Biodiversity Heritage Library
biodiversitylibrary.org
Every natural history book, scanned by the world's museums
Deep Archives
Millions of museum objects, released with no restrictions
si.edu
Rabbit hole · Best on desktop
Free, no sign-up · online since 2020
The Smithsonian released millions of images and 3D scans from its museums, research centres and the National Zoo into the public domain, covering dinosaur bones, Apollo hardware, insect specimens and portraiture alike. All of it is searchable in one place and usable without permission.
The 3D scans are the surprise: an Apollo command module or a whale skull can be rotated in the browser and the mesh downloaded if you fancy printing it.
Keep going
Picked for a shared category and overlapping vibe, not for popularity.
biodiversitylibrary.org
Every natural history book, scanned by the world's museums
davidrumsey.com
A hundred thousand old maps, zoomable to the street
indianculture.gov.in
India's national collections, digitised into one place
rekhta.org
The largest Urdu poetry archive, readable in three scripts
rijksmuseum.nl
Download a Vermeer at a resolution you can actually print
themarginalian.org
Two decades of one person reading and taking notes