10 Fairies in the Public Domain

Happy Summer Solstice!

This week the Northern Hemisphere is celebrating the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. In honor of the holiday, here are beautiful images of fairies from a variety of CC licensed sources. Discover more fairies in the collections of Europeana, Met Museum, NYPL, and more with our CC Search tool, and don’t forget to sign up for our email list for more great content and announcements from the commons!

“Celtic Fairy Tales” by Selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 1854–1916 New Rochelle, New York), John Dickson Batten (British, 1860–1932), David Nutt (London) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

“Fairy in Irises” by Dora Wheeler (1856–1940) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

“The Story of the Princess of the Blue Pavillion: The Youth of Rum Is Entertained in a Garden by a Fairy and her Maidens”, Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Amir Khusrau Dihlavi” by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi (1253–1325), Muhammad Husain Kashmiri (active ca. 1560–1611), Painting by Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed underCC0 1.0

The Plays of William Shakespeare / Edited and Annotated by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, 1864–1868, https://shakespeareillustration.org/2016/08/01/fairies/

“Female dancer in fairy costume” by Sergey Chekhonin (Russian, 1878–1936)via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

Edward Robert Hughes, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

“Fairy and Crane” by Qing Dynasty via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

“”Fairies Descend to the Chamber of Prince Manohar”, Folio from a Gulshan-i ‘Ishq (Rose Garden of Love)” via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

“The Fairy Queen Takes an Airy Drive in a Light Carriage, a Twelve-in-hand, drawn by Thoroughbred Butterflies” by Richard Doyle (British, London 1824–1883 London), Engraved and printed in color by Edmund Evans (British, Southwark, London 1826–1905 Ventnor, Isle of Wight), Longman, Green, Reader and Dyer (London) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0

Thomas Maybank (British, exh. 1898–1912), “A Moonlight Discovery”. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Moonlight_Dicovery.jpg

And one extra, because we’ve all been there:

The Plays of William Shakespeare / Edited and Annotated by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive