For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest museum, education and research complex — has released 2.8 million high-resolution images from across its collections onto an open-access online platform for all to use and download free of charge. This means people around the world can use any of these two- and three-dimensional images for their own creative purposes.
Free use of art and literature after a set period of time is a core tenet of U.S. copyright law, which balances the right of creators to be paid for their work with the preservation of cultural artifacts for future generations to use and enjoy.
