Public Work

Public Work is a barebones image search tool that pulls from trusted public domain archives like The MET, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian. You’re not dealing with watermarks, weird licensing rules, or broken museum websites. Just a scrollable wall of high-res, copyright-free content that you can actually use.

It’s all visual. No clutter, no signup, no ads. You type in a word, get a grid of images, and click through to download or hit the original source. It’s refreshingly direct. Nothing gets in your way, which makes it easy to lose an hour hunting for texture references, vintage book covers, or historical oddities to drop into a deck or layout.

Still, it’s not perfect. The search is rough if you’re looking for something specific. You’ll hit a lot of loosely related results, and some of the metadata is either too sparse or just missing. It works best when you’re browsing for inspiration, not doing academic research. But if your project needs public domain visuals and you’re tired of fighting clunky archive sites, Public Work is worth a try.