LibGuides: Art and Art History: Digital Images

Library Databases for Searching Art Images

Artstor Collections
Explore Artstor's collections of high-quality images, curated from leading museums and archives around the world. Artstor's diverse collections are rights-cleared for education and research, and include Open Access content as well as rare materials not available elsewhere.

Image Galleries from National and Research Libraries

The following web sites provide searchable access to digital images of art and architecture.

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Gallica.
Digitized rare books, manuscripts, early imprints and portraits of musicians.
British Library Images Online
Images Online provides access to thousands images from the British Library’s collections of historical prints and photographs, manuscripts, rare books and maps spanning almost 3000 years with material from every continent.
Harvard Univesity Library
Digitized special visual collections at Harvard, everything from theater design to women’s history to art collections throughout Harvard. Some images are restricted to Harvard users.
Library of Congress - American Memory
Open access and digital preservation of all types of visual, sound and textual objects for the study history and culture, from our national library.
MetPublications
MetPublications is a portal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's publications containing 1,500 titles from the last five decades, including art catalogues from the museum's past exhibitions. You can read the books online or download them in PDF format.
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is located in the National Mall in Washington, D. C. It includes both the East and West Buildings, as well s the sculpture garden.
National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada's hosts its permanent collection of Canada's visual arts heritage. This virtual museum contains over 20,000 images of works of the Gallery's permanent collection as well as video and audio recordings of Canadian artists
New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Free and open access to thousands of high quality images depicting the arts, history, culture, the sciences, buildings and industry, and more, from the rich research collections at NYPL. Voted Best Research Site for 2006 by museum professionals.

Online resources for images

American Memory from the LIbrary of Congress
Created by the Library of Congress, American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States, with over 7 million digital items from 100 historical collections.
Ancient Near East Photograph Collections
This collection documents artifacts and archaeological sites of the ancient Near East. Currently, all images are of Egypt and Israel, although plans exist to eventually add images from Anatolia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
Art and Architecture of Mexico
Digital images of Mexican art and architecture.
Art Institure of Chicago
The Art Institute currently has over 77,000 works of art from the collection included in their online searchable database.
Bridgeman Images
Image database containing images from over 8,000 collections and more than 29,000 artists.
British Museum Images
Images depicting world culture and history including ceramics, sculpture, prints, drawings, and paintings.
Getty Publications Virtual Library
Free online access to more than 250 Getty Publications titles, including "American Icons: Transatlantic Perspectives on Eighteenth-andNineteenth-Century American Art" and "Introduction to Imaging".
Guggenheim Online Modern Art Books
The Guggenheim Modern Art Museum has made available online over 100 art books and catalogues. To read any of these, you will just need to follow these simple instructions: 1) Select a text from the collection. 2) Click the "Read Catalogue Online" button. 3) Start reading the book in the pop-up browser, and use the controls at the very bottom of the pop-up browser to move through the book.
VADS: Free art and design images
A well-designed site with focus on fashion, craft, 2D design, and contemporary artists working in the UK and internationally.
Visial Collections
Extensive digitized visual collections from major research institutions including: maps, fine art, prints, advertising art, posters, photographs, manuscripts, and more.
Web Gallery of Art
The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European fine arts from 11th to 19th centuries.

Art and Art History: Digital Images

Use these resources to help you locate digital images of works of art.

Library Databases for Searching Art Images

Image Galleries from National and Research Libraries

Online resources for images