Image Databases

Portrait of Edgar Allen Poe. W.S. Hartshorn.
Daguerreotype, 1848. 
America's First Look into the Camera: Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1838-1864
From the Library of Congress's American Memory project, this collection includes more than 700 photographs, including portraits and architectural photographs. 

AP Images (Associated Press)
Online photo collection of the Associated Press with millions of images dating back more than 100 years. 

ARTstor
Database of many types of images including photographs from a number of museums, libraries and universities. These images are approved for noncommercial educational use.

Early Photography: 1839-1860
Online catalog providing access to nearly 4,000 photographs from the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Print Room of the University of Leiden, and 25 other museums, libraries, and archives in the Netherlands. Search by photographer, title words, or photographic process. 

Flickr: The Commons
Images made available through Flickr's partnership with over 75 cultural institutions around the world.


Muhammed Ali versus Sonny Liston. Donald L. Robinson. 1965. 

George Eastman House: Photography Collections Online
Thousands of photos spanning the history of the medium. Indexed by photographer, subject and technique. 

Helios, Photography Online
The site contains more than 1500 images from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Photography Collection


Segregated Water Fountains. Elliot Erwitt. 1950. 

Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Division
Find images of historic American architecture, events, and people. 

LIFE Photo Archive hosted by Google
Use Google to search all of LIFE magazine's archived photographs, ranging from 1860s to present. 

Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)
Collection of over 12,000 photographs that embrace a wide range of contemporary aesthetics and technologies

New York Public Library Digital Collections
Thousands of photos depicting historic American culture, events and daily life.