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 “Niche Stela with Nebseny Reciting Solar Hymns” — 42 records examined, 3 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-27 06:13 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.
Niche Stela with Nebseny Reciting Solar Hymns

Niche Stela with Nebseny Reciting Solar Hymns

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1504–1396 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Buddhist stele

Buddhist stele

Artist not stated in the record · Dated 564 C. E.

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Statue of Roy Chanting the Solar Hymn Written on His Stela

Statue of Roy Chanting the Solar Hymn Written on His Stela

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1427–1396 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Buddhist stele

Buddhist stele

Artist not stated in the record · dated 511

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Wall Elevation for an Antechamber or Salon, by Louis-Gustave Taraval, French, 1738 – 1794

Wall Elevation for an Antechamber or Salon

Louis-Gustave Taraval, French, 1738 – 1794 · ca. 1785

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Wall Elevation with a Buffet-Niche, by Étienne Charpentier, French, 1707 – after 1792

Wall Elevation with a Buffet-Niche

Étienne Charpentier, French, 1707 – after 1792 · mid- 18th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Nouveau dessein d’une chambre a coucher dont le lit est en niche avec portes de degagemens pour les garderobbes, by Jean Mariette, French, 1660–1742

Nouveau dessein d’une chambre a coucher dont le lit est en niche avec portes de degagemens pour les garderobbes

Jean Mariette, French, 1660–1742 · 1686–1740

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Elevation of Wall with Three Niches, by Richard de Lalonde, French, active 1780–96

Elevation of Wall with Three Niches

Richard de Lalonde, French, active 1780–96 · 1780

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Altro spaccato per longo della stessa bottega, ove si vedonofra le aperture del vestibolo le immense piramide, from Diverse Maniere d'adornare i cammini, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian, 1720–1778

Altro spaccato per longo della stessa bottega, ove si vedonofra le aperture del vestibolo le immense piramide, from Diverse Maniere d'adornare i cammini

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian, 1720–1778 · 1769

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Interior Wall Elevation with a Bed, by Pierre Ranson, French, 1736–1786

Interior Wall Elevation with a Bed

Pierre Ranson, French, 1736–1786 · 1777-79

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Promotional card for a piano recital given by Eunice Waymon (Nina Simone)

Promotional card for a piano recital given by Eunice Waymon (Nina Simone)

Artist not stated in the record · 1954

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gospel Hymns No. 2

Gospel Hymns No. 2

Artist not stated in the record · 1876

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Lit en niche, from Nouveau desseins de Lambris inventees par le Sr Pineau architecte, by Jean Mariette, French, 1660–1742

Lit en niche, from Nouveau desseins de Lambris inventees par le Sr Pineau architecte

Jean Mariette, French, 1660–1742 · ca. 1727

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Design for a Niche with a Buffet, by Thomas Lainé, French, 1682 – 1739

Design for a Niche with a Buffet

Thomas Lainé, French, 1682 – 1739 · late 18th 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. 2 matched · 2 examined · 0 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. 248873 matched · 40 examined · 3 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 2026-08-27 06:13 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.