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. 23 shown for “Pair of Earrings with Snap-on Covers” — 64 records examined, 19 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-01 15:59 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.
Pair of Earrings with Snap-on Covers

Pair of Earrings with Snap-on Covers

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1882–85

Public domainThe Met
Casket

Casket

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1500

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
One from a Pair of Ear Ornaments (Prakaravapra Kundala)

One from a Pair of Ear Ornaments (Prakaravapra Kundala)

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1st century BCE–1st century CE

Public domainThe Met
White net dress and matching vest with ribbon applique, by Unidentified

White net dress and matching vest with ribbon applique

Unidentified · 1910s

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gold Earring

Gold Earring

Artist not stated in the record · 400–500

Public domainThe Met
Black leather tapered pants worn by Melvin Van Peebles

Black leather tapered pants worn by Melvin Van Peebles

Artist not stated in the record · 2000 - 2010

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gold, garnet, and agate necklace and earrings

Gold, garnet, and agate necklace and earrings

Artist not stated in the record · 1st century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Jewelry Designs, by S.H. Dinglinger

Jewelry Designs

S.H. Dinglinger · 1751

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Pair of gold, garnet, enamel, and glass earrings

Pair of gold, garnet, enamel, and glass earrings

Artist not stated in the record · 2nd century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Bernard Johnson pants worn by Melvin Van Peebles, by Bernard Johnson, American, 1936 - 1997

Bernard Johnson pants worn by Melvin Van Peebles

Bernard Johnson, American, 1936 - 1997 · 2000 - 2010

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Pair of gold earrings with dolphins' heads with emerald, glass, and gold beads

Pair of gold earrings with dolphins' heads with emerald, glass, and gold beads

Artist not stated in the record · 2nd–1st century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Purple velvet coat with fur collar and cuffs, by Stewart & Company, American

Purple velvet coat with fur collar and cuffs

Stewart & Company, American · 1920s-1930s

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
One of a Pair of Crescent-Shaped Earrings with Rosettes

One of a Pair of Crescent-Shaped Earrings with Rosettes

Artist not stated in the record · 12th century

Public domainThe Met
Micro-mosaic

Micro-mosaic

Artist not stated in the record · 1800–1825

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gold earrings with pendant vase and ring

Gold earrings with pendant vase and ring

Artist not stated in the record · 4th–3rd century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Micro-mosaic

Micro-mosaic

Artist not stated in the record · 1800–1825

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Gold Earring

Gold Earring

Artist not stated in the record · 400–500

Public domainThe Met
Brooch and pair of earrings

Brooch and pair of earrings

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1860

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
One of a Pair of Gold Earrings with Garnets

One of a Pair of Gold Earrings with Garnets

Artist not stated in the record · second half 8th century

Public domainThe Met
Creme floral printed cape, by Unidentified

Creme floral printed cape

Unidentified · 1960s-1970s

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
One of a Pair of Crescent-Shaped Earrings with Rosettes

One of a Pair of Crescent-Shaped Earrings with Rosettes

Artist not stated in the record · 12th century

Public domainThe Met
One of a Pair of Covered Confinement Cups

One of a Pair of Covered Confinement Cups

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1760

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
One of a Pair of Gold Earrings with Garnets

One of a Pair of Gold Earrings with Garnets

Artist not stated in the record · second half 8th century

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. 1312 matched · 24 examined · 0 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. 1183 matched · 40 examined · 19 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 15:59 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.