Library Rights and Permissions

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish material that is in the public domain or for which The Huntington does not own the copyright, nor does it charge for such activities. The Huntington Library does ask that researchers identify and cite specific item information when publishing images or quoting from materials held by the Library. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify the copyright holder - if there is one - and obtain necessary permissions.

Quoting or Reproducing Huntington Library Materials

The Huntington is committed to supporting scholarly research and its dissemination through various forms of publication and outreach. While the Library owns the physical objects in its collections, in the majority of cases the Library does not own the intellectual content or copyright and cannot grant or deny permission to publish. Certain works requested that are physically owned by The Huntington may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by The Huntington. Copyright law protects unpublished as well as published materials. The responsibility remains with the requester for determining whether any such intellectual property rights, including moral rights, exist; obtaining all necessary permissions; and guarding against the infringement of those rights that may be held elsewhere.

If the content in question is under copyright, appropriate permissions must be sought from the owner of the rights, unless the intended use is protected by the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law (title 17, United States Code). Some ownership and rights information may be recorded in the Library’s catalog records and finding aids. Questions and requests should be addressed to reference@huntington.org

For the benefit of future researchers and to assist in developing the collection, please inform the Library if you are publishing a substantial portion of a manuscript or an entire letter; or a work that relies upon a Huntington manuscript for its text.

Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is “not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

Other tools exist for researching copyright, including the WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) maintained by the Harry Ransom Center and the University of Reading and the public database at the U.S. Copyright Office, which contains information on all works registered after January 1, 1978.

Additional tools that may be useful are: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, Peter B. Hirtle, the Cornell Copyright Information Center; the Digital Copyright Slider, from the Copyright Advisory Network; and How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work (pdf), from the U.S. Copyright Office.

The Library welcomes information about copyright and related matters pertaining to materials in the collections. If you have such information, or believe that the website and records do not accurately and fully record any applicable restrictions, please email reference@huntington.org.

Crediting and Citing The Huntington

For the benefit of future researchers, we ask that requesters using reproductions of our materials give appropriate credit when quoting from, or reproducing an item in the Huntington collections. Images should be captioned with information about the original source, and quotations should be footnoted. For more information, see citation guidelines.

Inquiries Regarding Art and Botanical Materials

For permission to reproduce images or texts of materials from The Huntington Art Collections, see Art Collections Rights and Reproductions.