Public Domain Image DVD – Jessie Willcox Smith

Full Description

All products are now digital download only

This fabulous DVD features 220 great quality full-colour Jessie Willcox Smith pictures.

The images, which are in jpeg format, can be used for practically anything you want to!

All of the images on this disc are out of copyright and in the public domain in the UK, US and all countries that follow the same copyright rules, and therefore can be used as many times as you like without paying any royalties or commissions to anyone!

Wow!  That could mean a whole new business for you with very little outlay – just think of the possibilities!

The images were scanned at 300 dpi. All but 3 of the images are over 1000px wide, the largest being 2790×4170.

This updated version also features improved image names and improved picture size/quality on several pictures.

Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935) was a lady determined to succeed in a male-dominated world.  She was originally training to be a kindergarten teacher but began painting after acting as chaperon in an art lesson given by her female cousin to a male pupil.  She took part in the lesson and discovered that she had a flair for it, so much so that she ended her teacher-training and enrolled in the School of Design for Women.  She soon realised that the school had little to offer her that would prepare her for an art career so she transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from where she began her career as an illustrator.

She quickly established that she couldn’t survive doing freelance work alone so she went to work in the advertising department of the Ladies’ Home Journal.  The turning point in her career came following participation in the first ever illustration class offered by the Drexel Institute of Arts and Sciences in Philadelphia.  This class was being taught by the master of illustration, Howard Pyle.

Pyle impressed upon her the need to become involved in the story and characters that she was painting. Jessie became his most successful female student.  In 1898 she quit her job at the Ladies’ Home Journal to concentrate on her career as an illustrator.  She quickly began to work for some of the leading periodicals of the period such as Collier’s, Scribner’s Magazine and Century amongst others.

Although many of her pictures depict the joy of motherhood and childhood, Jessie never actually married. Her lifelong goal was to be a successful artist.  Most of the big children’s books of the time were illustrated by men – the work of women generally appeared in the lesser-known books that just couldn’t compete with the very successful titles.  Time and time again the most prestigious assignments were given to men, so when a woman embarked on a career as an illustrator, her future was uncertain.

Jessie Willcox Smith was one woman who did break into this male-dominated world which was an immense accomplishment.  

Jessie’s works include 15 years working for Good Housekeeping magazine, her work appearing on more than 180 covers (likely earning about a quarter of a million dollars for this work); Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water Babies’; Joanna Spyri’s ‘Heidi’; Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’; Clement C. Moore’s ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ and Charles Dickens’s ‘Dickens Children’.

You can find a full biography of Jessie Willcox Smith in our blog.

The pictures are all fully named with the artist name and dates, publication it’s taken from with date as well as the name of the picture/description, eg.

Willcox Smith, Jessie (1863-1935) – A Child’s Book of Modern Stories – Alice Knitting

The disc also includes a comprehensive article about the copyright rules in both the UK and the US and how they affect each other.  Not only will you be able to understand the rules that put these pictures into the public domain, but it will also arm you with the knowledge so that you can decide if other pictures can be freely used in the same way.

Just think what you could create with these images …….

Motifs, pyramage, decoupage and backgrounds for card-making and scrapbooking

Designers out there, why use all your precious time working on your own designs to sell on other sites when you can create products using the images on this disc?  

Add borders to make motifs, cut out the pictures on your graphics programme to make pyramage and decoupage or repeat the image over a sheet to make backgrounds.  

Prints and postcards

It’s so easy to take any image and resize it as necessary to create prints, postcards and more.  Just working from home you can print the images onto good quality paper, card or photo paper for re-sale on EBay, websites or on a market stall or fundraising event.

Pop the completed print into a film-fronted bag together with a piece of card to support it and you’re done. Instant product at very little cost.

Or why not buy some cheap mounts to put your prints into which add so much value to your finished product for very little additional cost. 

Notelets, tags and bookmarks

Make notelets, complete greetings cards, tags and bookmarks using the images on this disc.  Designers can use these images on items for re-sale or make the items and print them yourself for sale on websites, EBay or at fundraising events.  Packs of mixed notelets/greetings cards using different designs from the same range look fabulous and sell really well.

Calendars, notebooks, stationery and place-mats

Produce your own calendars, notebooks, stationery and even place-mats simply yourself at home – or go into bigger production and get a printer to do it for you.  There is no limit to the amount of times these images can be reproduced.

T-shirts, mugs, key-rings, jigsaws, fridge magnets, mouse-mats and more

So many small businesses can make the most of images on this disc.  Why not use this opportunity to get your own business started producing t-shirts, mugs, key-rings, fridge-magnets, mouse-mats and other promotional goods.

Illustrations on this disc are from the following books:-

A Child’s Book of Country Stories 1925
A Child’s Book of Modern Stories (2 images)
A Child’s Book of Old Verses 1910 (7 images)
A Child’s Book of Stories 1911 (6 images)
A Child’s Garden of Verses 1910 (12 images)
A Little Child’s Book of Stories (2 images)
Various advertisements
At the Back of the North Wind 1919 (8 images)
Collier’s Magazine pictures
Dickens’ Children 1912 (10 images)
Dream Blocks 1908 (14 images)
Good Housekeeping Magazine covers (33 images)
Heidi 1922 (11 images)
Little Women 1915
McClure’s Magazine illustrations
Scribners Magazine illustrations
The Bed Time Book 1907 
The Book of the Child 1902 (3 images)
The Everyday Fairy Book 1915 (7 images)
The Goose Girl 1911 
The Little Mother Goose 1918 (12 images)
The Now-a-days Fairy Book 1922 (6 images)
The Princess and the Goblin 1920 (9 images)
The Seven Ages of Childhood 1909  (7 images)
The Water Babies 1916 (12 images)
Twas the Night before Christmas 1912 (12 images) 

Suitable for PC/MAC.

This compilation © Public Domain Image Library.  You can use the images on this disc to make into other products for sale including, but not limited to, all the uses outlined above.  You may not reproduce this DVD as a whole or in part to be sold as raw images on another disc or website or in any way that might be considered competition to ourselves.