The Source
Smithsonian Institute: Open Access Images
By Michael K. Shaffer · Originally published May 2020 · pp. 20–21
Public Domain: “The realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone.” Thanks Merriam-Webster! With the passing of each year, previous works may enter the public domain. For example, as of 2020, works published in 1924 expired unless renewed. In February 2020, the Smithsonian Institute, through its Open Access platform, announced the release of 2.8 million images into the public domain; their collection totals over 155 million objects, and digitization on some of these holdings will continue over the coming years. The Smithsonian plans to release an additional 200,000 images throughout 2020. To learn more about the entire project, visit https://collections.si.edu. Researchers of the American Civil War will benefit from these vibrant images. To begin a search, visit https://collections. si.edu/search/. This page will serve as the foundation, and also highlights specific collections from various repositories within the Smithsonian family of museums and archives. Searching for “Civil War,” using the quotation marks in the search, will produce targeted results. As of mid-March 2020, this search yielded 19,816 results. Users will see several ways to narrow the search results, including by media type, topic, name, culture, language, place, date, etc. The Smithsonian offers the following search tip example, which this writer customized for the subject under study. See additional search instructions at https://collections.si.edu/search/ tutorial.htm#search-tips. Looking for photographs of the Civil War from the 1860s. 1. Use: “Civil War” as your search term, 2. Apply Online Media narrow by column, 3. Apply Type narrow by “Photographs” in the left column, 4. Apply Date narrow by in the left column, look for the 1860s. Applying these parameters reduces the number of results to 1,549. One can determine the next steps based on the scope of the research. For example, select ‘type’ in the left column of the results page and several subcategories open; see the image shown. Select ‘See All’ to open a listing of many categories, which one can sort alphabetically. Many narrowing techniques will result in various findings. This writer, using the search as mentioned above with keywords “Civil War,” and setting the date to the 1860s, then selected ‘online media’ as the image type, ‘Georgia’ as the place and ‘lithograph’ as the subcategory. The result, the image of Atlanta which this writer had not previously seen Many exciting results await your search at the Smithsonian’s Open Access platform. From lithographs, documents, photographs (like this albumen silver print of Colonel John S. Mosby), maps, like the one shown of Fort McAllister, and much more. Take time to explore the collection of the Smithsonian! Next month, we will investigate additional primary sources. Until then, good luck in researching the Civil War! Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, instructor, and a member of the
Society of Civil War Historians, the Historians of the Civil War Western Theater, and the Georgia Association of Historians. Readers may contact him at [email protected], or to request speaking engagements, via his website www.civilwarhistorian.net.
