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This painting depicts General George Washington in a crowded rowboat crossing an icy river. He is standing, and an American flag flies behind him. — Emanuel Leutze, *Washington Crossing the Delaware* (1851). Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikipedia.

John Gast's American Progress. A woman in flowing gowns hovers over the plains, guiding Native peoples, pioneers, farmers, and trains as she strings telegraph wire. — John Gast, *American Progress* (1872). Autry National Center, via Wikimedia Commons.

Black and white lithograph of black Union soldiers and white Confederate soldiers fighting in close quarters. One white Union officer is above the rest and is gripping his chest. A black Union soldier carries a U.S. flag immediately behind him. — Currier & Ives, The gallant charge of the fifty fourth Massachusetts (colored) regiment: on the rebel works at Fort Wagner, Morris Island, near Charleston, July 18th 1863, and death of Colonel Robt. G. Shaw, 1863. Via Library of Congress.

General Grant, cigar in his mouth, stands near a precipice on a hillside. At least five other men, several of them officers, are also on the hillside. Grant looks to the photo's right, while the other men are looking toward the left of the photo, likely toward a battlefield. — General Grant on Lookout Mountain, 1863. Via Tennessee Virtual Archive.

In the center stands Liberty, wearing a Phrygian cap and a laurel wreath. She is flanked by the figures of Justice (unblindfolded, holding a sword and scales) and Abraham Lincoln. Principal figures (from left to right) are: Confederate president Jefferson Davis (beneath a palm tree about whose trunk winds a poisonous snake), James Buchanan (asleep), his secretary of war John B. Floyd, who was accused of misappropriation of government funds (raking coins into a bag), Justice, Columbia, Lincoln, Gen. Winfield Scott (in military uniform), and various figures exemplifying the generosity and suffering of the Northern citizenry. The left foreground is filled with Confederate soldiers, some of them engaged in tearing the Union flag from the hands of other soldiers. In the background are scenes of war. In contrast, on the right, the sun rises over mountains in the distance beyond a prosperous countryside. — Christopher Kimmel, *The Outbreak of the Rebellion in the United States*, 1861. Via Library of Congress.

Columbia, crowned with stars, and Liberty, wearing a Phrygian cap and holding an American flag, stand on a pedestal in the center. On the pedestal are carved the likenesses of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In front of the pedestal Justice, armed with sword and scales, leads a charge of Union troops toward the right. Immediately behind Justice stands President Andrew Johnson, and behind him Union generals Butler, Grant, and Sherman are visible. A black soldier stands in the foreground and a freed slave kneels before Liberty's pedestal. An eagle bearing thunderbolts flies overhead, also toward the right, where the vanquished Confederates are gathered. Jefferson Davis (holding a sack of money), Robert E. Lee (offering his sword in surrender), and John Wilkes Booth (with a pistol and knife) are prominent among them. In the distance are a leaning palmetto tree with a dead serpent hanging limp from it and (beyond) Fort Sumter flying an American flag. — Christopher Kimmel, *The End of the Rebellion in the United States*, 1865. Via Library of Congress.

Painting "The Last Moments of John Brown," which depicts John Brown kissing an African-American baby as he descends the steps from the jail on his way to the scaffold. — Thomas Hovenden, *The Last Moments of John Brown* (circa 1882-1884). Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Foundation.

Civil War envelope showing woman nursing soldier with message "Lovely woman. We will take care of the brave soldiers who have fought our battles" — Image from Civil War envelope. 1861-1865. Via Library of Congress.

Photograph shows nurse Grace sitting on a rocky ledge. She is wearing dark clothes and a dark bonnet. — Thomas J. Merritt, Grace Babcock, Civil War nurse, sitting atop Lookout Mountain. 1860s. Via Library of Congress.

Man labeled "White League" shaking hands with Ku Klux Klan member over shield illustrated with African American couple with possibly dead baby. In background, man hanging from tree. — Thomas Nast, “The Union as it was / The lost cause, worse than slavery.” *Harper’s Weekly*, v. 18, no. 930 (24 Oct 1874), p. 878. Via Library of Congress.

Because they may be used by the Wassmuth Center in posters at the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, it’s very important that the images you include with your Upstander biography be free of traditional copyright.

Fortunately, it’s fairly simple to find images that are “openly licensed”—meaning they aren’t under traditional copyright. But first, let’s take a look at categories of copyright:

Copyright and the Public Domain

In the U.S., under copyright law, works are either copyrighted or not. If they are not copyrighted, they are considered to be in “the public domain,” and you can use them in any way you wish.

Stanford University offers a good guide with more details on determining whether a work is in the public domain, but here’s the vast majority of what you need to know:

Works published in the U.S. before 1924: In the public domain.
Works published in the U.S. after 1923 but before 1964: Initially copyrighted for 28 years. If not renewed during the 28th year, the work falls into the public domain. (
Works published in the U.S. after 1923 but before March 1, 1989: Generally, if a work was published without copyright notice under the authorization of the copyright owner and the law does not provide an exception for the omission, the work is in the public domain. This category is a bit of a legal minefield, so I encourage you to simply find images published before 1924.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a way for intellectual property owners (the creators of works that would normally be under copyright) to provide more flexible licensing of their work. There are several versions of Creative Commons licenses. You can read more about them at the Creative Commons website.

Finding openly licensed images

There are many places to find images that are in the public domain or that are licensed under Creative Commons. Here are my favorites:

The Library of Congress

Each digitized item in the Library of Congress’s database has rights and access information. Here’s an example from a photo of Harriet Tubman:

Google image search

Google lets you sort images by license. Here’s how:

1. Enter a search term into the search box and hit “enter” or “return” on your keyboard.

2. On the results page, hover over “Settings” just below the search bar. Select “Advanced search” from the drop-down menu:

Google image search results page with Settings drop-down menu highlighting "Advanced search."

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the Advanced Image Search page. In the drop-down menu next to “usage rights,” select “free to use or share.” Then

4. Click the blue “Advanced Search” button at the bottom of the page.

Be sure to double-check the licensing of your image by reading the terms for the website on which it appears. Sometimes Google picks up images that aren’t actually openly licensed.

Creative Commons image search

Creative Commons provides its own image search engine. Use the drop-down menus on the search results page to refine your results.

Flickr

Flickr is a photo-sharing site. Many museums and archives will share images from their collections there. You can also find current photos of historic sites related to your upstander.

1. Simply type a search term into the search bar on the Flickr home page.

2. Open the drop-down menu for “Any license.”

3. Select either “All creative commons” or other appropriate license that indicates images in the public domain (e.g., “No known copyright restrictions” or “U.S. Government works”):

Images for question 3 of the final exam

Creative Commons and finding openly licensed images