The new New York Public Library public domain scans website seems to have sorted out its launch difficulties. Visitors can now sort-of enjoy everything from enormous numbers of complete sets of old cigarette cards to old photography of New York City.

I say ‘sort-of’ because I found that every test item I tried was capped at 720px, and the hi-res versions are only obtainable on payment. The site’s image URL path is also hidden from Google, so one can’t use Google Images to find just the free hi-res versions, if there are any.

Overall, despite its very large scope and quality selection, the huge paywall means that it’s hardly the most exemplary presentation of public domain material.