Ashley,
Below is one more response for you from Anne M. Young Manager of Rights 
and Reproductions at Newfields (formerly the Indianapolis Museum of Art) 
editor of /Rights & Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural 
Institutions /and instructor of our course Rights & Reproductions: 
Guidelines and Best Practices 
http://www.museumstudy.com/courses/course-list/rights-reproductions-guidelines-and-best-practices/
Feel free to contact Anne directly.

-- 
Brad Bredehoft
CEO
Museum Study, LLC
www.MuseumStudy.com



I preface this reply with the note that cannot claim to provide legal 
advice to the specifics of this situation and when in doubt it is 
advisable to seek counsel from a lawyer that knows more about the 
specifics of your institution. That said...my reply...

The museum likely does not/cannot hold copyright to reproductions it 
creates of historic photographs (see /Bridgeman v. Corel/ case in which 
it was outlined that creating “slavish” reproductions of two dimensional 
works does not create a new copyright because you are just creating a 
faithful rendering of the original work). There may still be copyright 
in the original photographs, but that would require a diligent search to 
determine if/when the work was created, published, and registered (and 
re-registered, if applicable) to conclude if it is still under copyright 
or has moved into the public domain. If the original work is in the 
public domain and the museum creates a reproduction of that photograph 
there is not a new copyright created and it in no way adds a copyright 
onto the original work. If the work is in the public domain it is 
available for anyone to use in any way. So, even if the museum purports 
to claim a copyright to its reproduction of the original work, the 
underlying work has no restriction in its use by anyone (i.e., anyone 
can use it for any purpose).

My recommendation would be to not claim a copyright to the reproductions 
of the historic photographs (whether those are public domain or under 
copyright) and in any uses of those photographs to instead seek a credit 
to the holding museum vs. placement of a watermark, which simply 
distorts the image itself. Acknowledgement of the holding institution in 
an adjacent caption or credit would be a preferable route vs. watermarking.

Additional information about a variety of museum uses, determining 
copyright status, use of caption/credit, and fair use of images can be 
found in /Rights & Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions /
(https://aam-us.org/ProductCatalog/Product?ID=5186).

With best regards,
Anne

Anne M. Young
Manager of Rights and Reproductions
Newfields
4000 Michigan Road
Indianapolis, IN 46208
317-923-1331 ext. 171
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On 3/27/2018 2:03 PM, Ashley LaVigne wrote:
> Thank you all for the responses! I will go over all of this and keep doing more reading on my own.
>
> David--Thank you so much for the extra help. I appreciate it immensely!
>
> ALL of your knowledge is welcomed! Thanks again!
>
> Best,
>
> Ashley LaVigne
>
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