Communication Studies: Visual Resources

Getting Started

Flickr: Creative Commons

Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.

Flickr: The Commons

The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world's public photography archives.

Laurier Archives Images

The University Archives collection of digitized photographs, documenting WLU life, people and history.

Google Images (advanced search)

Narrow down your Google Image search results, including by "usage rights."

Wikimedia Commons

Images, video and sound clips from Wikipedia, mostly in the public domain.

Specialized Collections

NOTE: Unless a resource name below is followed by "(library subscription)", the resource is a third party service and the images within it could be subject to license fees and have restricted uses. For questions about image copyright and licensing, please contact the Copyright and Course Resources Team at libcopyright@wlu.ca.

Ad*Access

Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.

Art Images for College Teaching

Art and architecture from ancient to 20th century; also examples of non-western art.

ContentDM Collection of Collections

Images in a wide variety of topics digitized from libraries and museums from around the world.

Early Encounters in North America (library subscription)

Prints, drawings, paintings, maps, bibliographies, letters, and photographs documenting the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534-1850. An advanced image search page is available via the "Images" link under "Find."

Getty Images

Over 50 million images from the Getty stock images, which can be embedded into web pages.

JSTOR (library subscription)

In JSTOR, you can search the captions of images within items in the database. To search for content with images use the “caption” option on the drop-down menu on the Advanced Search page.

LIFE Photo Archive

Historic photographs from the archives of LIFE magazine.

New York Public Library Digital Collections

Photographs, illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, and much more, in areas from art and culture to industry and technology.

North American Indian Thought and Culture (library subscription)

A link to images can be found under "Tables of Contents." Browse different types of images by clicking on the links at the top of the page.

OMuRAA: Online Museum Resources on Asian Art

Gathers together topics image resources from many museums and arts-related educational institutions.

Pics4Learning

Images of diverse topics from American Sign Language, Animals, Art, to Weather and more.

Portrait Gallery of Canada

Images and documentation about people significant to the history and culture of Canada.

Smithsonian Institution - Collection Searching Center

Includes images and resources related to art, design, history, culture, science, and technology from all the Smithsonian libraries, archives, and specialized research units.

Visualizing Cultures

Exploring early-modern and modern China and Japan, material is organized into units addressing cultures of modernization, consumerism, and war and peace.

Wellcome Images

The collection is organized in five broad categories: Illness and Wellness, Life, Culture, Nature, and War;also searchable by historical and/or contemporary times. The Culture section includes Asian and European manuscripts and art.

World Images Kiosk

Images organized into 650 portfolios, including art, literature, theatre, dance, architecture, technology,history, world cultures, cultural interactions, and nature.