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. 16 shown for “Mask of a woman with a large coil of plaited hair” — 64 records examined, 40 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-01 16:54 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.
Mask of a woman with a large coil of plaited hair

Mask of a woman with a large coil of plaited hair

Artist not stated in the record · 117–138 CE

Public domainThe Met
Carte-de-visite of a young woman and two children

Carte-de-visite of a young woman and two children

Artist not stated in the record · 1864 - 1866

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Saddle, Saddle Pad, Stirrups, Rein, Stirrup Straps, Bit and Bridle, Breaststrap, Tassel, and Crupper

Saddle, Saddle Pad, Stirrups, Rein, Stirrup Straps, Bit and Bridle, Breaststrap, Tassel, and Crupper

Artist not stated in the record · 18th–19th century

Public domainThe Met
Chair, by Giuseppe Barberi, Italian, 1746–1809

Chair

Giuseppe Barberi, Italian, 1746–1809 · ca. 1785–1790

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Woman Having Her Hair Combed, by Edgar Degas

Woman Having Her Hair Combed

Edgar Degas · ca. 1886–88

Public domainThe Met
Female Head

Female Head

Artist not stated in the record · 1806

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis

Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis

Artist not stated in the record · 500–550, with modern restoration

Public domainThe Met
Watch chain and stud

Watch chain and stud

Artist not stated in the record · mid-19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Large Oval Storage Basket

Large Oval Storage Basket

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1491–1473 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Architectural woodwork and paneling, by George A. Schastey & Co.

Architectural woodwork and paneling

George A. Schastey & Co. · 1881–82

Public domainThe Met
Portrait of a Woman, by Quinten Massys

Portrait of a Woman

Quinten Massys · ca. 1520

Public domainThe Met
Tunic with Confronting Catfish

Tunic with Confronting Catfish

Artist not stated in the record · 800–850 CE

Public domainThe Met
Marble head of a goddess

Marble head of a goddess

Artist not stated in the record · 4th century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Woman with a Parrot, by Gustave Courbet

Woman with a Parrot

Gustave Courbet · 1866

Public domainThe Met
Abduction of a Sabine Woman, by Giambologna

Abduction of a Sabine Woman

Giambologna · model ca. 1579; cast possibly late 16th century

Public domainThe Met
Miniature tabard

Miniature tabard

Artist not stated in the record · 1600–1700

Public domainThe Met
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. 314 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. 3886840 matched · 40 examined · 36 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.4 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-01 16:54 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.