Question: Is there a website that provides free access to public domain media, including collections from famous institutions and artists?

If you're looking for a website that offers free access to public domain media, PICRYL is a great option. It aggregates a huge collection of public domain images, scans and documents from sources like the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rijksmuseum. PICRYL's AI-powered search engine can find related content, and the site labels its content as either "public domain" or "no known copyright restrictions."

Another good option is Arcanum, which focuses on Eastern European cultural heritage. It's got a big archive of digitized periodicals, historical maps with 3D views, and a Reference Library with hundreds of digitized books and literary works. Some high-resolution map downloads cost a few dollars, but otherwise it's free.

If you're looking for scientific papers, Semantic Scholar is a useful AI-powered research service with more than 219 million papers across many fields. It's got powerful filters for searching, summaries, citation tools and AI-generated definitions. And it's free, no subscription required. That's great for researchers and developers.