Celebrating Flickr Commons’ fifth birthday with 15 of its most popular and striking images
posted Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 5:01 PM EST
Some five years ago, photo-sharing service Flickr launched The Commons in cooperation with the Library of Congress. Since then, 56 libraries, archives and museums from around the globe have added more than 250,000 copyright-free photographs to the catalog.
To celebrate The Commons' fifth birthday, the Library of Congress asked Flickr Common contributors to share their most popular and/or interesting photos.
Tons of great historical photos were included among the nominations, and we've whittled down the selections to 15 of our favorites below. Our picks include "Rosie the Riveter," which is one of the most popular Commons images of all time, with over 200,000 views.
Operating a Hand Drill at Vultee-Nashville, Woman is Working on a “Vengeance” Dive Bomber, Tennessee. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer, 1943.
The Eagle Nebula (M16): Peering Into the Pillars of Creation (A nearby star-forming region about 7,000 light years from Earth), 2008.
Richard M. Nixon and Elvis Presley at the White House, 1970.
Los Angeles beaches, date unknown.
Soldier's comrades watching him as he sleeps, Thievpal, France, during World War I, 1918.
Eénwielige motorfiets / One wheel motor cycle, 1930.
Mercury 7, Autographed by Astronauts to Ed Heinemann, 1959.
PSA Flight Attendants, date unknown.
Portrait of Albert Einstein and Others (1879-1955), Physicist, 1931.
The Fifties in 3D, 1951.
Man and child, 1910.
McDonnell Douglas : F/A-18C : Hornet, 2000.
Woman in bathing suit at edge of stream near Paradise Glacier ice cave, Mount Rainier National Park, 1925.
The Big Three at Yalta, 1945.
An American soldier with a joey, 1942
(Via Buzzfeed)