COMMONSCUT

Commons Cut · Halloween 2026

Free Halloween art you can use tonight

Vintage postcards, dancing skeletons, witches, ghosts and jack-o’-lanterns, every one public domain or CC0, with a free full-size download.

39 images · 6 collections · free to download

Throwing a party this weekend? Every image below comes from a museum or library that marks it public domain, CC0 or free of known restrictions. Print it, project it, put it on an invitation or a cake. Each card links straight to the full-size file and to the archive’s own record, so you can check the rights statement yourself.

8 free images

Vintage Halloween postcards

Halloween greeting postcards from about 1900 to the 1920s.

6 free images

Party scenes and posters

Halloween parties, games and a real 1936 costume-skate poster. Good for invitations, signs and table cards.

  • Halloween Games: A couple at a party, bent over a fortune game, apples at their feet.

    Halloween Games

    Howard Chandler Christy, 1912
    Library of Congress

    A couple at a party, bent over a fortune game, apples at their feet.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Halloween Roller Skating Carnival: "Bring your skates. Come in costume." A Central Park party poster.

    Halloween Roller Skating Carnival

    Federal Art Project, WPA, 1936
    Library of Congress

    "Bring your skates. Come in costume." A Central Park party poster.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Halloween Party at Shafter Migrant Camp: A packed hall at a California camp’s Halloween party.

    Halloween Party at Shafter Migrant Camp

    Dorothea Lange, 1938
    Library of Congress

    A packed hall at a California camp’s Halloween party.

    No known restrictions

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Phil’s Hallowe’en: A story illustration of boys gathered outside a log cabin.

    Phil’s Hallowe’en

    Elizabeth Shippen Green, 1899
    Library of Congress

    A story illustration of boys gathered outside a log cabin.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • A Hallowe’en Vision: Two women in black walk through an autumn field.

    A Hallowe’en Vision

    Alfred Fredericks, 1886
    Library of Congress

    Two women in black walk through an autumn field.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Halloween, Ancient and Modern: A witch on a broom races a witch in an early airplane.

    Halloween, Ancient and Modern

    Clifford K. Berryman, 1909
    Library of Congress

    A witch on a broom races a witch in an early airplane.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov

6 free images

Skeletons and the Dance of Death

From Holbein’s woodcuts to Posada’s calaveras, four centuries of dancing dead.

7 free images

Witches and black cats

Brooms, cauldrons and the two most famous black cats in illustration.

6 free images

Ghosts and yokai

Japanese ghost prints, demon picture books and a Victorian stereograph ghost.

6 free images

Jack-o’-lanterns

Carved pumpkins, the Headless Horseman and an electric jack-o’-lantern from 1906.

  • Halloween: Three boys carving jack-o’-lanterns on a back step.

    Halloween

    Unknown photographer, c. 1917
    Library of Congress

    Three boys carving jack-o’-lanterns on a back step.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Carving the Jack-o’-Lantern: A boy and girl carving a pumpkin in the barn.

    Carving the Jack-o’-Lantern

    Unknown artist, 1872
    Library of Congress

    A boy and girl carving a pumpkin in the barn.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • Jack o’Lantern Lighting Outfit: An ad for electric jack-o’-lantern party lights.

    Jack o’Lantern Lighting Outfit

    Sterling Electrical Mfg. Co. (Mugler), 1906
    Library of Congress

    An ad for electric jack-o’-lantern party lights.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • "I think he looks like a Jack-O’-Lantern": A pen-and-ink story illustration from 1906.

    "I think he looks like a Jack-O’-Lantern"

    F. C. Yohn, 1906
    Library of Congress

    A pen-and-ink story illustration from 1906.

    No known restrictions on publication

    Download freeView the record at loc.gov
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Outline etchings for Irving’s tale of the Headless Horseman.

    The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

    Felix O. C. Darley, 1849 to 1850
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Outline etchings for Irving’s tale of the Headless Horseman.

    Public domain (The Met Open Access)

    Download freeView the record at metmuseum.org
  • The King of Pumpkins: Two onlookers admire a giant pumpkin.

    The King of Pumpkins

    Honoré Daumier, 1865
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Two onlookers admire a giant pumpkin.

    Public domain (The Met Open Access)

    Download freeView the record at metmuseum.org

Use them tonight

Party ideas

  • Last-minute invitations

    Drop a vintage postcard into a text or a printed card. They were made to be mailed for Halloween in the first place.

  • A projector loop

    Put the ghost prints and the Dance of Death woodcuts in a slideshow and run it on a wall or a TV all night.

  • Door and table signs

    Print the 1936 roller skating carnival poster or a Posada skeleton broadside for the front door or the snack table.

  • Costume inspiration

    Goya’s night flyers, Beardsley’s black cat and Oiwa the ghost make costumes nobody else will be wearing.

  • Coloring pages for kids

    The black-and-white woodcuts and Darley’s outline etchings print cleanly as coloring sheets.

  • Game night

    The Christy and Fredericks illustrations show old party games. Copy one and print the picture as the prize card.

How we checked: each record page says public domain, CC0 or no known restrictions, and we list that statement on every card. Postcards hosted on Wikimedia Commons show the source library and the license on the file page. Rights are for the United States and can differ in other countries. This is general information, not legal advice.

From Issue No. 1

What you can (and can’t) use from Dracula and Frankenstein

Both 1931 films enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2027. Here is what becomes free, and what stays protected.

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