Search the Wellcome Collection catalogue (UK). kind='works' for catalogue entries, kind='images' for direct IIIF image hits. Rich in medical/scientific/esoteric/astrological history; mostly CC-BY or Public Domain Mark. No API key.

Fetch a Wellcome work by ID with all associated IIIF image URLs.

Build a direct Wellcome IIIF image URL at any IIIF Image API size ('1200,', ',900', 'full', etc.).

Search the Met Museum (US). Defaults filter to hasImages + isPublicDomain (CC0), so every result is freely usable. 470k+ objects; narrow queries help. No API key.

Fetch a Met object by numeric ID with all image URLs (primary + additionals) and metadata.

Search the Library of Congress (US). Massive collection across photos, manuscripts, prints, maps, newspapers, films. No API key. Use the category param to restrict (e.g. 'photos', 'maps', 'manuscripts').

Fetch a Library of Congress item by full URL (e.g. 'https://www.loc.gov/item/2003663891/'). Returns metadata and all image file URLs.

Search the Smithsonian Open Access (US). 4.5M+ items, defaults to CC0-only images. Requires SMITHSONIAN_API_KEY env var (free, sign up at api.data.gov).

Fetch a Smithsonian object by ID with all image URLs and metadata.

Search Europeana (EU aggregator covering British Library, Rijksmuseum, Louvre, and 4000+ other institutions). Defaults to open-licensed media only. Requires EUROPEANA_API_KEY env var (free, sign up at pro.europeana.eu).

Fetch a Europeana record by ID (e.g. '/2048128/618580'). Requires EUROPEANA_API_KEY.

Download any image URL to a local file path. Parent directories are created automatically. Works with images returned from any of the above sources.