Every January 1st, Public Domain Day unlocks a new set of creative works that anyone can legally use, remix, adapt, and sell. On January 1, 2026, a large group of works created nearly a century ago will officially enter the public domain in the United States.
For artists, designers, writers, and Etsy sellers, this matters because public domain works can be used commercially without permission or royalties.
This article covers everything that enters the public domain in 2026, based on the full official list, organized by category, with real product ideas you can sell on Etsy.
Main reference:
👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_public_domain
What Enters the Public Domain in 2026 (At a Glance)
On January 1, 2026, the following became public domain in the U.S.:
- 🧑🎨 Art entering public domain
- 📚 Books published in 1930
- 🎬 Films released in 1930
- 📰 Comic strips first published in 1930
- 🎼 Musical compositions published in 1930
- 🎧 Sound recordings released in 1925
- 🧑🎨 Works by authors who died in 1955 (outside the U.S., depending on country)
🖼️ Art & Design
While lists for fine art specifically are less clear than other categories, many visual influences from 1930 and earlier are now free to use. With works entering the public domain, you can:
- Reimagine classic illustrations or period-specific design elements
- Use motifs from vintage posters or book illustrations in patterns
- Incorporate imagery into printable wall art, textile designs, brand elements
And remember — the definition of visual art in public domain isn’t limited to paintings: it includes illustrations, graphic elements, and cartoon styles from this era
Among the well-known works of art entering the public domain are:
- Piet Mondrian‘s painting Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow,
- Paul Klee‘s painting Animal Friendship,
- Sophie Tauber-Arp‘s Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles
- Theo van Doesburg‘s Simultaneous Counter-Composition
- the design of the Jules Rimet Cup
- Edward Steichen‘s photograph Fashion for Vogue
- Edward Weston‘s photograph Pepper No. 30,
- Martin Munkácsi‘s photograph Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika,
- Ansel Adams‘ photobook Taos Pueblo.
- José Clemente Orozco‘s painting Prometheus
- Grant Wood‘s painting American Gothic
📚 Books published in 1930
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1930, films released in 1930, and other works published in 1930, will enter the public domain in 2026. Unpublished works whose authors died in 1955 will also enter the public domain.
The major works of literature that will enter the public domain in 2026 are
- William Faulkner‘s novel As I Lay Dying,
- Dashiell Hammett‘s The Maltese Falcon as a complete novel,
- Agatha Christie‘s first Miss Marple novel The Murder at the Vicarage,
- The original edition of the first Nancy Drew mystery story The Secret of the Old Clock by pseudonymous author Carolyn Keene
- The first Elson-Gray Readers books featuring Dick and Jane by William S. Gray, Noël Coward‘s play Private Lives,
- T. S. Eliot‘s poem “Ash Wednesday“,
- Evelyn Waugh‘s novel Vile Bodies,
- John Dos Passos‘ novel The 42nd Parallel (part of his U.S.A. trilogy),
- Edna Ferber‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Cimarron,
- Dorothy L. Sayers‘ crime novel Strong Poison,
- J. B. Priestly‘s novel Angel Pavement,
- Olaf Stapledon‘s science fiction novel Last and First Men,
- Sigmund Freud‘s book Civilization and Its Discontents in its original German,
- W. Somerset Maugham‘s novel Cakes and Ale,
- Bertrand Russell‘s The Conquest of Happiness, and
- The children’s books The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper,
- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
- The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth.[7]
Other notable literary works of fiction entering the public domain include
- Christie’s other novels The Mysterious Mr. Quin and Giant’s Bread (the latter of which she wrote pseudonymously as “Mary Westmacott”)
- The Documents in the Case co-written by Sayers and Robert Eustace
- John Dickson Carr‘s first detective novel It Walks By Night;
- The mystery and crime novels Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham,
- The French Powder Mystery by Ellery Queen,
- Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris, and The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart
- The original serialized version of Max Brand‘s Destry Rides Again
- The dramas The Green Pastures by Marc Connelly,
- Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and
- The Decision by Bertolt Brecht (the former co-written with Kurt Weill) in their original German,
- The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau in its original French,
- The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolf Besier
- The children’s books The Tale of Little Pig Robinson by Beatrix Potter
- The Yellow Knight of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
- Nancy Drew’s next three stories The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at Lilac Inn;
- The Hardy Boys‘ story The Great Airport Mystery;
- Hart Crane‘s long poem “The Bridge“
- The Collected Poems of Robert Frost;
- W. H. Auden‘s first major poetry collection, simply called Poems;
- The first English translations of Franz Kafka‘s The Castle and Hermann Sudermann‘s The Excursion to Tilsit.
Notable minor nonfiction entrants to the public domain include
William Empson‘s Seven Types of Ambiguity (a foundational work of literary criticism)
Ronald Fisher‘s The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer by Francis Yeats-Brown
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans.
