“I have been looking at your website and you have an article from July 2009 by Logan about how to tell if a magazine is in the Public Domain.

You did beautifully all the way through and explained that we would have to get permission from the author once the magazine is Public Domain but I’m interested in the images on the covers of a magazine and that wasn’t explained (as far as I know).

How do we find – for example, in The Country Home (the very image you have in your article)  – how would I find who the artist is if it’s not on the cover itself?

Would that often be somebody who is hired by the publishing company and they don’t sign it? I don’t know how to contact the artist. He’s probably dead – then his family may have rights?

For example, Needlecraft magazine has a very well known artist. His family may have kept the rights even though Needlecraft may or may not be in the Public Domain.

My question again is, how do I know how to contact the artist so that I can find out if the cover art has been renewed for copyright protection or whether it’s now in the Public Domain?”

~ Lynne

Hi Lynne,

Thanks for the excellent question regarding magazine cover art.

Magazine Cover Art is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart as I use Public Domain Magazine Art a LOT myself when creating cover art for my various products.

With well over a century’s worth of magazine art to pull from, I’ve personally found no limit to the amount of wonderful artwork available in Public Domain magazines that can be used to create  a wide range of new products.

The blog post that you are referencing was written specifically with regards to determining the copyright status of a magazine and individual articles within a magazine. This article can be found below…

“How To Tell If A Magazine Is In The Public Domain…”

There’s was one thing you said, “explained that we would have to get permission from the author once the magazine is Public Domain“…

I just want to make sure you understand, if you have determined that an article is truly in the Public Domain, you do NOT have to contact the author of the article to request permission to use.

Regarding magazine cover art, it gets a little trickier sometimes especially if you do not have the magazine in hand, but the same general rules still apply…

First off, if the magazine was published in the U.S. before 1923, there’s no need to research the cover art, it’s in the Public Domain and free for use.

If the magazine was published between 1923-1963, then some copyright research would be involved.

If you are interested in magazine cover art from a magazine published in the U.S., first you must determine whether or not the magazine itself was renewed for copyright protection with the U.S. Copyright Office 28 years after publication ~ if no renewal occurred, then the magazine is in the Public Domain.

Once you’ve determined that the magazine as a whole is in the Public Domain, then you can proceed to determine whether the cover art for that particular magazine is in the Public Domain (yes, it could have been registered / renewed separately as a work of art).

In order to determine the copyright status of the cover art, you have to gain an understanding of who the copyright holder could potentially be.

The fact of the matter is that the rights to the cover art could be held by either the publisher of the magazine or the actual artist that created the cover art.

You have to take it on a case by case basis.

If an artist was hired specifically to create the cover art, it could have gone either way…

In many “work for hire” arrangements it was not uncommon for the artist to give up rights to the cover art to the publisher. Some arrangements allowed the artist to keep the rights. It all depends on the contract that was constructed and signed.

You and I generally have no way of knowing what kind of arrangements were originally made so it’s best to proceed forward with the understanding that either party could own rights and research accordingly.

The first thing to determine if possible is who the artist is / was. If you have the actual magazine in hand, it’s much easier…

The magazine will usually give credit on the title page, or the artist’s signature (if legible) can be found on the cover art itself.

If absolutely no credit is given, that’s usually a pretty good indicator that the publisher owns the copyrights as the art was most likely produced in a work-for-hire situation (but that’s still not necessarily concrete evidence).

Find out who the artist was if at all possible. There are many research resources online that can aid with this.

For example…

http://www.magazineart.org/artists/artistlist.html

There are quite a few databases like this one online that can help with research greatly.

For instance in the listing above, we can find out that the artist that produced the cover art for the May 1932 issue of “The Country Home” magazine (which we referenced in our article HERE, was a gentleman named “Howard Butler”.

A search of the Library of Congress Online Catalog can often times determine who the cover artist was as well although many magazines never bothered to register issues with the Library of Congress or the U.S. Copyright Office so it’s quite possible you’ll find no records of them ever registering for copyright protection (registration was not required to obtain copyright protection for the first 28 year duration, however registering a renewal with the Copyright Office 28 years after publication was required to extend that protection or the work fell into the Public Domain).

If the publisher is still around, you could contact them as well and simply ask who the cover artist was for that particular issue.

Ideally, you’ll want to have both the publisher and the cover artist identified before beginning your copyright research.

Remember, we’ve already verified that the magazine as a whole is in the Public Domain due to failure to renew copyright protection 28 years after publication. Now we have to see if whoever owned the copyrights to the cover art renewed that protection separately (as artwork) 28 years after publication.

Fortunately, this is a fairly easy task…

For cover art published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1950, you’ll want to check the artwork renewals section of the U.S. Copyright Office Catalog of Copyright Entries released in the 28th year after publication of the cover art (make sure to check both sets for that year, Jan-June and July-Dec).

Historically, the renewals of copyright for artwork and photography will be found in “Part 4: Works of Art; Reproductions of Works of Art; Scientific and Technical Drawings and Plastic Works; Photographs; Prints and Illustrations” in the Catalog of Copyright Entries of the year involved.

Recently, scans of these sections of the Catalog of Copyright Entries have started to surface online so you don’t necessarily have to track down the actual printed editions.

Search these sections by both publisher name and artist name. To be thorough, I recommend checking the Catalog of Copyright Entries for the 27th year and 29th year after publication as well.

Checking these sections for an individual renewal is not a daunting task. You’ll find that these sections are short ~ surprisingly little in the way of artwork was ever renewed during these years.

For cover art published in the U.S. between 1950 and 1963, you can conduct searches using the U.S. Copyright Office online database.

Again, search by both publisher and artist name.

You can also search by magazine title.

In either case, if you do locate a renewal record, you’ll find a description of the artwork, the title of the artwork or photo if it has one, and it will also refer to the magazine it was published in, and other relevant info.

Of course, if you do find a renewal, then the cover art is not in the Public Domain and you’ll have to move on.

On the flip side, No Renewal = Public Domain.

The above procedure is how you would determine the copyright status of any illustrations or photographs in a periodical as well.

If you find that the cover art is in the Public Domain, there is no reason to contact the artist or publisher for permission before reusing.

If you do however find evidence that the copyright protection was renewed, then you would need to seek permission from the copyright holder to use the artwork or photo.

Many times, licensing agreements can be reached although many independent publishers find these arrangements cost prohibitive (especially when you consider there is such an abundance of Public Domain artwork out there that it seems silly to have to pay to use something -  just find an alternative).

Hope this helps.

Thanks Lynne!

About The Author:

Logan Andrew is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2001. He is also co-author of "The Public Domain Treasure Hunter's Survival Kit" available here. For more info Logan, click here.

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