Creative Commons images are indispensable for new media types. Much of the visual content for blogs like ANIMAL and many others come from Creative Commons, for instance, and the license allows designers and artists to use preexisting visuals in their work without worrying about copyright.
So it’s exciting that the Wellcome Library, a collection of historical medical media, just released a collection of 100,000 images under Creative Commons. The site where they’re hosted runs slowly — really slowly — but it is a treasure trove, and everything is super hi-res (that image above, an 1815 watercolor by Charles Bell, was 5,000 pixels wide). A few of the coolest things I’ve found on a cursory search are in the gallery above.
(Images: Wellcome Images)
