Free to Use and Reuse: Autumn and Halloween

This set of copyright free pictures features activities and scenery from late September through early November. You'll see images related to Halloween and Día de Muertos, the harvesting of crops and leaves changing colors across the United States, and other portrayals of the autumn season from the 1870s to the present day. The selected items are from the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, unless otherwise noted.

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  October's bright blue weather. A good time to read! Poster by Albert M. Bender. Chicago: Illinois WPA Art Project, [between 1936 and 1940].

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  Día de los Muertos sign in a shop window with calaveras, Olvera Street, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2012.

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  Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested. Photo by Jack Delano, Oct. 1940.

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  An array of pumpkins, ready for the autumn customer rush at the Kelp's Pumpkin Patch stand near Nashville in Brown County, Indiana. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Sept. 2016.

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  Autumn. Poster by Penrhyn Stanlaws. [United States, 1907].

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  Autumn scene in rural Pomfret, Connecticut. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2011.

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  Calavera comercial. Broadside with relief etching. Mexico City: Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, 1908. Detail from broadside with a merchant skeleton selling such items as candles and sugar skulls for the Day of the Dead.

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  Cutting Burley tobacco and putting it on sticks to wilt before taking it into the curing and drying barn on the Russell Spears' farm, vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, Sept. 1940.

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  Momijigari. Ukiyo-e woodcut by Yoshitoshi Taiso, [1880s].

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  Farmhouse and small barns in a Monroe County, West Virginia, autumnal rural scene. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2015.

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  Do spirits return? Houdini says no - and proves it. 3 shows in one : magic, illusions, escapes = fraud mediums exposed. Theatrical poster. [United States, approximately 1909].

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  The Haunted Lane. Photo by Melander, 1889.

• Hay stack and automobile of peach pickers, Delta County, Colorado. Photo by Russell Lee, 1940.

• Philipe Aranjo, rehabilitation client, harvesting wheat in Costilla County, Colorado. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, Oct. 1939.

• Autumn on the Wissahickon. W.R. Hallowell, artist. Philadelphia: E.P. & L. Restein, 1880.

• A "pumpkinhead" man, out front for the autumn season at the Maggie Valley Rock Shop, a gem and antiques shop in Maggie Valley, in the Great Smoky Mountain Range of far-western North Carolina. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2017.

• Halloween roller skating carnival On the mall, Central Park. Poster. [New York]: Federal Art Project, 1936.

• [Display of home-canned food]. Color photo, [1941-1945].

• American autumn fruits. Lithograph. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 1875.

• Harper's [for] October. Magazine poster by Edward Penfield, [1894].

• Halloween roller skating carnival Bring your skates: Prizes will be awarded for costumes. Poster by Martin Weitzman. [New York]: Federal Art Project, 1936.

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Transformation. Theatrical poster. Chicago: National Printing & Engraving Co., [1880s].

• Arthur Farnande. Said 8 years old. Picking cranberries by hand, and brother Charlie said he was 9 picking with a scoop. Said they worked from 9 till 5. Location: Hollow Branch Bog, near Wareham, Massachusetts. Photo by Lewis Hine, Sept. 1911.

• Lippincott's [for] October. Magazine poster by William L. Carqueville, 1895.

• Although this photograph of Ingalls Pond, near Hiram in western Maine, was taken a few days before the fall equinox, autumn colors have already made an appearance. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Sept. 2017.

• Crystal McLain's painted 620-pound pumpkin at the annual Pumpkinfest in Damariscotta, Maine. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2017.

• Dracula. Book by Bram Stoker. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1920. General Collections.

• Gathering corn in the field, Pie Town, New Mexico. Photo by Russell Lee, Oct. 1940.

• Autumn scene near Millen in northern Georgia. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Nov. 2013.

• Autumn leaves mazourka. Composed by Miss Mary Gridley, 1874. Music Division

• King's Island theme park in Mason, a northeastern suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, adds spooky Halloween props to its grounds. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2016.

• Eclectic Halloween display, employing elements old and new, spooky and attractive, near the unincorporated town of Little Switzerland, McDowell and Mitchell counties in North Carolina. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Oct. 2016.

• Eight-year-old girl. She is very skillful topping the beets, but this work is very fatiguing and dangerous for such children. Location: Iliff, Colorado. Photo by Lewis Hine, Oct. 1915.

• "Autumn." Poem by Helen Keller, 27 October 1893. Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division

• Autumnal splendor amid the aspens above the highway between Ouray and Silverton along the "Million-Dollar Highway" in San Juan County, Colorado. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Sept. 2015.

• Newmann's wonderful spirit mysteries. Theatrical poster. Newport, Kentucky: Donaldson Litho. Co., [1911?].

• Spooky doorway to a Halloween-season attraction in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Sept. 2014.

• When the leaves are turning. Pillow cover advertisement. Woodcut. [United States], 1906.

• Fall scene in Vermont. Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, [1980-2006].

• A Northern autumn. Photochrom print by Detroit Publishing Co., 1898.

• Halloween: Topics in Chronicling America. Serial & Government Publications Division.

• Halloween & Día de Muertos Resources. American Folklife Center.

• [Bird with autumn foliage]. Chromolithograph. [Boston: Published by L. Prang & Co.], [1873].

• Autumn. Pillow cover advertisement. Chromolithograph. Campbell, Metzger & Jacobson, 1905.

• Autumn on the Lehigh. Chromolithograph. Philadelphia: Jos. Hoover, 1882.