Smithsonian Open Access
si.edu/openaccess
Free access to millions of high-resolution images and 3D models from the Smithsonian Institution's collections, all released for unrestricted use.
Why it is useful
Makes the holdings of one of the world's largest museum networks freely downloadable at full resolution with no licensing restrictions — a direct benefit to designers, educators, and researchers. The 3D scans of artifacts are especially rare; few institutions offer this level of access. Covering everything from moon rocks to butterfly specimens, the breadth is unmatched.
More in Archives
Other archives you might not have heard of.
- Standard EbooksA volunteer project that produces carefully formatted, beautifully typeset ebooks of public domain literature — far higher quality than most free ebook sites.
- Wayback MachineBrowse over 800 billion archived web pages spanning decades of internet history.
- Faded PageCanadian volunteer project digitizing out-of-copyright books, particularly strong in early 20th century fiction.
- Perseus Digital LibraryA foundational digital humanities project from Tufts University providing free access to classical Greek and Latin texts with integrated dictionaries and morphological analysis.
- World Digital LibraryUNESCO and Library of Congress project providing free access to rare manuscripts and cultural artifacts worldwide.
- Sounds of the ForestCrowdsourced library of forest sounds from around the world, freely downloadable for any use.