Open source pictures to liven up any website

April 1, 2013 3:11 AM

The Dutch National Archive (Nationaal Archief) can trace its history back to 1802. It's main task is to maintain governmental archives of the Dutch rijksoverheid and its predecessors, as well as similar archives from the province of Zuid-Holland. It also maintains several other collections from non-governmental institutions like the Dutch football association and the Spaarnestad photo collection. Through its work it has amassed a vast pictorial database, parts of which have now been opened up to the public through its own website as well as their Flickr photostreams.

Part of the collection has also been released under Creative Commons licenses as part of the Open Data project. This consists of some 140,000 photos originally made by the Anefo press association, the copyright on which was taken over by the government and gifted to the National Archive.

Apart from the photograph collection, there's also the map and drawing archive available online, some of which are also available under CC licenses.

The National Archive isn't the only Dutch institution to have opened up part of its collection: many more can be found at the Open Data site.

posted by MartinWisse (2 comments total)

My favourite thing in the Nationaal Archief is the enormous collection of photographs by photographer Willem van de Poll (wiki link in Dutch). Talented and fascinating photographer who travelled all over the world, the Middle East, wartime Europe, Iceland, etc.

It's thousands of images but the Flickr photostream also has a selection of his photos here.
posted by Bektashi at 3:45 AM on April 1, 2013

I have recently run through nearly all the pics in the archive's Flickr commons stream and there are some really fascinating things, funny, or dark things in there.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:33 AM on April 1, 2013