Another nifty thing for my historical & medieval-minded friends

[make_your_move]

The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery and Arthur M. Sackler gallery have digitized 40,000 pieces of art and are making them available for free on the web - http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/default.cfm

Comments

[grail76]

Very cool.

[musicman]

This is a global trend, after court cases challenging museums that had been claiming copyright on works of art that are now in the public domain. Smithsonian, funded in part by the US government, has been very proprietorial with their collection, charging ever higher fees for photographing pieces, or even for making the collection accessible for study. Good for them for following through and making the works available to all.