He Done Her Wrong, a wordless novel by Milt Gross
What Etsy sellers can do with public-domain books:
Design typography posters with famous lines
Use quotes (verbatim) in prints, journals, bookmarks
Create modern illustrated editions
Sell summaries, study guides, or reading journals
🐭 Early Comic Strips & Characters
Early comic and animation characters from 1930 become much easier to base new creations on:
- Early Mickey Mouse comic strips (first daily appearances)
- Blondie & Dagwood comic characters
- Flip the Frog and other early animation figures
- Early versions of Betty Boop (e.g., Dizzy Dishes)
- Pluto in his original form (before official name)
⚠️ Important for Etsy sellers:
Only the specific early versions of these characters are public domain. Later designs, names, and branding elements may still be protected by trademark law.
🎬 Films released in 1930
Significant films entering the public domain in 2026 include the following:
- Lewis Milestone‘s All Quiet on the Western Front, the third film to win the Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards;
- Josef von Sternberg‘s The Blue Angel, starring Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich, which launched the latter to international stardom;
- Animal Crackers starring the Marx Brothers;
- the Laurel and Hardy comedy Another Fine Mess;
- Soup to Nuts featuring an early iteration of The Three Stooges;
- Anna Christie, Greta Garbo‘s first sound film;
- Hell’s Angels, an aviation epic directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, which marked the actress’s breakthrough;
- Morocco, also directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, which marked the Hollywood debut of Dietrich (who would go on to make five additional films with the director) and earned four Academy Award nominations;
- the French film L’Âge d’Or (The Golden Age), directed by Luis Buñuel, which enters the U.S. public domain after having been banned in its home country for nearly fifty years;
- George Hill‘s The Big House, starring Chester Morris and Wallace Beery;
- Robert Z. Leonard‘s The Divorcee starring Norma Shearer, which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress;
- Hill’s Min and Bill starring Beery and Marie Dressler;
- The Dawn Patrol, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.;
- Alfred Hitchcock‘s films Juno and the Paycock and Murder!;
- The Big Trail, with John Wayne in his first starring role, which is an early example of a film produced in widescreen format;
- King of Jazz starring Paul Whiteman, which was Bing Crosby‘s film debut and one of the most notable examples of early talkies produced in two-strip Technicolor;
- Robert Siodmak‘s first film People on Sunday with its original German script, written by Billy Wilder;
- René Clair‘s Under the Roofs of Paris in its original French;
- G. W. Pabst‘s Westfront 1918 in its original German;
- John Ford‘s films Up the River and Born Reckless, the former of which was the feature-film debut for both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart;
- F. W. Murnau‘s first American film City Girl;
- Feet First starring Harold Lloyd;
- Journey’s End, the directorial debut of James Whale;
- Frank Capra‘s film Ladies of Leisure;
- Ernst Lubitsch‘s film Monte Carlo, starring Jack Buchanan and Jeanette MacDonald;
- Lloyd Bacon‘s film A Notorious Affair with Billie Dove and Basil Rathbone;
- Roland West‘s film The Bat Whispers, an influential early horror film;
- Frank Borzage‘s film Liliom, the basis for the musical Carousel;
- Whoopee!, an early two-strip Technicolor film featuring Eddie Cantor;
- The Royal Family of Broadway, one of George Cukor‘s first films as a director;
- Cecil B. DeMille‘s film Madam Satan;
- the French film Prix de Beauté (Beauty Prize) starring Louise Brooks;
- Jack Conway‘s The Unholy Three, starring Lon Chaney in his only speaking role and released shortly before the actor’s death;
- the Buster Keaton films Doughboys and Free and Easy (the latter of which gave him his first speaking role);
- King Vidor‘s Billy the Kid starring Beery and Johnny Mack Brown;
- Just Imagine, an early science fiction musical directed by David Butler;
- Manslaughter starring Claudette Colbert and Fredric March;
- Tod Browning‘s film Outside the Law starring Edward G. Robinson;
- The Big Pond starring Maurice Chevalier and Colbert;
- Lightnin’ starring Will Rogers;
- War Nurse, a female-fronted World War I drama starring Anita Page;
- Laughter, directed by Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast and starring March alongside Nancy Carroll, which was critically acclaimed in its own time but is now an overlooked gem among early sound films;
- Follow Thru, directed by Lloyd Corrigan and starring Carroll alongside Charles “Buddy” Rogers, one of the first all-Technicolor sound musicals to be preserved in full color;
- Niebezpieczny romans (Dangerous Romance), the first Polish sound film;
- Tonka of the Gallows, the first Czech sound film;
- The Song of Love, the first Italian sound film;
- Goodbye Argentina, the first Argentinian sound film; and
- the British drama The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, television’s oldest broadcast (which may potentially be lost).
- The 1931 films Little Caesar, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Robinson, and Cimarron, the adaptation of Ferber’s novel and the year’s Best Picture Academy Award winner, will enter the public domain in 2026 instead of 2027 because they were released so early in the year that they carry 1930 copyright registrations instead.
