I spend a lot of time digging through old books, forgotten collections, and dusty digital corners of the internet looking for vintage illustrations. Over time, I’ve gathered a handful of online archives I return to again and again. These are the places where I’ve found some of my favorite natural history images, illuminated manuscripts, ephemera, and odd little visual treasures.
Many of these sources offer high-resolution, print-ready files. Others are better for browsing and inspiration. One helpful trick is to reverse-image search a low-resolution find. If you upload it to Google Images, you can often track down a sharper scan from a different archive.
Below are my go-to collections, followed by some more niche gems that are wonderful for oddities and ephemera.
National Gallery of Art
https://www.nga.gov/
A wide-ranging collection of fine art with excellent image quality. A great starting point for classical illustrations and paintings.
The Met
https://www.metmuseum.org/
Amazing for sculpture, historical artifacts, and ancient objects.
The Getty
https://www.getty.edu/
Their digital collections are incredible, especially the illuminated manuscripts. If you love decorative borders, calligraphy, and strange medieval creatures, this is a must.
The Graphics Fairy
https://thegraphicsfairy.com/
A huge trove of vintage illustrations. Just keep an eye out, as some of their recent uploads are AI-generated. The older content is fantastic and reliable.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/
One of the best sources for natural history illustration. Many images are high resolution.
The Smithsonian
https://www.si.edu/
A deep archive filled with everything from photographs to scientific drawings.
EK Duncan
https://www.ekduncan.com/
A charming blog full of vintage ephemera, paper dolls, engravings, and all sorts of eclectic Victorian scraps.
Socks Studio
https://socks-studio.com/
A digital curiosity cabinet featuring art, diagrams, and historical oddities. Great for inspiration and unexpected finds.
Agence Eureka
https://bibigreycat.blogspot.com/
A French blog filled with scanned ephemera, typography, and book illustrations.
American Antiquarian Society
https://catalog.mwa.org/
Fantastic for early American prints, newspapers, and 18th–19th century ephemera.
Library of Congress Public Domain Archive
https://loc.getarchive.net/
A huge, searchable public domain collection with everything from maps to posters to photography.