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 “Tile with five stems of a papyrus plant” — 64 records examined, 6 dropped by the rights gate.

Archives queried 2026-08-28 17:04 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.
Tile with five stems of a papyrus plant

Tile with five stems of a papyrus plant

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1290–1224 BCE

Public domainThe Met
'Egyptian' Pattern Berry Spoon, by Whiting Manufacturing Company, 1866 – 1926

'Egyptian' Pattern Berry Spoon

Whiting Manufacturing Company, 1866 – 1926 · ca. 1875

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Composite Papyrus Capital

Composite Papyrus Capital

Artist not stated in the record · 380–343 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Tile, by J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works, 1877 – 1883

Tile

J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works, 1877 – 1883 · late 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Tile with papyrus plant

Tile with papyrus plant

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1290–1224 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Tile from a Mihrab (Prayer Niche)

Tile from a Mihrab (Prayer Niche)

Artist not stated in the record · 13th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Tile with a papyrus plant

Tile with a papyrus plant

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1290–1224 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Five chalices, by Giuseppe Barberi, Italian, 1746–1809

Five chalices

Giuseppe Barberi, Italian, 1746–1809 · 1780–1790

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Five Medallion Carpet

Five Medallion Carpet

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1500

Public domainThe Met
Wall tile

Wall tile

Artist not stated in the record · late 16th–early 17th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Base for a Water Pipe (Huqqa) with Irises

Base for a Water Pipe (Huqqa) with Irises

Artist not stated in the record · late 17th century

Public domainThe Met
Wall tile

Wall tile

Artist not stated in the record · late 16th–early 17th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Scarab with Papyrus Motif

Scarab with Papyrus Motif

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1850–1640 B.C.

Public domainThe Met
Worsham-Rockefeller House

Worsham-Rockefeller House

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1880

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Tile From an Inscriptional Frieze

Tile From an Inscriptional Frieze

Artist not stated in the record · dated 707 AH/1308 CE

Public domainThe Met
Tile

Tile

Artist not stated in the record · 18th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Tile from the palace of Ramesses II

Tile from the palace of Ramesses II

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1290–1224 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Designs for Wallpaper and Textiles: Flowers

Designs for Wallpaper and Textiles: Flowers

Artist not stated in the record · 19th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Scarab Incised with Hieroglyph and Papyrus

Scarab Incised with Hieroglyph and Papyrus

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1580–1550 B.C.

Public domainThe Met
Wall tile

Wall tile

Artist not stated in the record · early 17th century

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Tile with fish and lotus flowers in a canal

Tile with fish and lotus flowers in a canal

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1290–1224 BCE

Public domainThe Met
Dish

Dish

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1500

CC0 (public-domain equivalent)Smithsonian
Scarab with Uraeus and Papyrus Plants

Scarab with Uraeus and Papyrus Plants

Artist not stated in the record · ca. 1740–1640 B.C.

Public domainThe Met
Botanical Sketch, Ecuador, by Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900

Botanical Sketch, Ecuador

Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900 · May–August 1857

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. 49 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. 5947118 matched · 40 examined · 2 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 2026-08-28 17:04 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.