Finding Images Online
Online collections are excellent places to find images of artworks for study or comparative images for other works of art you may be analyzing. Here are several large, useful collections:
- American Memory ProjectCreated 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. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
- Art Images for College TeachingAICT is a personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl. AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access, free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large. The collection focuses on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance European art and architecture.
- ArtProject.comA unique collaboration of over 150 acclaimed art museums in 40 countries. The search capabilities are very clunky and it is recommended to use the Search by Museum category to browse. Create and share your own "collections."
- Bridgeman Art LibraryExcellent image database containing images from over 8,000 collections and more than 29,000 artists, Bridgeman provides a central source of fine art and historical images for users. Based in London but focus is international in scope.
- Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)A well-designed site with focus on fashion, craft, 2D design, and contemporary artists working in the United Kingdom and internationally. It is a repository for many special collections in the UK. Its more than 100,0000 images include collections such as the NICE Paintings (NICE stands for National Inventory of Continental European).
- Web Gallery of ArtWGA is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 11th to mid-19th centuries. Content focuses on the Renaissance period, the Medieval roots of the period and its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism were also included.
Online Ads, Photographs, and Prints Collections
- Ad*Access 1911-1955From the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University. Collection of over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and the Second World War, providing a coherent view of a number of campaigns and companies.
- AdViews: Television Commercials from the 1950s through the 1980sFrom the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University. The AdViews digital collection consists of thousands of television commercials created or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency fro the 1950s through the 1980s for a diverse range of clients.
- Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920From the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University. Collection presents over 9,000 images relating to the early history of advertising and the development of the advertising industry in the United States. Consult the collection's Research Guide for more information.
- John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke UniversityAn extensive collection of more than three million items that document the history of sales and advertising marketing throughout the past two centuries, including advertising cookbooks, advertising agencies, print advertising, outdoor advertising, direct marketing, sales and salesmanship literature, and trade advertising. Materials are available for use in research, teaching, and private study. You may reproduce materials without further permission from the Hartman Center, provided that you cite "Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. Rubenstein Library" for your work.
- Library of Congress: Prints and PhotographsContains catalog records and digital images of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and other units of the Library of Congress.
- The LIFE Picture Collection"Tap into some of the world's most recognizable imagery, from one of the truly iconic magazine archives of the 20th century." ** Please note: Some photos take longer to load than others. If a picture does not load, please close the window and try selecting the image again. There is an option to purchase the images but you don't need to do this to view the photo.
- London International Advertising AwardSite includes images of recent award winning ads along with other information about the awards.
- ROAD 2.0: Digital Collection of Outdoor AdvertisingFrom the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University. A portal to more than 30,000 images of outdoor advertisements from five different source collections.
- United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information Photo CollectionThis collection contains over 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI). Users can limit their search by photographer, location, date and more.
Using Images and copyright issues
Most online images can be used for class papers, class presentations, and even websites under the educational fair use policy, as long as they are only available to your own educational community. "Fair Use" allows scholars, students, teachers, and others to use works that are still in copyright protection for the purpose of education and criticism. This does not mean that any use is fair as long as it is for educational purposes, but education is specifically mentioned as a favored purpose.
Here is a link to Brown University Library's guide for images and copyright:
For more info, here is a link to the MIT Libraries' guide for images and fair use:
US Museums
- Art Institute of Chicago
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Museum and art school, in Grant Park, facing Michigan Ave. - Boston Museum of Fine ArtsFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
Boston, chartered and incorporated (1870) after a decision by the Boston Athenaeum, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pool their collections of art objects and house them in adequate public galleries. - Getty CenterFromThe Columbia Encyclopedia
Art museum complex in Brentwood, Calif., operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust. - Guggenheim Museum
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Major museum of modern art in New York City. Founded in 1939 as the Museum of Non-objective Art, the Guggenheim is known for its remarkable circular building (1959) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. - Holocaust Memorial MuseumFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
In Washington, D.C., memorial to the victims of the Holocaust ... Using a stark, harsh architectural vocabulary of industrial forms and unadorned materials, the building itself serves as an oppressive structural reminder of the period of the Holocaust. - Metropolitan Museum of Art: Topic PageThe principal museum in New York City: founded in 1870 and housed in its present premises in Central Park since 1880.
- Museum of Modern Art: Topic Page(MoMA), New York City, established and incorporated in 1929. It is privately supported. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., was its first director. Operating at first in rented galleries, the museum specialized in loan shows of contemporary European and American art.
- National Gallery of ArtFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
Washington, D.C., an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, established by act of Congress, Mar. 24, 1937. Andrew W. Mellon donated funds for construction of the building as well as his own collection of 130 American portraits. - Smithsonian InstitutionFrom Encyclopedia of American Studies
The Smithsonian Institution was established by the U.S. Congress in 1846, carrying out a bequest by James Smithson (1765-1829), an enigmatic English scientist who left his fortune to the United States to found an institution “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
European Museums
- Ashmolean Museum
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Museum of art and antiquities in Oxford, England, founded in 1683 to house the collections given to Oxford University by the historian and antiquary Elias Ashmole. - British Museum: Topic PageThe national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography.
- The HermitageFrom The Bloomsbury Guide to Art
State collection of art housed in the former Russian Winter Palace and other major buildings in St. Petersburg. - Louvre: Topic Page
Foremost French museum of art, located in Paris. The building was a royal fortress and palace built by Philip II in the late 12th cent. In 1546 Pierre Lescot was commissioned by Francis I to erect a new building on the site of the Louvre. - Musee D'OrsayFrom The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Museum of 19th- and early 20th-century painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and photography, opened at the former Gare du Quai d'Orsay (Orsay quayside railway station), Paris, France, in 1986. - National GalleryFrom The Columbia Encyclopedia
London, one of the permanent national art collections of Great Britain. Its building, in Greek style, stands in Trafalgar Square. It was designed and erected (1832–38) by William Wilkins and was shared for 30 years with the Royal Academy of Arts. - Prado MuseumFrom The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Spanish art gallery containing the national collection of pictures. The building was designed as a natural history museum and begun in 1785; it became an art gallery in 1818 under Ferdinand VII. - Tate: Topic PageNational art gallery group in the UK, with museums in London, Liverpool, and St Ives.
- UffiziFrom Bloomsbury Guide to Art
The most important collection of art and artefacts in Italy, housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, Florence. The building itself, a huge edifice which stretches from the Piazza della Signoria to the Arno, is a technical feat, using iron to reinforce the building, which rests on sandy ground. - Vatican MuseumsFrom Encyclopedia of Archaeology: History and Discoveries
Although the papal museums and galleries were based on the earlier work of Popes Clement IX and Pius VI, it was Pope Gregory XVI who founded the Etruscan Museum in 1837 and the Egytian Museum in 1839.
Alternatives to Illegal Downloading
Uploading or downloading copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner is a violation of TCTC policy and U.S. law.
Legal alternatives to unauthorized downloading link: