Image Rights and Reuse

Nearly every photograph on this site was published in the United States before 1930 and is in the public domain. You do not need my permission to use one. What I ask for instead is a credit line, because it helps the next researcher find where a picture came from.

Can I use an image from this site?

Almost certainly yes. I claim no copyright in the public-domain photographs reproduced here, and I am not in a position to grant or withhold permission for them. Use them as you wish.

How should I credit an image?

Where a photographer is known, credit the photographer first:

Alfred Cheney Johnston / billlefurgy.com

Where no photographer is recorded:

billlefurgy.com

If you know the holding institution for a particular print, credit that as well. Several images here are digitised from institutional collections, and those collections deserve the acknowledgment more than I do.

Do you have higher-resolution files?

In some cases, yes, but most often, no. The versions published here are sized for the page, not for print. If you need a larger file for a book, an article, an exhibition or a lecture, write to me and say what it is for; I’ll let you know if I have a high resolution file.

Something here is misidentified (wrong person, wrong date, wrong whatever). Who do I tell?

Tell me. Misattribution is endemic in this field and some of mine are sure to be wrong, too. If you can show that a picture is misidentified, misdated or wrongly credited, I would rather know. Corrections get made and acknowledged.

I believe I hold rights in something published here

Write to me and I will take it down while we sort it out. I do not want to publish anything I am not entitled to publish.