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Researcher guide Last reviewed 

Reuse, citation & access

This archive is built to be cited, harvested, and re-presented in classrooms, exhibits, and downstream platforms. The pages below tell you exactly what you can do with what you find here.

Contents

  1. 01 Rights Rights statements you will see
  2. 02 Citation How to cite the archive
  3. 03 Accessibility Accessibility
  4. 04 Open data APIs & harvesting endpoints
01 Rights

Rights statements you will see

Rights statements in this archive use the international RightsStatements.org vocabulary. The same statements are used by Europeana, DPLA, and most major aggregators — what you see here is portable across the field. A record without a statement is still under rights review: treat it as protected and write to us before reuse.

Full vocabulary at rightsstatements.org

  • 01

    In Copyright

    Copyright is held by an identified party. Personal study and citation under fair use are permitted; reproduction, distribution, or commercial reuse requires permission from the rights holder.

    Permission required
  • 02

    No Copyright — US

    In the public domain in the United States. You may reproduce, adapt, and re-publish freely. Other jurisdictions may differ — please check before redistribution.

    Public domain (US)
  • 03

    Educational Use Permitted

    Permitted for non-commercial educational and research use with credit. Commercial reuse requires written permission from the archive.

    Educational use
  • 04

    Rights Undetermined

    We have not been able to clear rights with confidence. Treat as in copyright until we can confirm otherwise. Tell us what you find — we update statements when evidence comes in.

    Treat as protected
02 Citation

How to cite the archive

Every record page provides a one-click citation in Chicago, APA, and MLA. Use it. Citing primary sources properly is how an archive earns its place in the scholarly record and how it survives platform changes that may rename its URLs.

We mint stable, persistent URLs for every published record. The URL on the share button is the URL you should put in your bibliography — it will not break when we redesign the site.

Example — Chicago

Krakow Ghetto Family Portrait, ca. 1942. Project Witness Digital Archive, record id 7f4a–2c91. Accessed 7 May 2026. https://archive.projectwitness.org/records/7f4a-2c91.

Open the citation menu on any record page to copy the formatted reference.

03 Accessibility

Accessibility

We aim to meet WCAG 2.2 AA. The points below describe how the site is built and the work that remains. This site has not been independently assessed against WCAG 2.2 AA. We do not claim conformance.

  1. 01

    Interactive controls are built to work with a keyboard, with visible focus and a skip-to-content link.

  2. 02

    Image descriptions are added as records are catalogued. Many images do not have a description yet.

  3. 03

    Layouts support right-to-left text and language-specific fonts. We avoid using color alone to convey state.

  4. 04

    Images can be zoomed, and the viewer is built to work with a keyboard.

If you encounter a barrier — even a small one — please write to us at archive@projectwitness.org.

04 Open data

APIs & harvesting endpoints

Our metadata is open and harvestable. Aggregators, researchers, and downstream platforms are welcome to consume the archive without prior arrangement; rate limits are generous and we will lift them on request.

  • OAI-PMH /api/public/oai

    Standards-compliant OAI-PMH 2.0 endpoint with all six verbs, in Dublin Core, Qualified Dublin Core, and EAD, with one set per collection. OAI-PMH is the protocol DPLA, Europeana, and other aggregators use to harvest records.

    Open
  • REST /api/public/*

    Read-only JSON API for browsing records, collections, entities, and exhibits. Documented endpoints with stable shapes.

    Docs
  • Sitemap /sitemap.xml

    Standard XML sitemap with one entry per published record, refreshed on every publish.

    Open
  • IIIF Presentation API 3.0

    Every published image has a IIIF Presentation API 3.0 manifest. Open the manifest in any IIIF viewer — Mirador, Universal Viewer — and the imagery comes with you.

    Built into every record

If you operate an aggregator and want a custom set selector, a higher rate limit, or a heads-up when we add or retire records, please write to us.

Document

Reuse, citation & access

Last reviewed

Correspondence

For all matters concerning rights, citation, accessibility, and data access.

archive@projectwitness.org