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 “Lime Pot in the Form of an Elephant” — 64 records examined, 20 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-30 07:27 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.
Lime Pot in the Form of an Elephant

Lime Pot in the Form of an Elephant

Artist not stated in the record · late 11th–12th century

Public domainThe Met
Elephant's Head

Elephant's Head

Artist not stated in the record · late 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Covered Lime Pot in the Form of a Rabbit

Covered Lime Pot in the Form of a Rabbit

Artist not stated in the record · second half of the 12th century

Public domainThe Met
Cartoon for cotton printing: Les Fables de La Fontaine, by Hartmann et Fils, Munster, France

Cartoon for cotton printing: Les Fables de La Fontaine

Hartmann et Fils, Munster, France · 1810-1820

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Poporo (lime container) with female figures, by Quimbaya artist(s)

Poporo (lime container) with female figures

Quimbaya artist(s) · 1–600 CE

Public domainThe Met
George III sterling silver coffee pot

George III sterling silver coffee pot

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1800

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Plaque with Saint John the Evangelist

Plaque with Saint John the Evangelist

Artist not stated in the record · early 9th century

Public domainThe Met
Figures and Doodles, by Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900

Figures and Doodles

Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900 · 1848–56

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Plaque with the Descent from the Cross

Plaque with the Descent from the Cross

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1320–40

Public domainThe Met
Proofs for Four Plates of "Alfabeto in Sogno" [Dream Alphabet]: Letter E, by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, 1634 – 1718

Proofs for Four Plates of "Alfabeto in Sogno" [Dream Alphabet]: Letter E

Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, 1634 – 1718 · 1683

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Panel of a Diptych Announcing the Consulship of Justinian

Panel of a Diptych Announcing the Consulship of Justinian

Artist not stated in the record · 521

Public domainThe Met
Deign for a Covered Tureen, by Johann Alois Seethaler, 1796 – 1835

Deign for a Covered Tureen

Johann Alois Seethaler, 1796 – 1835 · 1825–35

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Plaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four Evangelists

Plaque with Agnus Dei on a Cross between Emblems of the Four Evangelists

Artist not stated in the record · 1000–1050

Public domainThe Met
Cavemen Chasing Elephants [above]; The King of Persia Hunting [below], by Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Flemish, 1523–1605

Cavemen Chasing Elephants [above]; The King of Persia Hunting [below]

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

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Teapot in the form of an elephant, by Ralph Wood the Younger

Teapot in the form of an elephant

Ralph Wood the Younger · second half 18th century

Public domainThe Met
Textile

Textile

Artist not stated in the record · 12th–13th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Lime container in the shape of a captive, by Wari artist(s)

Lime container in the shape of a captive

Wari artist(s) · 650–1000 CE

Public domainThe Met
Maharana Raj Singh I observing an elephant fight

Maharana Raj Singh I observing an elephant fight

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1670-1675

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Crucified Christ

Crucified Christ

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1260–80

Public domainThe Met
Wine glass cooler-rinser or jam pot, by Olérys-Laugier Factory, France, founded 1738

Wine glass cooler-rinser or jam pot

Olérys-Laugier Factory, France, founded 1738 · 1739–1749

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Booklet with Scenes of the Passion

Booklet with Scenes of the Passion

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1300 (carving); ca. 1310–20 (painting)

Public domainThe Met
Textile

Textile

Artist not stated in the record · 17th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere

Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1115–20

Public domainThe Met
Designs for Cartouches, by Gilles-Marie Oppenord, French, 1672–1742

Designs for Cartouches

Gilles-Marie Oppenord, French, 1672–1742 · ca. 1900

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. 626 matched · 24 examined · 3 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. 7483687 matched · 40 examined · 17 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 2026-08-30 07:27 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.