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 “Ruth Culver Coleman” — 45 records examined, 30 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-29 11:36 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.
Embroidered coverlet, by Ruth Culver Coleman

Embroidered coverlet

Ruth Culver Coleman · ca. 1760–75

Public domainThe Met
Vaccinium parvifolium Small

Vaccinium parvifolium Small

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Embroidered bed hangings, by Ruth Culver Coleman

Embroidered bed hangings

Ruth Culver Coleman · ca. 1760–75

Public domainThe Met
Sorbus aucuparia L.

Sorbus aucuparia L.

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Pendant Icon: St. George, Virgin and Child Enthroned

Pendant Icon: St. George, Virgin and Child Enthroned

Artist not stated in the record · 18th century

Public domainThe Met
Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir.

Ribes lacustre (Pers.) Poir.

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Viburnum edule (Michx.) Raf.

Viburnum edule (Michx.) Raf.

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Sisyrinchium littorale Greene

Sisyrinchium littorale Greene

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Polypodium glycyrrhiza D.C. Eaton

Polypodium glycyrrhiza D.C. Eaton

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Sorbus gloriosa A. Nelson

Sorbus gloriosa A. Nelson

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Sorbus sitchensis M. Roem.

Sorbus sitchensis M. Roem.

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Acer glabrum var. douglasii (Hook.) Dippel

Acer glabrum var. douglasii (Hook.) Dippel

Artist not stated in the record · 10 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Anaphalis margaritacea (L.) Benth. & Hook. f.

Anaphalis margaritacea (L.) Benth. & Hook. f.

Artist not stated in the record · 14 Sep 1939

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Ammodiscus diai Culver, 1994

Ammodiscus diai Culver, 1994

Artist not stated in the record

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Sorosphaera ? sp Culver

Sorosphaera ? sp Culver

Artist not stated in the record

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. 5 matched · 5 examined · 2 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.3 shown
  • Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field: content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 8346 matched · 40 examined · 28 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 2026-08-29 11:36 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.