Last revised: August 2011

Visual Image Resources on the Web

Scope: This guide provides a listing of selected Web resources useful for locating visual images. For further information email Louise Greene or call 301-405-9064.

Table of Contents

• Museums, Libraries and Archives
  
• Image Collections and Directories
  
• Bibliographic Databases
  
• Copyright Information
  

Museums, Libraries and Archives

• Art Resource
  (http://www.artres.com/c/htm/Home.aspx)
  Images of works in all media from museum collections and archives worldwide.

• ARTstor (Via Research Port)
  Images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences contributed by museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists and artists' estates; includes architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and more.
  
  
• Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur
  (http://www.bildindex.de/)
  Image archives of art and architecture in Germany.

• Bridgeman Art Library (Via Research Port)
  Images from public and private collections worldwide; includes all subjects, styles, periods, and media.

• The British Museum
  (http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass)
  Images from the museum's collections encompassing two million years of world culture.

• George Eastman House Photography
  (http://www.eastmanhouse.org)
  Access to the museum's photographic collections.

• Joconde
  (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/joconde/fr/pres.htm)
  Images from museum collections in France including archaeology, fine arts, decorative arts and more.

• Library of Congress
  Access to still and moving images, prints, photographs, maps, and other documents of the American experience.
  American Memory
  (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html)
  Prints and Photographs
  (http://www.loc.gov/pictures)
  

• The Louvre
  (http://www.louvre.fr/)
  Selections from all areas of the museum's collections.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  (http://www.metmuseum.org/)
  Images from the museum's collections including all styles and periods of art worldwide.

• National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)
  (http://www.nga.gov)
  Selections from the museum's collections of European and American paintings, sculpture, photographs and decorative arts.

• NARA (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
  (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/index.html)
  Catalog of NARA's holdings including images from primary sources.

• New York Public Library Digital Collections
  (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital)
  Images from the library's primary source collections including manuscripts, maps, posters, prints, photographs and ephemera.

• SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
  (http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=ariallimg#focus)
  Images from the Archives of American Art, Inventory of American Painting and Sculpture, Photographic Collections and more.

• Tate Online
  (http://www.tate.org.uk/home/default.htm)
  Images from the museum's collections of British art from 1500, and international modern and contemporary art.

• Vatican Museums
  (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html)
  Images from the museums' diverse collections.

• Virtual Library: Museums
  (http://icom.museum/vlmp/world.html/)
  An extensive directory providing access to museum Web sites worldwide organized geographically.

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Image Collections and Directories

• Artcyclopedia
  (http://www.artcyclopedia.com)
  Access to images, artist information and more.

• Art History Resources on the Web
  (http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html)
  Access to images and other resources organized by period, culture, and country.

• Boston University Libraries - "Finding Images on the Web"
  (http://www.bu.edu/library/instruction/findimages/index.html)
  Image directory with access by subject, medium, and type.

• The Commons on Flickr
  (http://www.flickr.com/commons)
  Images from public photography collections worldwide.

• Google Image Search
  (http://images.google.com/)

• International Directory of Sculpture Parks and Gardens
  (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/sculptureparks/)
  Links to images and information on sculpture parks and gardens worldwide.

• Olga's Gallery
  (http://www.abcgallery.com/)
  Images and information on a variety of art-related subjects.

• Oxford Art Online (Via Research Port)
  Includes links to images in museum collections worldwide, as well as access to images through ARTstor, Art Resource, Bridgeman Art Library, and Art Image Collections.
  
  

• PhotoGraphicLibraries
  (http://www.photographiclibraries.com/index.php)
  Links to a broad range of photographic images by subject.

• SYMBOLS.com -- Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms
  (http://www.symbols.com)
  Images and articles on Western signs and symbols.

• Web Gallery of Art
  (http://www.wga.hu)
  Images of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods (1100-1850).

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Bibliographic Databases (Access via Research Port)

• Art Abstracts (1984-present)
  Note: This database has been replaced by Art and Architecture Complete.
  
  
• Art and Architecture Complete and Art Index Retrospective (1929-1984)
  An index to journals and other materials covering all styles and periods of the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and related areas.
  
  
• ARTbibliographies Modern
  An index to journals and other materials covering art of the 19th and 20th centuries.
  
  
• BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art)
  An index to journals and other materials covering European and American art from late antiquity to the present; continued by International Bibliography of Art from 2009.
  
  
• International Bibliography of Art
  An index to journals and other materials covering European Art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945; continues Bibliography of the History of Art from 2009.

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

The following sources provide information on the fair use of visual images and on issues related to obtaining permission to publish.

• Artists Rights Society
  (http://www.arsny.com)
  A copyright, licensing and monitoring organization representing the intellectual property rights interests of over 30,000 visual artists from around the world including painters, sculptors, photographers, architects and others.
• United States Copyright Office, Library of Congress
  (http://www.loc.gov/copyright)
  Comprehensive information about copyright issues.

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