Last month, the New York Public Library released a treasure trove of 180,000 out-of-copyright digitised items – photographs, paintings, letters and manuscripts, maps, posters, sheet-music, and ancient texts – for high-resolution download by the public.
Among them are 177 paintings depicting life in 18th and 19th century India, as well as a copy of The People Of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, a collection of old photographs from the 19th century "prepared under the authority of the Government of India". It contains detailed descriptions of the “races and tribes of Hindustan”.
The digitised items provide a rare glimpse into the architecture, dress, trade and means of transportation in India during that period. Unfortunately, apart from basic captions, the library has neither provided details like artist information nor how these items came into its collection.
"No permission required, no hoops to jump through: just go forth and reuse," said Shana Kimball of the New York Public Library Labs in a statement online. “These changes are intended to facilitate sharing, research and reuse by scholars, artists, educators, technologists, publishers, and Internet users of all kinds,” she said.
Other items released include American poet and essayist Walt Whitman's manuscripts and letters to Thomas Jefferson, the founding father and third president of the United States.
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