We are a proud member of The Commons on Flickr
The Commons on Flickr is your opportunity to contribute to the world's public collections of visual material. The key goals of The Commons are:
- To show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives.
- To show how your input and knowledge can make these collections even richer.
We participate in The Commons to further our mission to inspire people to learn about, engage with and create media. Before sharing images from our collections, we determine that there are no known copyright restrictions.
» Go straight to our photostream on Flickr
» See all 56 participating institutions
» Read about our additions to The Commons on the Museum Blog
Our photographs in The Commons
We post thematic sets of photographs which we hope will give you some sense of the surprising breadth and diversity of our collections. Each set includes some contextual commentary, and you are invited to help describe the photographs we share in The Commons, either by adding tags or leaving comments. Click on an image below to jump straight to that set on Flickr.
A mixed bag of photographs to mark Australia Day 2013.
A remarkable series of portraits of the mentally ill.
Photographs of photographers to mark The Commons' 5th birthday.
This small set tells the story of our discovery.
A selection of photographs of British Royalty from the National Photography Collection.
A selection of photographs of writers from the National Photography Collection.
A wonderful example of sports photojournalism taken from the Daily Herald photographic archive.
This set marks our acquisition of an historically important album by the eminent British Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
A selection of photographs of writers from the National Photography Collection.
A small selection of photographs which were on display as part of our 2009 exhibition, Baby: Picturing the Ideal Human 1840s to Now.
These photographs of animals and insects demonstrate the breadth of our collection and some of its more intriguing contents.
"There must be thousands of beautiful, hidden photographs like this in the Collection that you have here. This is only the tip of the iceberg."
Inspired by our 2009 exhibition about anthropomorphism and our curious and sometimes troubling relationship with the animal world, Animalism.
Taken from a selection of books which investigate human psychology using physiognomy.
A selection of photographs from two albums produced by the Australian War Records Section.
Twenty photogravures with an introduction by Emerson, published in 1887.
A set of circular snpahots, two and a half inches in diameter.
Photographs taken by a controversial medium and member of the Crewe Circle.
Copyright, reproductions and image licensing
The images which are part of The Commons have no known copyright restrictions, indicating that we are unaware of any current copyright restrictions on the works displayed, either because the term of copyright may have expired and not been renewed, or because we believe no copyright restrictions apply.
For obtaining reproductions of selected images, please visit the Science and Society picture library, which represents the visual collections of the National Media Museum, the Science Museum and the National Railway Museum.