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 “Seal impression” — 64 records examined, 30 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-27 12:56 UTC · served from cache, not re-queried 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.
Seal impression

Seal impression

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1328–1318 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Miniature Chest of Drawers containing Plaster Seal Impressions

Miniature Chest of Drawers containing Plaster Seal Impressions

Artist not stated in the record · 1840–1860

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal Impression

Seal Impression

Artist not stated in the record · 8th–10th century

Public domainThe Met
3c Washington top sheet margin strip of four on cover

3c Washington top sheet margin strip of four on cover

Artist not stated in the record · June 24, 1856

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal Impression

Seal Impression

Artist not stated in the record · 8th–10th century

Public domainThe Met
Kyoto ware tea bowl for the New Year, with three impressed seals reading "Shuhei", by Ogata Shuhei (1788-1839)

Kyoto ware tea bowl for the New Year, with three impressed seals reading "Shuhei"

Ogata Shuhei (1788-1839) · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Proto-Cuneiform tablet with seal impressions: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars

Proto-Cuneiform tablet with seal impressions: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 3100–2900 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Tea ceremony water jar, by Eiraku Hozen 永楽保全 (1795-1854)

Tea ceremony water jar

Eiraku Hozen 永楽保全 (1795-1854) · 1827-1843

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal

Seal

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1950 B.C.

Public domainThe Met
Ofuke or Seto ware sake bottle, by Kato Soshiro (1802-1877)

Ofuke or Seto ware sake bottle

Kato Soshiro (1802-1877) · 1831-1868

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fragmentary Seal Impression from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Fragmentary Seal Impression from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1328–1318 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Incense box in the shape of a tanuki

Incense box in the shape of a tanuki

Artist not stated in the record · 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fragmentary Seal Impression from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Fragmentary Seal Impression from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1328–1318 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Letter

Letter

Artist not stated in the record · March 20, 1849

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal Impression Attatched to a Fiber Tie from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Seal Impression Attatched to a Fiber Tie from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1328–1318 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Hypleurochilus loxias Jordan & Seale

Hypleurochilus loxias Jordan & Seale

Artist not stated in the record · 1901

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal Impression Attatched to a Fiber Tie from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Seal Impression Attatched to a Fiber Tie from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1328–1318 BCE

Public domainThe Met
American Postage Meter Company machine head, by American Postage Meter Company

American Postage Meter Company machine head

American Postage Meter Company · 1912

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal

Seal

Artist not stated in the record · 14th century

Public domainThe Met
Bristol-New York Government Packet Service

Bristol-New York Government Packet Service

Artist not stated in the record · May 1711

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Cylinder seal with cultic scene

Cylinder seal with cultic scene

Artist not stated in the record · late 9th–early 8th century BCE

Public domainThe Met
Wind in the courtyard pines, by Formerly attributed to Zhao Boju (ca. 1120s-ca.1162)

Wind in the courtyard pines

Formerly attributed to Zhao Boju (ca. 1120s-ca.1162) · 16th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Seal impression

Seal impression

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1981–1640 B.C.

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. 1111 matched · 24 examined · 1 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. 12410 matched · 40 examined · 29 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.11 shown

These figures describe the pass run at 2026-08-27 12:56 UTC, replayed here rather than repeated. 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.