Free to Use and Reuse: Maritime Life and Coastal Cities

Scenes related to the sea through shipping, recreation, military, and daily life activities. Marine animals and river waterfronts are also included. Unless otherwise noted, the images are from the Prints & Photographs Division.

Browse more content that is free to use and reuse

• 

  Ship Balclutha, international cargo sailing ship, San Francisco, California. Photo by Jet Lowe, 1988.

• 

  Ship-building, Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts. Engraving by Winslow Homer, 1873. Published in Harper's Weekly.

• 

  Oregon dunes along the Pacific Ocean. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, around 2000.

• 

  African American sailor during the Civil War. Photo by Ball & Thomas, 1861-1865.

• 

  Inuit family, Arctic Regions. Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1899.

• 

  Sea lion, Eumetopias stelleri, male. Color lithograph by L. Prang, 1874.

• 

  Clipper ship Three Brothers, 2972 tons: the largest sailing ship in the world. Colored lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1875.

• 

  Birds eye view of Sixth Street wharf, Washington, D.C. Colored lithograph by Charles Magnus, 1863.

• 

  Women's Life Saving Corps in action. A Red Cross life saving unit, San Francisco. Photo by Lothers & Young, 1922.

• 

  Longshoreman. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo by Edwin Rosskam, 1938.

• 

  Moby Dick or The White Whale by Herman Melville. Title page illustration by Mead Schaeffer, 1922.

• 

  Actiniae - Seeanemonen (Sea anemones). Illustration by Adolf Giltsch after sketch by Ernst Haeckel in Kunstformen der Natur, 1904.

• Hawaii. Photo by Toni Frissell, 1957.

• Portrait of the female pirate. Title page illustration for the novel: Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain, by Maturin Murray Ballou, 1845. Rare Book Division

• Just one long step to Sea Cliff, L.I. (Long Island, New York). Poster, 1936-1939.

• Whale Fishery: Attacking a Right Whale. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, mid-1800s.

• The Ship & Its Furniture. Color lithograph by L. Brechemin and P.S. Duval, mid-1800s. (Naval warship)

• Quartermaster's Wharf, Alexandria, Va. Photo taken during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.

• Bird's eye view of the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Color lithograph by C.N. Drie, 1872.

• At Dock Street wharf, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Engraving by James Louderbach after painting by Schell & Hogan, 1875.

• Sunset in Rockland Harbor, Maine. Chromolithograph by Louis K. Harlow and L. Prang & Co., 1896.

• Galveston disaster, high and dry, schooners on wharf, Texas. Stereograph photo published by M.H. Zahner, 1900.

• South Street and Brooklyn Bridge, New York City. Photochrom print by Detroit Publishing Co., 1901.

• 1902 finds the helm in safe hands. (Teddy Roosevelt steering the ship of state) Chromolithograph by Udo Keppler for the cover of Puck magazine, 1902.

• Thalamophora - Kammerlinge (Foraminifer). Illustration by Adolf Giltsch after sketch by Ernst Haeckel in Kunstformen der Natur, 1904.

• Shows the way they cut the fish in sardine canneries. ... "The salt gits in the cuts an' they ache." Location: Eastport, Maine. Photo by Lewis Hine, 1911.

• Amphibious plane, Florida Keys. Photo by Albert M. Price, around 1920.

• Surf riders, Honolulu. Woodcut by Charles W. Bartlett, 1920.

• U.S.S. Washington battleship - unique bow view, Camden, New Jersey. Photo, 1921.

• Hawaiian canoe in Honolulu harbor. Photo by James .J. Williams, 1922.

• Massachusetts Nautical School. Photo by National Photo Co., 1923.

• Drying whale meat--Hooper Bay, Alaska. Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1929.

• My wharf studio, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Color woodcut by Blanche Lazzell, 1937.

• Newport News, Virginia. A C-3 passenger and cargo boat. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer, 1941.

• Assault boat production for U.S. Marine Corps. Women workers apply preservative waterproof paint to bottom of boat which is nearing completion. Goodyear, Akron, Ohio. Photo by Alfred T. Palmer, 1941.

• Operators of small boats enlist now! U.S. Coast Guard. World War II recruiting poster in New Orleans, Louisiana. By Thomas A. Byrne, 1941-1943.

• Tarpon Springs, Florida. A Greek-American deep sea sponge diver with his helmet. Photo for U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.

• Filming the movie "Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea." Photo by Charlotte Brooks, 1954

• Spectators standing in front of the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner and Carol Moran tugboat at dock, New York City. Photo by Angel Rizzuto, 1959.

• Men working with machinery on the Skipjack atomic submarine (SSN-585). Photo by Thomas H. O'Halloran, 1959

• Beach, boardwalk overall, Ocean City, New Jersey. Photo by John Margolies, 1978.

• Dune preservation experiment, Ocean City, Maryland. Photo by John Margolies, 1985.

• Port dredge basket being hauled with oysters. Kathryn, a two-sail Bateau "Skipjack," Dogwood Harbor, Chesapeake Bay, Tilghman, Maryland. Photo by Jet Lowe, 1997 or 1998.

• Surf fishing from the Hatteras pier on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, about 2000.

• Wooden ship's figureheads are featured at the Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, about 2000.

• S.S. Hurricane Camille after Hurricane Katrina, Gulfport, Mississippi. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2006.

• Seahorse at Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2012.

• Dolphin Fountain, Monterey Bay, California on the Pacific Ocean. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2012.

• A fishery worker processes a catch in Morro Bay on California's Central Coast. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2013.

• With a tugboat's help, a heavy-laden oceangoing container ship plies the busy Savannah River in Savannah, Georgia. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2017.