Research Guides: Find &amp; Using Images: History

General Historical Images

British Cartoon Archive
University of Kent's collection of over 130,000 editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons. Browsable by subject, date, artist, publisher.
British Library Images Online
Historic photographs, maps and other images from the British Library; search by keyword or browse historical events and movements, both fictional and historical.
Images Canada
Historical images from Canadian archives, museums, libraries, and universities.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)
Library of Congress's photographic collections, including Brady-Handy presidential portraits, daguerreotypes, Farm Security Administration photographs, National Photo Company early 20th-century photos of D.C., and more.
LIFE photo archive
Millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
National Archives Online Exhibits
Historical images from the National Archives' Online Exhibits. Includes 20th century photographs and photographers, workplaces of the 19th and 20th centuries, historical panoramic photography, and more. Browse by topic, time period, or search by keyword.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery
Over 337,000 images digitized from primary sources and print rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including photographs on a variety of subjects and covering different time periods.
Trove
Historical and contemporary images of Australia, from the National Library of Australia and other participants.
Smithsonian Images
Search over 12 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials.
Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
250,000 digitized images of photographs, textual documents, illuminated manuscripts, maps, works of art, and books from the Beinecke's collections.

Regional History and Special Topics

Calisphere
University of California's gateway to primary sources. Includes thousands of historical images from California cultural institutions, including the UC libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives.
Digital Schomburg: Images of African Americans from the 19th Century
Images from the New York Public Library of the African American experience in the 19th century. Categories of images include Civil War, Cultural Expression, Labor, and Education.
Duke University Library Digital Collections
An extensive collection of photographs, documents, and other materials from Duke Library, with collections in African American history, advertising, women's history and many other areas.
Harp Week - The Presidential Elections 1860-1912
Political cartoons from Harper's Weekly and other publications.
Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
A collection of vessel data sheets created over the past thirty years and a collection of approximately 90,000 images of Great Lakes vessels. This image database is the end product of combining these two data formats into an online tool for researchers.
History of the American West
Over 30,000 photographs of the American West from 1860-1920, drawn from the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library. Search by keyword or browse by topic.
Internet Mission Photography Archive
Historical images from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections in Britain, Norway, Germany, and the United States. Hosted by the University of Southern California, with contributions from the Yale Divinity School.
Lake Erie's Yesterday
Search, browse, and download historic photographs of Lake Erie's western basin.
more...less...
Lake Erie’s Yesterdays (digital photos) is a collection of historic photographs of northwestern Ohio, documenting the local history of the Erie Islands and Lake Erie’s western basin. These black and white images were produced by Sandusky, Ohio, commerical photographer Ernst Niebergall between 1909 and 1915. From ice harvesting and railroads to early aviation and island leisure activities, the Niebergall photographs richly depict the everyday lives and activities of Lake Erie’s southern shoreline residents. The photographs provide a record of communities in transition as old methods gave way to advances in industry and technology. The original photos are part of the Charles E. Frohman Collection at the Manuscripts Division of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.
Ohio Memory
A collaborative digital library project of the Ohio Historical Society and the State Library of Ohio, which includes collections from more than 354 cultural heritage institutions from all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Online Archive of California
Historical images from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Search by keyword or browse by category, including California places, society, and technology
TreasureNet Historical Image Collection
Civil War photographs, and images from the early American West.