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. 24 shown for “Stage Design, Staircases” — 64 records examined, 4 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-09-04 02:15 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.
Staircase from Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire, by Edward Pearce

Staircase from Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire

Edward Pearce · ca. 1677–80

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Staircases

Stage Design, Staircases

Artist not stated in the record · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Stage design with allegorical figures on a staircase; from 'L'Eta Dell'Oro', by Carlo Antonio Forti

Stage design with allegorical figures on a staircase; from 'L'Eta Dell'Oro'

Carlo Antonio Forti · ca. 1690

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design: Staircase in Park

Stage Design: Staircase in Park

Artist not stated in the record · 1650–1700

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Design for a Stage Set: A Dungeon with High Vaults and a Staircase at Right, by Domenico Fossati

Design for a Stage Set: A Dungeon with High Vaults and a Staircase at Right

Domenico Fossati · 1743–84

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Staircase in Palace

Stage Design, Staircase in Palace

Artist not stated in the record · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Design for a theater set created by Giacomo Torelli da Fano for the ballet 'Les Noces de Thétis', from 'Décorations et machines aprestées aux nopces de Tétis, Ballet Royal', by Israel Silvestre

Design for a theater set created by Giacomo Torelli da Fano for the ballet 'Les Noces de Thétis', from 'Décorations et machines aprestées aux nopces de Tétis, Ballet Royal'

Israel Silvestre · 1654

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Staircase in a Half-Ruined Building

Stage Design, Staircase in a Half-Ruined Building

Artist not stated in the record · 18th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Design for a theater set created by Giacomo Torelli da Fano for the ballet 'Les Noces de Thétis', from 'Décorations et machines aprestées aux nopces de Tétis, Ballet Royal', by Israel Silvestre

Design for a theater set created by Giacomo Torelli da Fano for the ballet 'Les Noces de Thétis', from 'Décorations et machines aprestées aux nopces de Tétis, Ballet Royal'

Israel Silvestre · 1654

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design: Staircase with Sculptures

Stage Design: Staircase with Sculptures

Artist not stated in the record · late 17th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Theatrical scene with four figures on a staircase in the distance, two of which are engaged in a brawl, by Mathäus Küsel

Theatrical scene with four figures on a staircase in the distance, two of which are engaged in a brawl

Mathäus Küsel · ca. 1660–82

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Portico with Staircase

Stage Design, Portico with Staircase

Artist not stated in the record · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Portrait of a Woman, by Quinten Massys

Portrait of a Woman

Quinten Massys · ca. 1520

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design: Two Palace Staircases, by Domenico Scelzo, Italian, active ca. 1775 - 1800

Stage Design: Two Palace Staircases

Domenico Scelzo, Italian, active ca. 1775 - 1800 · 1770–1780

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
The Harvesters, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Harvesters

Pieter Bruegel the Elder · 1565

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Interior of Palace Staircase

Stage Design, Interior of Palace Staircase

Artist not stated in the record · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Stage Design, with Four other Drawings, by Tranquillo Orsi

Stage Design, with Four other Drawings

Tranquillo Orsi

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Palace Courtyards and Staircases

Stage Design, Palace Courtyards and Staircases

Artist not stated in the record · early 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Fish Market, by Joachim Beuckelaer

Fish Market

Joachim Beuckelaer · 1568

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design; Palace Courtyard with Staircase

Stage Design; Palace Courtyard with Staircase

Artist not stated in the record · 18th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Stage Set Design, by Anonymous, Italian, 18th century

Stage Set Design

Anonymous, Italian, 18th century · 18th century

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design: Proscenium and Palace Staircase, by Girolamo Fontana, Italian, 1668 - 1701

Stage Design: Proscenium and Palace Staircase

Girolamo Fontana, Italian, 1668 - 1701 · 1690–1710

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Archways, Design for Stage, by Anonymous, Italian, 18th century

Archways, Design for Stage

Anonymous, Italian, 18th century · 18th century

Public domainThe Met
Stage Design, Imaginary City, by Angelo Toselli, ca. 1765? – 1826

Stage Design, Imaginary City

Angelo Toselli, ca. 1765? – 1826 · early 19th century

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. 1246 matched · 24 examined · 4 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. 647138 matched · 40 examined · 0 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 2026-09-04 02:15 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.