Image Credits
Attribution and licensing for the 11 portrait icons used on The Public Domain Bird Library. All portraits are pre-1929 U.S. works and unambiguously in the public domain under the 95-year rule.
Last updated: April 26, 2026.
License posture (applies to all entries)
Every portrait below was published before 1929 in the United States, putting each unambiguously in the public domain. No permissions or payments are required for use. Attribution is provided as a courtesy to readers and to the institutional sources that host the scans, not as a legal obligation.
For the underlying legal reference, see the Cornell Copyright Term and Public Domain chart.
NYC and the metro region
Frank M. Chapman (1864–1945)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Frank_Chapman.jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from The World's Work magazine via Internet Archive)
- Original date: No later than 1913
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
C. Hart Merriam (1855–1942)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clinton_Hart_Merriam_cph.3b44758.jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (filename suffix
cph.3b44758indicates Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division origin) - Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
John Burroughs (1837–1921)
- Source URL: loc.gov/resource/det.4a25913/
- Source institution: Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection
- Original date: Between 1900 and 1920
- Author: Detroit Publishing Co. (photographer unknown)
- License: Public domain (Library of Congress marked "no known restrictions on publication"; U.S. work published before 1929)
Mabel Osgood Wright (1859–1934)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mabel_Osgood_Wright_Bird-Lore-v15-crop.jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from Bird-Lore magazine, volume 15)
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
Witmer Stone (1866–1939)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WitmerStone.jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from Bird-Lore magazine)
- Original date: 1916
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
Women in birdwatching
Florence Merriam Bailey (1863–1948)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FlorenceMerriam1904.jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from The Condor: A Magazine of Western Ornithology, Vol. 6, No. 5, September–October 1904; SORA archive at University of New Mexico)
- Original date: 1904
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (pd-old; U.S. work published before 1929)
Olive Thorne Miller / Harriet Mann Miller (1831–1918)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OLIVE_THORNE_MILLER_A_woman_of_the_century_(page_517_crop).jpg
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from A Woman of the Century, page 517, an 1893 biographical encyclopedia of American women edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore)
- Original date: 1893
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
Neltje Blanchan / Nellie Doubleday (1865–1918)
- Source URL: Find a Grave memorial 23523361
- Source institution: Find a Grave (re-hosting a pre-1918 original; original photographer unknown)
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929; Neltje died in 1918)
Cordelia Stanwood (1865–1958)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stanwood1900.png
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from judelamb.com/cordelia-j-stanwood/)
- Original date: 1900 (Stanwood at age 35)
- Author: Unknown photographer
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
Althea Sherman (1853–1943)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Althea_Sherman_1875.png
- Source institution: Wikimedia Commons (originally from Biodiversity Heritage Library)
- Original date: Circa 1875 (Sherman as a student at Oberlin College, age ~22)
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (U.S. work published before 1929)
Margaret Morse Nice (1883–1974)
- Source URL: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Margaret_Morse_Nice (the only file in the category is hosted under a Hebrew filename; Wikipedia's article uses the English-Wikipedia upload)
- Source institution: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
- Author: Unknown
- License: Public domain (this specific portrait pre-1929)