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. 15 shown for “Peter Lightfoot” — 57 records examined, 37 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-06 02:06 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.
Mary, Queen of Scots led to execution, from "The Art Journal," New Series volume 1, plate 11, page 144, by Peter Lightfoot

Mary, Queen of Scots led to execution, from "The Art Journal," New Series volume 1, plate 11, page 144

Peter Lightfoot · 1875

Public domainThe Met
The Dutchess of Devonshire, by Peter Lightfoot, English, born 1805-died Blurton, England 1885

The Dutchess of Devonshire

Peter Lightfoot, English, born 1805-died Blurton, England 1885

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla

Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla

Artist not stated in the record · 212–217 CE

Public domainThe Met
Turning Point in Freedom Road: The Fight to End Jim Crow Now

Turning Point in Freedom Road: The Fight to End Jim Crow Now

Artist not stated in the record · 1962

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Marble head of a Greek general

Marble head of a Greek general

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

Public domainThe Met
Fucus spiralis L.

Fucus spiralis L.

Artist not stated in the record

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Marble statue of a wounded warrior

Marble statue of a wounded warrior

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 138–181 CE

Public domainThe Met
Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head), by Polykleitos

Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)

Polykleitos · ca. 69–96 CE

Public domainThe Met
Bronze statuette of a philosopher on a lamp stand

Bronze statuette of a philosopher on a lamp stand

Artist not stated in the record · late 1st century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Chalcedony intaglio: Head of Jupiter Ammon

Chalcedony intaglio: Head of Jupiter Ammon

Artist not stated in the record · 1st–3rd century CE

Public domainThe Met
Bronze figure of a boy in Eastern dress

Bronze figure of a boy in Eastern dress

Artist not stated in the record · mid-late 1st century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Marble statue of an old woman

Marble statue of an old woman

Artist not stated in the record · 14–68 CE

Public domainThe Met
Alabaster alabastron (perfume vase)

Alabaster alabastron (perfume vase)

Artist not stated in the record · early 6th century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Limestone Herakles

Limestone Herakles

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 530–520 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Wall painting: Polyphemus and Galatea in a landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase

Wall painting: Polyphemus and Galatea in a landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase

Artist not stated in the record · last decade of the 1st century BCE

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. 17 matched · 17 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. 31131 matched · 40 examined · 37 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.3 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-06 02:06 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.