Faded Page
fadedpage.com
Canadian volunteer project digitizing out-of-copyright books, particularly strong in early 20th century fiction.
Why it is useful
Focuses specifically on Canadian copyright law, which differs from US law — many books are public domain in Canada before they are in the US. The volunteer proofreading process produces higher quality text than automated OCR projects.
More in Archives
Other archives you might not have heard of.
- MusopenA nonprofit that records and releases public domain classical music with no performance rights restrictions — providing free sheet music, recordings, and textbooks for composers, educators, and filmmakers.
- Rijksmuseum CollectionThe Rijksmuseum's online collection of Dutch art and history, including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, with high-resolution images of public-domain pieces.
- Prelinger ArchivesCollection of 6,000 advertising, educational, and industrial films from the 20th century, all free to download.
- The Avalon ProjectYale Law School archive of primary legal and historical documents from ancient times to the present, fully searchable and free.
- David Rumsey Map CollectionA very large online collection of historical maps, many georeferenced so you can overlay them on a modern map of the same place.
- The Old NetA proxy that fetches archived websites through period-accurate browser rendering, letting you browse the web as it looked in any year between 1990 and 2020 — with original fonts, colors, and broken image placeholders.