Rights & Usage
Information about public use and restrictions on image use, and how to request images of items in the Museum collection.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum creates, organizes, and disseminates a broad range of digital images that document the history of the Museum, its collection, exhibitions, events, people, and activities. High-resolution images or digitized scans do not exist for every item in the museum collection. The Museum is continuously adding new high-quality images to the website; users are encouraged to visit the website frequently to view new image content.
Images of items in the Museum's collection fall into two categories:
- Images of works the Museum believes to be in the public domain, or those to which the Museum waives any copyright it might have
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is committed to making our collections accessible and available. Under our Open Access policy and in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation, any work from the collection not under copyright by the artist or maker is considered in the public domain, is freely available for unrestricted use, and at no cost.
We make images of items from the collection that are in the public domain available for download on our collections portal. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. We do ask that, whenever possible, the museum is credited: Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
- Images of works the Museum knows to be under copyright or other restrictions
What if I can’t download a high-resolution image from the Museum website?
To request an image or digitized file that is not available on the Museum website or a higher-resolution version of an existing image, please use the Image Request Form. A fee will be charged depending on the nature and type of the proposed use and the availability of photography of the images requested. Requests for new photography or digitization are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. New photography or digitization requests will require a minimum of six weeks. Upon approval, additional fees may apply. Please note that the Museum reserves the right to deny any request at its sole discretion. It is the user’s responsibility to determine the current copyright holder and obtain permission from the copyright holder for use of any images from our collection which are still under copyright.
