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“The Little Engine That Could,” a Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel collaboration, and many other works are now free to use and reuse.
Piet Mondrian, “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow” (1930) (image via Wikimedia Commons; all images public domain)
January 1 might ring in a new year, but it’s also a day when copyright protections expire for a bunch of cool old stuff that we can now freely access, republish, reinterpret, and revitalize. So instead of wading through navel-gazing resolution lists flooding social media, let’s celebrate Public Domain Day’s eclectic selection of treasures, including Betty Boop’s debut appearance, a William Faulkner novel, an iconic Piet Mondrian painting, and The Little Engine That Could! 🥂
Before we get into it, the terms and parameters for copyright protection in the United States have been revised time and time again, but here’s a basic rundown: If a work was published in the US between 1930 and 1978, it has a 95-year protection term starting from the year it was published. After that period, the work enters the public domain. As of 1996, that 95-year term applies to works that were published abroad during the same time period, even if they’re still copyrighted in their country of origin. (For anyone interested, Cornell University Library has a comprehensive table of protection terms.)
With that established, the protection term has expired for a wellspring of works from 1930 specifically. That means that the debut appearance of animation’s original diva, Betty Boop, has entered the public domain! Before you get swept up in the boop-oop-a-doop of it all, note that it’s only Betty Boop 1.0, initially animated as an anthropomorphic French poodle introduced in Fleischer Studios’s “Dizzy Dishes” (1930) cartoon segment, that is copyright-free. Betty Boop’s human form and later appearances are still copyrighted, and Fleischer Studios has a trademark on her name, image, and branding.
When it comes down to visual art, things can get a bit hairy with determining retroactive copyright protections due to the blurred line between when a work was created and when it was “published” (as in public display, appearance in an exhibition catalogue, or other type of public distribution). Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain highlighted Piet Mondrian’s “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow” (1930) as a particularly exciting addition to the public domain in 2026, noting in its own write-up that the era of art history between the World Wars was marked with pivotal styles from Neoplasticism to Art Deco. Hyperallergic has reached out to the Kunsthaus Zürich, which currently holds the historic geometric painting in its collection, for more information.
A detail image of José Clemente Orozco’s “Prometheus” (1930) mural at Pomona College (via Wikimedia Commons)
According to Duke, also joining Mondrian’s painting is Jose Clemente Orozco’s “Prometheus” (1930), a mural commissioned by Pomona College for the Frary Dining Hall that has come to symbolize the beginning of the Mexican Muralism movement’s spread to the US.
In terms of literature, Arnold “Watty Piper” Munk’s iteration of The Little Engine That Could (1930), illustrated by Lois Lenski, deserves a shout-out because we could all benefit from a bit of optimism this year. However, for those among us that prefer sulking, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930) should put one in the mood to brood. Agatha Christie also returns for another year of celebration with The Murder at the Vicarage (1930).
Left: First edition cover of William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying“ (1930) (image public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Right: Someone else is just as excited as we are about The Little Engine That Could (1930) (screenshot via X)
For you Letterboxd freaks, several 1930 films are entering the public domain this year, including the picture L’Age d’or (The Golden Age), co-written by Spanish painter Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel. Screenings of the film — an absurdist take-down of religion and family — were banned by Paris police until the Center Pompidou restored it in 1981.
Among the other films shedding copyright protections are Alfred Hitchcock’s sourly rated whodunit Murder!, Swedish-American actress Greta Garbo’s first talking film Anna Christie, Lewis Milestone’s adaptation of the anti-war Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and John Murray Anderson’s technicolor musical King of Jazz. These pictures were released in a significant moment for the film industry, three years after the advent of sound technology and soon before morality codes gripped Hollywood.
1: A movie poster for Clarence Brown’s 1930 film Anna Christie (poster public domain via Wikimedia Commons) 2: A movie poster for Lewis Milestone’s 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front (poster public domain via Wikimedia Commons) 3: A movie poster for John Murray Anderson’s musical film King of Jazz (1930)(poster public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Wherever we are, times are undoubtedly tough for us all. What’s poignant about this Public Domain Day in particular is that the selection of work, born from the trauma of World War I and amid the strife brought upon by the Great Depression, is a familiar comfort, if not our compass, as we navigate through our own endless fog of terrors.
As the Little Engine tells us, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”
