December 18, 2013
British Library brings its collection of images to Flickr
by Nick Davies
The British Library has recently taken a sizable chunk of its collection to the internet, Nick Clark writes for the Independent, posting more than a million images on Flickr for the public to enjoy.
The historic images include a 19th-century drawing of a sacred Chinese tiger, a photograph of a “typical” American student in 1894 with “stooping head, flat chest and emaciated limbs,” and countless others scanned from 65,000 volumes and posted on Friday. They range from the 17th-19th centuries, meaning that they’re all public domain—and the library is encouraging users to explore and find new uses for them, to “remix and repurpose” the images in creative ways.
Nora McGregor, a curator on the library’s digital research team, says that they hope making these images widely available will help shed light on the ones that remain mysterious. “There are so many images that we don’t really have a great sense of all the gems that are in there,” she told the Independent, adding that with 6.1 million views as of Sunday, “the response has been thrilling.”
Here are some examples of the images that were added last week:
Through Masai Land. Third Edition.
L’Algérie, Ouvrage illustré, etc.
Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y islas de Tierra Firme … La publica con un atlas, notas, y ilustraciones J.F. Ramirez, etc.
Manners and Customs of the ancient Egyptians, … Illustrated by drawings, etc. 3 vol. (A second series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. 3 vol.)” by WILKINSON, John Gardner
The Coming of Father Christmas” by MANNING, Eliza F.
Nick Davies is a publicist at Melville House.