Sometimes I’ll check the Library of Congress sit to see what’s in the digital photograph catalog, and recently I found some collections of photographs, texts, and recordings called American Memory which includes free digital files (jpegs and/or tiffs) of many well-known photographs, some of which are in the public domain. I printed out one on my Epson 2400, and the quality was great.
If you do a search for ‘Walker Evans’, click on ‘Gallery View’, you’ll get thumbnails of photographs he did while working for the Works Progress Admnistration, all of which are in the public domain. Ansel Adams’s photo essay on Japanese-Americans interned during WWII, is given an online exhibition. After reading Adams’s books on photography, it’s almost heretical to download scans of his negatives and print them out as I please. But, this particular work is in the public domain and, well, I can.
Combing through ‘American Memory‘, I found that it’s an ok place for browsing, but if know what you are looking for, then head over to the LOC’s Prints and photographs online catalog. Search results turned up much more over there. Searches for other WPA photographers that also yield results are Dorothea Lange, John Collier, and Russell Lee. 
A beautiful image of David’s tomb probably taken in the early part of the 20th century. (Sorry, but deep links just won’t work. Just search for ‘David’s Tomb’ here.)


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