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. 12 shown for “Brush Pot with Scene of Washing an Elephant” — 40 records examined, 5 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-28 14:54 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art: HTTP 403 from collectionapi.metmuseum.org. Results from the remaining archive are shown unchanged — nothing is substituted for a source that did not answer.

Sketchbook Page: Death of Flaminius in the Battle of Trasimeno; Annabelle Loses an Eye in the Swamps of Fiano, Tuscany, by Felice Giani, Italian, 1758–1823

Sketchbook Page: Death of Flaminius in the Battle of Trasimeno; Annabelle Loses an Eye in the Swamps of Fiano, Tuscany

Felice Giani, Italian, 1758–1823 · ca. 1812

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Charles V defeating the Turks near Vienna, 1529 [above]; Battle Scene with King, Elephants, Cavalry and Infantry [below], by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Charles V defeating the Turks near Vienna, 1529 [above]; Battle Scene with King, Elephants, Cavalry and Infantry [below]

Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605 · ca. 1583 – 1605

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fight between Elephants and Snakes, by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Fight between Elephants and Snakes

Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605 · 1596 or before

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Teapot with Allegorical Scenes of "Africa" and "America", by Höchst Ceramics Manufactory, German, 1746 - 1796

Teapot with Allegorical Scenes of "Africa" and "America"

Höchst Ceramics Manufactory, German, 1746 - 1796 · ca. 1765

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Design for a Painted Porcelain Plate, Kitchen Scene with Rear Bedroom, possibly for the Service des Objets de Dessert (Dessert Service), by Jean Charles Develly, French, 1783 - 1849

Design for a Painted Porcelain Plate, Kitchen Scene with Rear Bedroom, possibly for the Service des Objets de Dessert (Dessert Service)

Jean Charles Develly, French, 1783 - 1849 · 1819–20

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Cavemen Chasing Elephants, by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Cavemen Chasing Elephants

Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605 · 1596 or before

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Interior Scene with Mary, by Fortunato Duranti, Italian, 1787 - 1863

Interior Scene with Mary

Fortunato Duranti, Italian, 1787 - 1863 · 1820–1850

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Africa, Design for a Pendentive in the Baptismal Vestibule of St. Peter’s, Rome, by Francesco Trevisani, Italian, 1656 - 1746

Africa, Design for a Pendentive in the Baptismal Vestibule of St. Peter’s, Rome

Francesco Trevisani, Italian, 1656 - 1746 · 1713–26

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
A Court Scene, by Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian, 1659–1739

A Court Scene

Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian, 1659–1739 · 1700–1739

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Standing figure,Oyster Shells [above]; Elephants Helping Each Other Out of a Trap [below], by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Standing figure,Oyster Shells [above]; Elephants Helping Each Other Out of a Trap [below]

Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605 · 1596 or before

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Elevation of a Candelabra

Elevation of a Candelabra

Artist not stated in the record · 1810–1830

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Carpet

Carpet

Artist not stated in the record · late 19th century

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. HTTP 403 from collectionapi.metmuseum.org. No records from this archive are shown for this query.Unavailable
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 2914068 matched · 40 examined · 5 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 2026-08-28 14:54 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.