Check Your URL!
Read below to be sure you are on the right page for information about your image.
- If the URL of the image begins with https://art.library.georgetown.edu, you are on the correct page for copyright information.
- If the URL of the image begins with https://repository.library.georgetown.edu, go to Digital Georgetown - Copyright Information
- If the URL of the image begins with https://library.georgetown.edu, go to Library Images Use Policy for copyright information.
Introduction
The online Georgetown University Art Collection makes available to a broad audience the rich art collections held in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University, including works on paper, paintings, sculpture, and decorative objects. This digital repository provides faculty, students, scholars, and others with access to more than 21,000 records of individual objects held in the Art Collection, about a third of which have accompanying images.
Copyright Status of Materials in the Art Collection
For purposes of copyright, materials in the Art Collection fall into one of two categories:
Materials protected by copyright
In the United States, the copyright term for unpublished materials is the creator's lifetime + 70 years. For 2022, that means that works from creators who died in 1952 or later are still protected by copyright.
Copyright owners hold many exclusive rights, including the right to copy and distribute their works, subject to some important exceptions, such as fair use. Copyrighted materials in the Art Collection are provided for personal study and other fair uses only. If you wish to use copyrighted materials in the Art Collection in any other way, such as publishing the images or posting them online, you will need to obtain permission from the rightsholder. Georgetown University does not own rights to the works in the Art Collection and cannot grant copyright permission for the use these materials.
Materials in the public domain
When the copyright term expires, works enter the public domain and copyright owners no longer hold exclusive rights to their works. In the United States, the copyright term for unpublished materials is the creator's lifetime + 70 years. For 2022, that means that works from creators who died before 1952 are no longer protected by copyright. These materials may be used without permission of the rightsholder since they are no longer protected by copyright.
Note: The copyright terms listed above are for unpublished materials only. For works that have been published, the copyright term is calculated differently depending on when and where the work was published, among other factors. For details, consult Cornell University Library's Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States chart.
Note: If it is not known who created a work or when the creator died, the copyright term is 120 years from the date of creation.
Using Materials in the Art Collection
Copyright
Copyrighted materials in the Art Collection are provided for personal study and other fair uses. If you wish to use materials in the Art Collection other ways, you are solely responsible for determining: the copyright status of the material, who owns the copyright, whether your use is a fair use, and whether permission is required for your proposed use. It is your responsibility to contact the copyright holder for permission, if needed, to respond to any copyright claims that arise from your use.
For more information on copyright law, visit our Copyright at Georgetown University pages:
The United State Copyright Office also has extensive information about copyright law.
Attribution
When you cite material from the Art Collection, please include the following as the source of the material: Georgetown University Art Collection, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, D.C.
Users of images from the Art Collection may not suggest or imply that Georgetown University or the Library has endorsed, approved of, or participated in any projects that include images from the Art Collection.
Obtaining Images
For information on how to request images not currently in the digital repository, or to request a high resolution digital image, please read the Booth Family Center for Special Collections Reproductions FAQ.
Contact Us
- We are eager to learn more about the materials in our collections and request that you share with us any additional information you have about the history, background, and copyright ownership of materials in the Art Collection. Please contact staff at the Booth Family Collections at speccoll@georgetown.edu.
- If you are the copyright owner, please email librarycopyright@georgetown.edu with any questions or concerns about your works. Upon request, we will remove images from the digital repository.
- For other questions or comments, email librarycopyright@georgetown.edu.