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Google Image Search
Google Image Search offers a simple keyword image search with Safe Search filtering settings to block explicit content in images or text. The Advanced Image Search allows for fine-tuning a search in a number of ways.
Reference
Visual Dictionary Online
Explore words in a new way through this online visual dictionary which pairs images with identifying labels. Look up the names for the parts of a medieval suit of armor or a pair of men’s shoes. Each label also offers a verbal definition to clarify its meaning. The Index search locates images by keyword; select from the results list and Go To the image of your choice. The Themes list allows you to explore words by subjects including Astronomy, Plants & Gardening, Arts & Architecture, Energy, and Society.
Collections
Cities Around the World
Cities Around the World presents over 6,100 photographic images from the slide collections of the American Geographical Society Library. The images selected for this project focus on architecture, city life, people, transportation and other aspects of urban development, such as neighborhoods, commercial streets, and business districts.
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
This subset of Google Images allows visitors to search through millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most of the photos were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. The web page includes sample searches demonstrating the use of specific decades to narrow a keyword search to a select time period.
LIFE Photos: Classic Pictures From LIFE Magazine's Archives
"Classic and unpublished photos of the 20th century's major events and public figures from LIFE magazine. Pictures from World War II, the Space Race, Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, Hollywood, sports, science, the arts and more."
NYPL Picture Collection Online
From the New York Public Library, this is a "collection of 30,000 digitized, public domain images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923. It consists of images of New York City, Costume, Design, American History" and more than 12,000 other subjects. It is searchable by "keyword or by browsing a variety of indexes." [Description from Librarians' Internet Index, lii.org] Now includes a link to Historical Postcards of New York City from the Picture Collection at Mid-Manhattan Library.
Unsplash
Over 300,000 free high-resolution photos brought to you by the world's most generous community of photographers.
Art Collections
The Getty Open Content Program
"The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose."
Google Art Project
"Museums large and small, classic and modern, world-renowned and community-based from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture. Some paintings are available in ‘gigapixel’ format, allowing you to zoom in at brushstroke level to examine incredible detail. Use Google Street View to explore the interiors of landmarks such as the Palace of Versailles and The White House. Or, build and share your own virtual art gallery." From Google Cultural Institute.