- Dave Fleischer‘s cartoons Dizzy Dishes and Hot Dog
- The respective debuts of Betty Boop and Bimbo
- The 1930 Mickey Mouse cartoons enter the public domain this year as well, bringing with them the design of Pluto, who will enter the public domain through his debut appearance in The Chain Gang (where he was an unnamed prison guard dog), and his second appearance as “Rover” (owned by Minnie Mouse) in The Picnic.
- Also entering the public domain are the Disney studio‘s second year of Silly Symphony shorts, and an Ub Iwerks cartoon character created independently of Disney: Flip the Frog, whose debut film Fiddlesticks was the first sound cartoon in color.
- The initial week of the Mickey Mouse comic strip and the first appearances of Chic Young‘s Blondie
- Hergé‘s first Quick & Flupke comic strips and the full album version of his Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the character‘s debut story, in its original French black-and-white version (accompanied by part of the serialized version of Tintin in the Congo).
How Etsy sellers can use public-domain films:
- Film still–based posters
- Vintage movie typography designs
- Story-inspired art prints
- Digital ephemera packs
These films are especially useful for retro, cinematic, and nostalgia-driven products.
🎼 Musical compositions published in 1930
2026 also unlocks music compositions from 1930 — meaning the compositions and melodies are free to use.
These can serve as themes for product lines, lyric-inspired designs, printable sheet music, or backgrounds in digital content.
Notable popular songs that will enter the public domain in 2026 include
- “Dream a Little Dream of Me“, which spawned 400 recorded versions and was a signature song for Mama Cass
- Johnny Green‘s song “Body and Soul“, the most recorded jazz standard of all time
- George and Ira Gershwin‘s songs “Embraceable You“, “But Not for Me” and “I Got Rhythm“, the last of which introduced the “rhythm changes” which became a foundational jazz chord progression
- Hoagy Carmichael‘s song “Georgia on My Mind“, which was Ray Charles‘ signature song and is the state song of Georgia
- “Get Happy“, the first hit from songwriter Harold Arlen
- Jimmy McHugh‘s song “On the Sunny Side of the Street“
- Cole Porter‘s song “Love for Sale“
- Rodgers and Hart‘s songs “Ten Cents a Dance” and “Dancing on the Ceiling“
- Walter Donaldson‘s songs “Little White Lies“, “You’re Driving Me Crazy“, and “My Baby Just Cares for Me” (the last of which was made famous later by Nina Simone)
- Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz‘s song “Something to Remember You By“; “Fine and Dandy“; “Someday I’ll Find You“; “Three Little Words“; “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone“; “Sing, You Sinners“; “Cheerful Little Earful“; “Would You Like to Take a Walk?“; and “It Happened in Monterey“.
- The first English translation of “Just a Gigolo” and John Philip Sousa‘s march The Royal Welch Fusiliers
- The entry of The Blue Angel will bring along Dietrich’s signature song “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)“, that of Monte Carlo will bring along the song “Beyond the Blue Horizon” as sung by MacDonald, and that of The Big Pond will bring along the songs “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight” and “You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me“.
🎧 Sound recordings released in 1925
Sound recordings that were published in 1925 will enter the public domain, including
- Marian Anderson‘s recording of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”
- The song “Saint Louis Blues” as recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong
- The first recordings of the songs “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby“, “Sweet Georgia Brown“, “Fascinating Rhythm“, “I’ll See You in My Dreams“, “Everybody Loves My Baby“, “Manhattan“, “Remember“, “If You Knew Susie“, “Tea for Two“, “Oh, How I Miss You Tonight“, and “Dinah“
- The first recordings of the jazz standards “Davenport Blues” and “Indian Love Call“.
⚠️ Important: Compositions and specific recordings have separate copyright timelines — a composition may be public domain even if the famous recorded performance isn’t (or vice versa)
You can:
- Print lyrics or excerpts
- Sell sheet-music prints
- Use melodies in your own recordings
- Create lyric-inspired designs
🛍️ Creative Ideas for Your Etsy Shop
Here are Etsy-ready ways you can use public domain assets:
✨ Digital & Printable Products
- Vintage poster reprints
- Collage art packs
- Quote cards featuring public domain text
- Printable sheet music
👕 Merch & Physical Goods
- T-shirts inspired by public domain characters
- Tote bags with quotes or imagery from classic works
- Keychains or enamel pins based on early comic figures
📚 Story & Content Products
- Story highlights or excerpt prints from classics
- Illustrated gift tags or bookmarks
- Journals inspired by public domain themes
🎨 Branding & Social Content
- Create evergreen marketing content tied to classics
- Educational posts about public domain and creativity
- Feature a “classic inspiration of the week” series
Important Note
✔️ Always double-check which version of a character or work is public domain — especially with well-known franchises.
✔️ Public domain doesn’t automatically erase trademark rights — that’s a separate legal layer.
✔️ Local copyright laws (outside the U.S.) might differ — public domain in the U.S. doesn’t guarantee worldwide public domain status.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_public_domain
https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2026/#artanchor