Early Image

Early Image: A Collection of Illustrations From
Popular Sources Published Prior to 1923

The copyrights on these images have recently expired, so now they're freely available for public use. The page is divided into before KT and after KT sections. (The KT Event was the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs and allowed mammals to take over. )

Now I can put pictures of dinosaurs,


prehistoric mammals,


and lovely scenes from the depths of time,


on my webpage without breaking any laws. Hooray for non-perpetual copyrights!

It looks like there won't be another batch of expired copyrights anytime soon. From the Project Gutenberg page:

1. Works first published before January 1, 1923 with proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date copyright was first secured. Hence, all works whose copyrights were secured before 1923 are now in the public domain.

Works published from 1923-1977 retain copyright for 95 years. No such works will enter the public domain until 2019.

2019??? Jesus.