Last revised: August 2009

Visual Image Resources on the Web

Scope: This guide provides a listing of selected Web resources useful for locating visual images. For information on locating images in print sources, see Visual Image Resources in Print. 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 worldwide; also includes monuments and commercial archives.

• ARTstor (Via Research Port)
  Search hundreds of thousands of images from many periods and cultures. Includes architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and more.
  
  
• Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur
  (http://www.bildindex.de/)
  Picture 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 two million years of world culture.

• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
  (http://www.famsf.org/fam/about/imagebase/)
  Images from the collections of the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor.

• George Eastman House Still Photography Finding Aids
  (http://www.geh.org/photographers.html)
  An index to the collections.

• Joconde
  (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/joconde/fr/pres.htm)
  Images from the museum collections of 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/rr/print/catalog.html)
  

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

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  (http://www.metmuseum.org/)
  Images of all styles and periods of art worldwide.

• National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)
  (http://www.nga.gov)
  Selections from the museum's collection 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)
  Find images in 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 national collection 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 diverse collections of the museum complex in Rome.

• 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, articles, 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/)

• Image Collections on the Internet: Resources at MIT and Beyond
  (http://libraries.mit.edu/rvc/image-collections/categories.html)
  An image directory including archaeology, architecture, art, and urban design.

• 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.

• SILS - Art Image Browser, University of Michigan
  (http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/)
  A database of art, architectural, and museum object images.

• 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 / Art Index Retrospective
  Index to periodical articles and reproduced images 1929-present, covering art of all styles and periods.
  
  
• ARTbibliographies Modern
  Index to periodical articles and reproduced images 1974 to the present, covering art of the 19th and 20th centuries.
  
  
• BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art)
  Index to periodical articles and reproduced images 1973 to the present, covering Western art of Late Antiquity to the present.
  
  

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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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