are historical photos published elsewhere in the public domain?

January 12, 2018 @ 9:48amjudithann says:
Our small library has a website to chroncle history of the area. I have found photos from the late 1800s in various online archives. Are these in the public domain and would I be free to copy them and add them to our website? I would be happy to credit the source.
January 12, 2018 @ 10:33amCarrie says:
The photos are definitely in the public domain, do cite the source. Let the scanning and posting begin!

-Carrie
January 14, 2018 @ 12:25pmcmyers8 says:
I agree with Carrie!

As you are trying to determine the copyright status of works for projects such as these I recommend consulting Peter Hirtle's Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain. It's very useful in helping to identify what works are in the public domain and which my still be protected by copyright.

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