[RKDinOKC]

Was getting artwork for various projects in the mid 90's. There was a huge amount of historical images (photos and scanned paintings) available in several resolutions free from the Library of Congress. If it was not already scanned you sent them a formal request and they would scan it for you for a small fee, but it would take a couple of weeks. It was all available free for use as long as you filed a document stating what publication etc you were using the images for.

Fast forward about 10 years. Only some of the historical images from the Library of Congress are available thru Getty Images. Usage cost the same as any other images Getty provides. There is no more on-line listing of all images in the library of congress you could search and you cannot request images from the Library of Congress any longer. Some of the images that I know were already scanned and had used in the past are not available any longer.