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 “Press Pass Worn by Ethel L. Payne” — 61 records examined, 4 dropped by the rights gate.
Archives queried 2026-09-08 21:32 UTC · fetched live for this request
isPublicDomain field is true for this object.metadata_usage.access reads CC0 — a waiver, not an expired term.
The Adoration of the Magi
Joos van Wassenhove · 1472–74

Press Pass Worn by Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1957

Jewelry Elements
Artist not stated in the record · late 14th–16th century

Pinback Button, "Working Press Pass" Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1953

Leaf of a Writing Tablet
Artist not stated in the record · 14th century

Press Badge Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1972

'Otua fefine (deity figure)
Ha'apai Islands artist · Early 19th century

Press Badge Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1976

The Public Viewing David's "Coronation" at the Louvre
Louis Léopold Boilly · 1810

Visitor Badge Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · Late 20th century

Armor Garniture, Probably of King Henry VIII of England (reigned 1509–47)
Royal Workshops at Greenwich · dated 1527

White House Conference Badge Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1965

Mask
Teotihuacan artist(s) · 3rd–7th century

Hat Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · c. 1960

Mask
Teotihuacan artist(s) · 300–600 CE

White House Conference Badge Worn By Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 1965

Mask
Teotihuacan artist(s) · 300–600 CE

Ceremonial Pen Used By President Lyndon Johnson To Sign The Civil Rights Act Of 1964
Artist not stated in the record · 1964

Tupu (pin)
Wari or Inca artist(s) · Before the 16th century

Pin, "Press Pin 1955"
Artist not stated in the record · 1955

Gold Buckle
Artist not stated in the record · 700s

Engraved Metal Bookmark Belonging to Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 20th century

Gold Belt Mount with Loop
Artist not stated in the record · 700s

Hat Box Used by Ethel L. Payne
Artist not stated in the record · 20th century
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. 21 matched · 21 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. 1799938 matched · 40 examined · 4 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 2026-09-08 21:32 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.