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 “Steelyard Rod with Weight and Hooks” — 64 records examined, 33 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-28 03:09 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.
Steelyard Rod with Weight and Hooks

Steelyard Rod with Weight and Hooks

Artist not stated in the record · 5th–7th century

Public domainThe Met
Cotton scale with weight

Cotton scale with weight

Artist not stated in the record · mid 19th-mid 20th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

Artist not stated in the record · 400–450

Public domainThe Met
Weight hanger

Weight hanger

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1900-1980

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Steelyard Weight with the Bust of Athena

Steelyard Weight with the Bust of Athena

Artist not stated in the record · 350–500

Public domainThe Met
Cotton scale used in South Carolina

Cotton scale used in South Carolina

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1900

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Bronze steelyard and weights

Bronze steelyard and weights

Artist not stated in the record · 4th–6th century CE

Public domainThe Met
Steelyard

Steelyard

Artist not stated in the record · 1840

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Steelyard Weight with the Bust of a Woman

Steelyard Weight with the Bust of a Woman

Artist not stated in the record · 4th century

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Weight in the Shape of a Byzantine Empress

Weight in the Shape of a Byzantine Empress

Artist not stated in the record · 5th century

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Glass weight

Glass weight

Artist not stated in the record · 1st century CE or later

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1900-1980

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova

Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Antonio Canova · 1804–6

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Longcase astronomical regulator, by Ferdinand Berthoud

Longcase astronomical regulator

Ferdinand Berthoud · ca. 1768–70

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Longcase clock with calendar, by Joseph Knibb

Longcase clock with calendar

Joseph Knibb · ca. 1680–85

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Collar Pendant

Collar Pendant

Artist not stated in the record · late 5th–early 6th century

Public domainThe Met
Weight

Weight

Artist not stated in the record · c. 1930

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova

Head of Medusa

Antonio Canova · 1806–7

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. 48 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. 1753012 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 2026-08-28 03:09 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.