My favorite free resources for paper
/I am a purist for the most part for papers. I like to have the originals. AND there are times when I need a little something that I don’t have (really I probably have it and can’t find it) and look for public domain images/documents/plates etc. So many libraries have an online archive. At the time I am posting this the current copyright expiration date is 1927. Please note this does not mean that anything printed in 1927 or before hasn’t had a renewed copyright date. So please check. Here is some reference. https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/
So without getting too into it here is a short list of places I look:
https://archive.org/details/texts
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Old Cig ads: Which selfishly back in the day I had a part in archiving a lot of these. :) A beautiful resource and research group. https://tobacco.stanford.edu/
https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/
I feel like I have more and didn’t bookmark so I will find and update post as I remember. Again please double check copyrights. Also if you are using in your own art and not selling you are good. I just can’t guarantee all things posted on these sites are copyright free. As an artist I only use copyright free stuff in my own art and if I get it off one of these sites I always double check.
And don’t underestimate Etsy. There are so many wonderful paper people who have unique and beautiful digitals. Of course those are paid.
Also if you have sources please comment. We all want to know!
Have fun!
