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The purpose of this page is to provide access to a selection of online image collections of interest to artists and art historians.
Before download or use, check for any copyright and usage
restrictions. Most images are provided with the intent of
limited educational and scholarly use, but that does not
mean they can be reproduced for widespread use or in products intended for sale. A
great site for addressing copyright issues is "Crash Course in Copyright" offered by the University of
Texas. Resources for reading and links to previous
conferences on copyright are available from the University
of Oregon at Christine L. Sundt's Copyright &
Art Issues.
BUBL Link: Image Collections
A list of over 160 image collections with brief descriptions. Some links are broken, but the range of topics, from history, science, art, animals, grafitti and more in this list is worth the browse.British Library Images Online
A marvelous collection of images, 72 dpi or educational use is free. Other resolutions require payment and more than single-use requires permission.Chicano Art Digital Image Collection
Hosted at University of California, Santa Barbara, these images are restricted use, but offer a growing overview of Chicano art.Cornell University Image Collections
A variety of collections including birds, political Americana, Indonesian art and more.George Eastman House
The Collections Online link offers a large assortment of historical still images.Gallery of the Open Frontier
University of Nebraska Press has assembled a large collection of photographs from the National Archives in relation to the Westward Expansion and American West.Google Images
Probably the world's largest image collection, this scans a wide variety of sources in photographic, hand-drawn and computerized images. Newly added as of November 2008 is a search of Life Magazine images.Image Collections and Online Art
Maintained at University of Michigan, this relatively short list offers links to some of the best. Divided by geographic region, photography and 'collections, galleries & sources' with brief descriptions of each collection.Internet Archive: Moving Picture Archive
A wide variety of films and stills from movies and television. This material has relatively unrestricted use, but do check for any restrictions before downloading.LUCI--Materials held in the University of California system by seven participating campuses. Materials range from ancient Greek and Roman classics to California and public art. Be sure to read the page on 'How to Use LUCI" to understand the collection and get the best results.
Mother of All Art: Image Collections and Online Art--from University of Michigan offers links by geographic and genre headings.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery
A wide-ranging collection of images (photographs, prints, and more) from the massive collections held by NYPL. Sorted into subject-related collections or fully searchable from the home screen, these range in date, subject, media and purpose.Visual Collections-- A collection of over 30 online collections assembled by David Rumsey and Cartography Associates. Most collections are freely available, but may require a one-time software download available from the site. Collections include cartography, fine arts, architecture, photography and other.
WikiMedia Commons--An image and media collection assembled in the wiki format. Searchable by subject, type and collection. Verify usage permissions before download.
World Images
A collection being assembled by the CSU with over 65,000 images has a broader range of content, including political and cultural history. Tutorials are provided for maximizing your use of this collection. This is a growing project with subject-specific image collections planned.
California Heritage Collection
Hosted by UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, this site offers over 30,000 images of California history. Also searchable through the Online Archive of California collection.CalPhotos
From the University of California, Berkeley. Collection is browseable or searchable and does include images from other than California. Images are provided under differing copyright usage permission, so be sure to check before using.Online Archive of California--Primarily historical images of California or material held by California museums, libraries and archives, this site offers access to photographs, paintings and prints and some texts. Searchable by artist name, subject and media.
See also: American Memory under the Museum & Exhibitions listing
Museum collections are valuable resources for art in all forms. Painting, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, jewelry and more are assembled in historical, cultural and geographic categories. Some museums have specializations in their collection activity and exhibits change frequently.
American Memory
Thematic collections gathered by the Library of Congress. Images (photographs, prints, line art, etc.) are available in nearly every collection. Click on the "More Browse Options" to access the Browse Collections function that offers a 'Photos & prints' option.National Gallery of Art
Located in Washington, DC, this is the art gallery for the nation, but collects much more than US artists. Works are available to view and in many cases have a bibliography link to find more information.Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
The Exhibitions link on the home page reveals several digitized exhibitions, mostly of Mexican art, but also Native Californian and general art.San Francisco Museum of Modern Art E.Space
An experimental project from SFMOMA to develop online art using a variety of media.Smithsonian Image Gallery
Over 138,000 images digitized from photographs, slides, paintings and much more. Searchable by using the AMP catalog (includes documents and other materials as well as images) or browse the groupings by type of original media, Smithsonian collection group, or most popular use.Timeline of Art History
A site provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art using images from their vast collections.University of California San Diego Slide Collection
The images are NOT online, but if you need to know what they have before going to visit the collection, this is the search tool for you. Many of the items are held in the Arts & Architecture Library.Victoria and Albert Museum: Access to Images
A massive, searchable collection of images from the collections of the V&A Museum in London.
More links to collections, artists, and museums are
discussed in David Mattison's article "Looking for Good Art: Web Resources and Image Databases,
Part 1". He has some other useful articles on
his bibliography at his web site.
We'd like to hear from you!
Email us or call (760) 750-4348
