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Free to Use and Reuse: Natural Disasters

This set offers representative images of avalanches, blizzards, droughts and dust storms, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, heat waves, hurricanes, landslides, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and waterspouts from the 16th to the 21st centuries. The pictures are from the Prints & Photographs Division collections unless otherwise noted. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse

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  Tornado. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1913-1917

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  Tornado. Tirelessly seeking lost ones, New Richmond, Wis., June 12, 1899. Photograph by Keystone, 1899

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  Representation of waterspouts at St. Jago de la Vega in Jamaica. Illustration from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1783

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  Hurricane. Galveston's awful calamity - Gulf tidal wave, September 8th 1900. Print by Kurz & Allison, 1900

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  Hurricane. Galveston disaster, trying to find where their home stood. Photo by M.H. Zahner, 1900

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  Hurricane. Federal Theatre presents "Big Blow" A drama of the hurricane country by Theodore Pratt. Poster by Richard Halls, 1936-1939

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  Hurricane. Barber Shop located in Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana, damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Digital photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2005

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  Flood. The Johnstown calamity. A slightly damaged house. Photo by George Barker, 1889

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  Flood. Where Johnstown was (Pennsylvania). Photo by Filson & Son, 1889

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  Drought victim, girl in Duncan Consolidated School in Mississippi, eating cookies with currants, which came from Greece through the Junior Red Cross of that land. Photo by Lewis Hine, 1930 or 1931

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  Drought. Red Cross food orders and free seed for quarter acre garden plots are given white and colored farmers by the Red Cross chapter at Cleveland, Mississippi. Photo by Lewis Hine, 1930 or 1931

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  Heat wave. Notes by Alexander Graham Bell, July 3, 1901

• Heat wave. Licking blocks of ice on a hot day. Photograph by Bain News Service, 1910-1915

• Flood. Arkansas City, Ark., south section, Mississippi. Photo by Ewing, Inc., 1927 May.

• Flood. Mississippi relief work. Twilight time, in the levee at Greenville, Miss., where the only shelter available is a tent, supplied by the Red Cross. Photo by the American National Red Cross, 1926 or 1927

• Earthquake. Circum-Pacific seismic potential, 1989-1999. Map by the U.S. Geological Survey, [1991?] Geography & Map Division

• Earthquake. On the ruins (April 1906), Chinatown, San Francisco. Photo by Arnold Genthe, 1906

• Earthquake. The Fire on Market Street, San Francisco. Photo by unidentified photographer, 1906

• After the earthquake - frame houses tumbled from their foundations, San Francisco Disaster, U.S.A. Photo by H.C. White, 1907

• Earthquake. Block of burned buildings in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake with fire truck spraying water on them. Photograph by unidentified photographer, 1906.

• Earthquake. Bird's-eye-view of ruins of San Francisco from captive airship. Photo by George R. Lawrence, 1906

• Dust storm. Buried farm machinery. Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1936.

• Dust storm. One of South Dakota's "black blizzards." Photograph by Rosebud Photo, 1934

• Volcano. Katmai Volcano in eruption, Alaska. Photograph by M. Horner, 1913

• Avalanche of snow across railroad tracks, Alaska. Photograph by unidentified photographer, around 1900

• Fire. Remnants of a previous forest fire in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Carol M. Highmith, 2015

• Fire wrecks a forest. Poster, 1936-1939

• Forest fire fighter. Para-fireman. This parachutist fights timber fires for the U.S. Forest Service. Much of his equipment is similar to that used at the battlefronts, since he encounters many of the same perils. Photo by U.S. Forest Service, 1943 or 1944

• Blizzard. New York City. Blizzard of 1888. Photo by C.H. Jordan

• Blizzard. Photo by National Photo Co., 1/28/22

• Snow storm. Collapsed roof following snow storm on January 28, 1922, Washington, D.C. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1922

• Landslide. Illustration showing mountain landslide threatening 3 horsemen. Woodcut on vellum by Hans Schaufrerlein, 1517. Rare Book & Special Collections Division