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. 17 shown for “Reading glass with two lenses (loupe)” — 64 records examined, 37 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-03 07:49 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.
Reading glass with two lenses (loupe)

Reading glass with two lenses (loupe)

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1780

Public domainThe Met
Bootsy Collins style star-shaped mirrored lens sunglasses

Bootsy Collins style star-shaped mirrored lens sunglasses

Artist not stated in the record · 1993-2013

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet), by Martin Carlin

Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet)

Martin Carlin · ca. 1776

Public domainThe Met
Stereoscope, by A. Mattey, French, founded 1872

Stereoscope

A. Mattey, French, founded 1872 · 1905-1920

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Processional Cross

Processional Cross

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1150–75

Public domainThe Met
Eyeglasses from Mae's Millinery Shop

Eyeglasses from Mae's Millinery Shop

Artist not stated in the record · 1941-1994

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Panel with Byzantine Ivory Carving of the Crucifixion

Panel with Byzantine Ivory Carving of the Crucifixion

Artist not stated in the record · 10th century (ivory); late 11th century (setting)

Public domainThe Met
Glasses of Henry W. Dennis with eyeglass case

Glasses of Henry W. Dennis with eyeglass case

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

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Palepai maju (ceremonial banner), by Paminggir artists

Palepai maju (ceremonial banner)

Paminggir artists · 18th–19th century

Public domainThe Met
Le loup et l'agneau, by Jean-Baptiste Huët, French, 1745–1811

Le loup et l'agneau

Jean-Baptiste Huët, French, 1745–1811 · ca. 1802

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Relief with the Annunciation

Relief with the Annunciation

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1180–1200

Public domainThe Met
Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, by Pieter Claesz

Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill

Pieter Claesz · 1628

Public domainThe Met
Bowl Fragments with Menorah, Shofar, and Torah Ark

Bowl Fragments with Menorah, Shofar, and Torah Ark

Artist not stated in the record · 300–350

Public domainThe Met
Glass beaker with inscription

Glass beaker with inscription

Artist not stated in the record · 1st half of 1st century CE

Public domainThe Met
Glass beaker with cut inscription

Glass beaker with cut inscription

Artist not stated in the record · 4th century CE

Public domainThe Met
Glass beaker with inscription

Glass beaker with inscription

Artist not stated in the record · 1st century CE

Public domainThe Met
Glass bowl with inscription

Glass bowl with inscription

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

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. 180 matched · 24 examined · 2 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. 342544 matched · 40 examined · 35 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.5 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-03 07:49 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.