Three women cut a very large birthday cake. The words Happy Birthday are in a floral arrangement on the wall behind them
January 16, 2024

The Commons Turns 16!

Flickr Commons started sixteen years ago today!

“The Commons exists to show you hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives and how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You’re invited to help describe the photographs you discover here, either by adding tags or leaving comments.”

Here’s the Flickr announcement of our initial pilot project with the Library of Congress (and here’s their blog post about the partnership).

A few other milestones got us to where we are today, including George Oates’ return and her research on where the Commons can go, culminating in The launch of the Flickr Foundation. A very sweet birthday indeed.

Greetings, Oreoluwa! Introducing our next 2025 Research Fellow

Oreoluwa Akinyode joins us as our second Research Fellow of 2025, exploring the historic interplay of West African photography and textiles.

Looking for Daybooks in the Archives

Our research lead Fattori McKenna sifted through Flickr Commons for daybooks throughout history to consider what can be gained by keeping a Flickr Foundation daybook.

Four Principles for Reflective Web Archiving

Jill Blackmore Evans returns to put forth four principles for enacting Reflective Web Archiving, to deliver a more responsible, equitable and usable web archive for the future.