Find Free Vintage Images Online
A Guide to Printable Copyright-Free Clip Art and Cards for Crafters
Oct 8, 2009
Free public domain images, especially vintage and Victorian-era artwork, are perfect for making cards, gift tags, mixed media projects, even e-cards. There are many places online to locate public domain images that are free and made available for artists to use for personal decorations and even some commercial projects.
While there are rules and requests regarding the use of these images, these sites welcome their visitors to partake of an impressive range of vintage images and clip art.
Images available include cards and clip art for holidays, birthdays, and special occasions, as well as history and science projects. Illustrations from literature, travel posters, and original advertisements are also included among the copyright-free materials.
Holiday Designs
Greeting cards and gift tags are available for all occasions and holidays at Vintage Holidays and Crafts home site. A site dedicated to promoting free images and affordable vintage art for purchase, the public domain images range from links for printable Halloween masks to sentimental Victorian valentines. With St. Patrick's Day greetings, New Year's cards, and Fourth of July artwork, even less-than-conventional holidays are covered in its artwork range.
Bigger greeting card holidays, such as Christmas or birthdays, have categorized posts, along with popular holiday choices like Halloween. Vintage Holiday Crafts requests that visitors limit the number of items displayed online at any one time; also, that users limit the number used in a single commercial art project. They also stipulate that the images are not to be sold electronically as a bulk collection.
Victorian and Altered Art
Delicate designs and the old-fashioned grace of Victorian images abounds at the The Graphics Fairy's blog. An artist who features her own work on the site, she also offers public domain Victorian-style clip art and images for public use.
Some images have been altered, while others are designed for use as online banners or buttons, but the style is unmistakeably vintage and many of the designs are authentic. While the site requests that you not exploit the free art for profit (and avoid taking non-public domain images from the site), they welcome users to save and modify the Victorian artwork for their websites or projects.
Old-Fashioned Clip Art
Vintage images of all kinds are available at Karen's Whimsy, an artist-run blog and website. The mixed-media artist devotes a section of her website to sharing public domain images and copyright-free illustrations of all kinds. From vintage shamrocks to Shakespearean illustrations, the public domain section runs the gauntlet in creative images. The section is divided into categories, including costumes, science, literature, fairies, holidays, and many more subjects.
With fewer greeting cards and tags available, this public domain section emphasizes clip art and illustrations. A word to the wise for Halloween fans -- the ghosts and ghouls are limited mostly to fairy illustrations and a few historical or literary images. The range of clip art and vintage images of religious art, Christmas, history, and creatures of myth, however, is well worth browsing.
The Creative "Commons"
Much like the popular Morgue Files devoted to stock photos and public domain images, Wiki Commons offers a variety of copyright-free images. Ranging from historical photos to book illustrations, the categories are broad, even with limited artwork within each. Users should take caution, however, since some of the images may be free to the U.S. but still be copyrighted overseas.
Using vintage public domain images wisely, without exploiting them or abusing the request of artists generous enough to make them available, will encourage others to share their unique copyright-free collections online for the benefit of others. Enjoy the old-fashioned charm of these designs made available online for artists, crafters, and vintage image enthusiasts.
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