diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index f3cf8ae..21acd73 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -116,7 +116,15 @@ Changelog
 Version 1.8.1 (next version)
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-* (no changes yet)
+* Added ``open`` and ``open_raw`` methods to ``Resource`` objects,
+  for stream-based access to resource data.
+
+  * These methods are currently implemented using simple ``io.BytesIO`` wrappers around the resource data,
+    so there is currently no performance difference between ``open``/``open_raw`` and ``data``/``data_raw``.
+    In the future,
+    the stream-based API implementations will be optimized
+    to allow efficient access to parts of the resource data
+    without having to read the entire data in advance.
 
 Version 1.8.0
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/rsrcfork/api.py b/rsrcfork/api.py
index 7461be8..fd1c1fc 100644
--- a/rsrcfork/api.py
+++ b/rsrcfork/api.py
@@ -181,6 +181,21 @@ class Resource(object):
 			self._data_raw = self._resfile._read_exact(data_raw_length)
 			return self._data_raw
 	
+	def open_raw(self) -> typing.BinaryIO:
+		"""Create a binary file-like object that provides access to this resource's raw data, which may be compressed.
+		
+		The returned stream is read-only and seekable.
+		Multiple resource data streams can be opened at the same time for the same resource or for different resources in the same file,
+		without interfering with each other.
+		If a :class:`ResourceFile` is closed,
+		all resource data streams for that file may become unusable.
+		
+		This method is recommended over :attr:`data_raw` if the data is accessed incrementally or only partially,
+		because the stream API does not require the entire resource data to be read in advance.
+		"""
+		
+		return io.BytesIO(self.data_raw)
+	
 	@property
 	def compressed_info(self) -> typing.Optional[compress.common.CompressedHeaderInfo]:
 		"""The compressed resource header information, or None if this resource is not compressed.
@@ -233,6 +248,21 @@ class Resource(object):
 				return self._data_decompressed
 		else:
 			return self.data_raw
+	
+	def open(self) -> typing.BinaryIO:
+		"""Create a binary file-like object that provides access to this resource's data, decompressed if necessary.
+		
+		The returned stream is read-only and seekable.
+		Multiple resource data streams can be opened at the same time for the same resource or for different resources in the same file,
+		without interfering with each other.
+		If a :class:`ResourceFile` is closed,
+		all resource data streams for that file may become unusable.
+		
+		This method is recommended over :attr:`data` if the data is accessed incrementally or only partially,
+		because the stream API does not require the entire resource data to be read (and possibly decompressed) in advance.
+		"""
+		
+		return io.BytesIO(self.data)
 
 
 class _LazyResourceMap(typing.Mapping[int, Resource]):
diff --git a/tests/test_rsrcfork.py b/tests/test_rsrcfork.py
index 3fdf26e..595b317 100644
--- a/tests/test_rsrcfork.py
+++ b/tests/test_rsrcfork.py
@@ -129,7 +129,36 @@ class ResourceFileReadTests(unittest.TestCase):
 						self.assertEqual(actual_res.name, None)
 						self.assertEqual(actual_res.attributes, rsrcfork.ResourceAttrs(0))
 						self.assertEqual(actual_res.data, expected_data)
+						with actual_res.open() as f:
+							self.assertEqual(f.read(10), expected_data[:10])
+							self.assertEqual(f.read(5), expected_data[10:15])
+							self.assertEqual(f.read(), expected_data[15:])
+							f.seek(0)
+							self.assertEqual(f.read(), expected_data)
 						self.assertEqual(actual_res.compressed_info, None)
+		
+		actual_res_1 = rf[b"TEXT"][256]
+		expected_data_1 = TEXTCLIPPING_RESOURCES[b"TEXT"][256]
+		actual_res_2 = rf[b"utxt"][256]
+		expected_data_2 = TEXTCLIPPING_RESOURCES[b"utxt"][256]
+		
+		with self.subTest(stream_test="multiple streams for the same resource"):
+			with actual_res_1.open() as f1, actual_res_1.open() as f2:
+				f1.seek(5)
+				f2.seek(10)
+				self.assertEqual(f1.read(10), expected_data_1[5:15])
+				self.assertEqual(f2.read(10), expected_data_1[10:20])
+				self.assertEqual(f1.read(), expected_data_1[15:])
+				self.assertEqual(f2.read(), expected_data_1[20:])
+		
+		with self.subTest(stream_test="multiple streams for different resources"):
+			with actual_res_1.open() as f1, actual_res_2.open() as f2:
+				f1.seek(5)
+				f2.seek(10)
+				self.assertEqual(f1.read(10), expected_data_1[5:15])
+				self.assertEqual(f2.read(10), expected_data_2[10:20])
+				self.assertEqual(f1.read(), expected_data_1[15:])
+				self.assertEqual(f2.read(), expected_data_2[20:])
 	
 	def test_textclipping_seekable_stream(self) -> None:
 		with TEXTCLIPPING_RSRC_FILE.open("rb") as f:
@@ -239,6 +268,8 @@ class ResourceFileReadTests(unittest.TestCase):
 							self.assertEqual(actual_res.name, expected_name)
 							self.assertEqual(actual_res.attributes, expected_attrs)
 							self.assertEqual(actual_res.data, expected_data)
+							with actual_res.open() as f:
+								self.assertEqual(f.read(), expected_data)
 							self.assertEqual(actual_res.compressed_info, None)
 	
 	def test_compress_compare(self) -> None:
@@ -274,6 +305,14 @@ class ResourceFileReadTests(unittest.TestCase):
 									# The compressed resource's (automatically decompressed) data must match the uncompressed data.
 									self.assertEqual(compressed_res.data, uncompressed_res.data)
 									self.assertEqual(compressed_res.length, uncompressed_res.length)
+									with compressed_res.open() as compressed_f, uncompressed_res.open() as uncompressed_f:
+										compressed_f.seek(15)
+										uncompressed_f.seek(15)
+										self.assertEqual(compressed_f.read(10), uncompressed_f.read(10))
+										self.assertEqual(compressed_f.read(), uncompressed_f.read())
+										compressed_f.seek(0)
+										uncompressed_f.seek(0)
+										self.assertEqual(compressed_f.read(), uncompressed_f.read())
 									
 									if rsrcfork.ResourceAttrs.resCompressed in compressed_res.attributes:
 										# Resources with the compressed attribute must expose correct compression metadata.