Research Guides: ARTH 795: Directed Readings in Art History: Images

Images

On this page, you will find links to databases and websites that provide access to collections of images.

Databases

ARTstor Collections
The ARTstor Digital Library provides more than one million images with tools for teaching and research. Its collections comprise contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates from all over the world. The collections encompass a wide variety of subject areas, including art, architecture, music, religion, anthropology, literature, world history, American Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, and more.
Image Quest
Includes access to more than two million images organized by subject matter from more than 50 collections, such as the National Portrait Gallery of London, the National Geographic Society, and others. All images are rights-cleared for non-commercial, educational use, and may be used in student projects and reports; school Web sites; school newsletters; and other educational uses. Images can be downloaded, printed, saved in a "Lightbox" or virtual folder, or e-mailed as jpegs.
JSTOR
Digital image archive of over 450 core scholarly journals in JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, III, and IV collections. Coverage begins with the first volume and issue of the title. Articles contain full text plus graphics, charts, tables etc.
Oxford Art Online
Subscription includes: Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Over 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts are included. This database also includes 5,000 images from institutions such as the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Underground and Independent Comics
It is the first-ever scholarly, primary-source database focused on adult comic books and graphic novels. This multi-part resource includes three volumes with 200,000 pages of original material alongside interviews, commentary, criticism, and other supporting materials.
World of Archie Comics Archive
An unprecedented digital collection offering access to the runs of more than 100 publications from Archie Comics. It’s one of the longest-running, best-known comic staples, spanning the early 1940s to 2020. Alongside the flagship title, Archie, other prominent titles, which have pervaded wider popular culture, include Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Betty & Veronica, and Jughead.

Museum Collections

Rijksmuseum
Explore more than 125,000 works of art; create files of digital images; produce products using images from the collection.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Explore more than 400,000 high-resolution images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The images are public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection and may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use.
Library of Congress
Central portal to the Library of Congress' vast resources, and to electronic resources chosen by the Library staff. Includes over 1.2 million digitized photographs, images, books, articles, cybercasts and other material. Search in "American Memory," or "Prints and Photographs" to find what you need.
National Gallery of Art
Explore thousands of the most significant works of art from the Renaissance to the present day. Our growing collection includes European and American masterpieces in every medium. Browse the collection and make connections between the objects you know and newly discovered gems.
The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is internationally renowned for its collection of art. The collection presents an overview of world art from pre-dynastic Egypt to 20th-century Europe, and counts among its many treasures Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi; medieval ivories and Old Master paintings; Art Nouveau jewelry and 19th-century European and American masterpieces.
Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA)
The BMA’s internationally renowned collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the famed Cone Collection of modern art, as well as one of the nation’s finest holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs. The galleries showcase an exceptional collection of art from Africa; important works by established and emerging contemporary artists; outstanding European and American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts; ancient Antioch mosaics; and exquisite textiles from around the world.

Online Resources

Getty Search Gateway
Currently, there are more than 87,000 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute available through the Open Content Program, including more than 72,000 from the Research Institute's Foto Arte Minore archive, which features photographs of the art and architecture of Italy over 30 years by German photographer and scholar Max Hutzel (1913–1988). Other images include paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities, sculpture, decorative arts, artists' sketchbooks, watercolors, rare prints from the 16th through the 18th century, and 19th-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks. Over time, images from the Getty Conservation Institute will be added, as well as more images from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute.

Citation Information: http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html
Wikimedia Commons
A database of 29,460,574 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. These are not necessarily art images, but it can be a good source for buildings, outdoor monuments, and architecture.

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ARTH 795: Directed Readings in Art History

Images

Databases

Museum Collections

Online Resources