Openverse: find reusable media and verify the original

Openverse helps discover openly licensed and public-domain images and audio gathered from multiple sources. It is useful early in an editorial process, when you need to compare possible illustrations without already knowing which collection holds them. Search by subject and use the available filters to narrow the kind of material you need. Treat each result as the beginning of a provenance check. Follow the original source, confirm the creator and license, and compare the displayed information with the hosting page. Save the original record URL, download location and attribution details. If you adapt the material, retain a short description of your changes next to the credit. Openverse explicitly does not verify the licensing information of every work or guarantee that automatically generated attribution is complete. Its search also covers selected sources rather than all reusable media on the web. If the source record is missing or contradictory, resolve that uncertainty before publication or use a better-documented alternative.

Editorial review: 2026-09-23. New evidence may change this account.

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