. Meinell, American · 1879-1884

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell, by William R. Meinell, American

Flute made for Blind Tom by William R. Meinell

William R. Meinell, American · 1879-1884

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Broadside, by Seer, A. S.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Broadside

Seer, A. S.

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Broadside for a New Orleans auction of 18 enslaved persons from Alabama

Broadside for a New Orleans auction of 18 enslaved persons from Alabama

Artist not stated in the record · 1858

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Laura Dewey Bridgeman, by Unidentified Artist

Laura Dewey Bridgeman

Unidentified Artist · c. 1857

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Broadside advertising "Valuable Slaves at Auction" in New Orleans

Broadside advertising "Valuable Slaves at Auction" in New Orleans

Artist not stated in the record · February 3, 1859

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Carte-de-visite of Thomas Wiggins, also known as Blind Tom

Carte-de-visite of Thomas Wiggins, also known as Blind Tom

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1870

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Blind Tom, by George Kendall Warren, 1834 - 29 Nov 1884

Blind Tom

George Kendall Warren, 1834 - 29 Nov 1884 · c. 1882

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. 4 matched · 4 examined · 2 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.2 shown
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 433760 matched · 40 examined · 24 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 07:45 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.