If I want to legally reproduce an illustration in a document I'm writing..?

Question

and there's a good chance that the original illustrator (who is hard to track down) may be dead, how would I go about doing that?

The original illustration appeared in a document published by the Dept. of Interior in 1971. I suppose I could contact them..

Answer 1

Here is the thing about copyrights that apply here....any US Government publication is not copyrighted according to copyright law unless there is a copyright notice. However, if there is not a copyright notice, you need to find out where they received permission to use the artwork as the artist...that artist or their estate if they have passed away still holds copyright over the artwork.

The second link is directly to the length of copyright, and since this was published before 1978..those rules apply.

Answer 2

Yay, "Mikey." Good answer.

If this piece you are writing is for a school project, you won't have any problems using the illustration as it would fall into the copyright law's "fair use" rules. (academic reference)

To avoid any accusations of plagerism, I would cite the government document from which you copied the image.

Answer 3

You've answered your own question.