Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Research Library: Research Guides: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Research Library
Research Library Overview
Complementing the museum's art collection, the research library offers an extensive range of materials on American art, photography, and history from the early nineteenth century to the present.
TCU students working on any topic relating to the American experience—especially those with connections with the visual arts—will likely find material to support their research at the museum's library. Owing to its subject specialty and depth, the library often collects materials not available at the TCU library such as gallery and museum publications, clipping material, publications with original art, and auction catalogs.
Library Hours
Monday - Tuesday: closed
Wednesday: 11am - 4pm
Thursday: 11am - 7pm
Friday: 11am - 4pm
Saturday: 11am - 4pm
Contacts and Services
Reference Desk
817.989.5040
Email
library@cartermuseum.org
Physical Address
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107
Photocopies, digital scanning, public computers, and Wi-Fi available.
Library materials may not be checked out but may be requested through TCU interlibrary loan office.
Digital Museum Publications
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Focus on PhotographyVisit the library to learn about the technical advancement of photography and the various techniques represented in the Amon Carter's collection.
About the Museum's Art Collection
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Art Collection SearchSearch our collection database for works in our collection, archival material including artists' archives, and some of our past exhibitions.
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Current ExhibitionsView a listing of current exhibitions on display at the museum.
Search the Catalog
Announcements
For more information on upcoming Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons, email us at library@cartermuseum.org or check out our Meetup page: Wikipedia:Meetup/ACMAA EaT
The Reading Room is open to the public from 11am - 4pm on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and from 11am - 7pm on Thursdays. We are open by appointment only on Mondays and Tuesdays, by contacting us at library@cartermuseum.org or by phone at 817-989-5040.
Featured Publications
New titles in the museum library not held at TCU
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The New Black Vanguard by Call Number: TR679 .N49ISBN: 9781597114684Publication Date: 2019-10-29In The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, curator and critic Antwaun Sargent addresses a radical transformation taking place in fashion and art today. The featuring of the Black figure and Black runway and cover models in the media and art has been one marker of increasingly inclusive fashion and art communities. More critically, however, the contemporary visual vocabulary around beauty and the body has been reinfused with new vitality and substance thanks to an increase in powerful images authored by an international community of Black photographers. In a richly illustrated essay, Sargent opens up the conversation around the role of the Black body in the marketplace; the cross-pollination between art, fashion, and culture in constructing an image; and the institutional barriers that have historically been an impediment to Black photographers participating more fully in the fashion (and art) industries. Fifteen artist portfolios feature the brightest contemporary fashion photographers, including Tyler Mitchell, the first Black photographer hired to shoot a cover story for American Vogue; Campbell Addy, founder of the Nii Agency and journal; and Nadine Ijewere, whose early series title, The Misrepresentation of Representation, says it all. Alongside a series of conversations between generations, their images and stories chart the history of inclusion, and exclusion, in the creation of the commercial Black image, while simultaneously proposing a brilliantly reenvisioned future. -
Polaroid by Call Number: TR269 .A33ISBN: 9780500544600Publication Date: 2017-11-14The cult of Polaroid photography has ignited the imaginations of photographers across all generations. The immense popularity of recent digital applications that replicate the effects of instant photography, such as Instagram, has in turn renewed enthusiasm for that vintage look best achieved with analog technologies.Equally relevant for the novice or the experienced photographer, Polaroid: The Complete Guide to Experimental Instant Photography is informative and intuitive. An introduction charts the widespread use of Polaroid, its subsequent decline, and its current rebirth. Section 1: Camera and Film Format Guide introduces the key cameras, compatible films and buying and accessory guides. It also includes how-tos, ranging from storing your prints to adapting Type 80 cameras to accept Fuji film. Section 2: Creative Techniques gives a comprehensive breakdown of every method of image manipulation, such as "Polaroid image transfers," "cyanotype contact printing," and "emulsion lifts." Each technique comes with step-by-step, photographic instructions and a showcase of the very best end results.With 450 full-color illustrations giving step-by-step instructions, this book offers a complete course in Polaroid photography and its myriad potential applications.
Special Collections Highlight
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art holds the archives of Karl Struss, containing his papers and approximately 7400 of his commercial and artistic photographs from across his career. Struss started working in photography in 1906 using his brother’s second-hand camera. By 1910, his natural talent drew the attention of art impresario Alfred Stieglitz, who brought Struss into the New York Photo-Secession movement as the youngest and last member. He served in the military 1917-1919. After his discharge, he put his technical and artistic acumen to use for the movie studios, starting as a still photographer for publicity department of the Lasky Studio and Cecil B. De Mille. Within three days of coming on the lot he was put behind the movie camera on For Better, For Worse (1919). In 1927 he was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences, one of only fifteen cinematographers invited to join. He won the first Academy award (Oscar) for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and was nominated a further three times for his work before his retirement in 1970. A full survey of his life and work can be found in New York to Hollywood: The Photography of Karl Struss, published by the Amon Carter Museum and the University of New Mexico Press.
Book and Periodicals Collection
The library currently holds about 150,000 items, including over 50,000 books, about 20,000 bound and loose periodicals, and over 60,000 pieces of microform. Together these resources offer extensive coverage of American art, photography, and history (with emphasis on the history of the western United States), along with related topics.
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Museum Library Catalog through the Cultural District Library Consortium (CDLC)The Museum Library's holdings form a part of the Cultural District Library Consortium, a family of libraries in Fort Worth's Cultural District collectively offering access to about 350,000 library and archival items from the Amon Carter of American Art, Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the National Cowgirl Museum.
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Browse Our Newest Acquisitions
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Browse a List of Current Periodicals
Microform Collection
The Amon Carter library has 14,000 microfilm reels of nineteenth-century newspapers, periodicals, books, and primary material, plus more than 50,000 microfiches of auction and exhibition catalogues, ephemera, and other material. Most of this material is available in the library's catalog.
Ephemera Collection
This unique collection contains a variety of loose material and small publications on artists, museums, commercial galleries, organizations, and subjects.
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Biographical File Catalog
Archives of American Art
As an associated research center of the Archives of American Art, the Research Library is home to a set of about 7,500 microfilm reels of unrestricted material from the archives representing about fifteen-million primary, unpublished documents that helps tell the rich story of the visual arts in America.
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Search the Archives of American ArtThe Archives of American Art holds more than 20 million letters, diaries and scrapbooks of artists, dealers, and collectors; manuscripts of critics and scholars; business and financial records of museums, galleries, schools, and associations; photographs of art world figures and events; sketches and sketchbooks; rare printed material; film, audio and video recordings; and the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art—are a vital resource to anyone interested in American culture over the past 200 years.
Archives and Special Collections
The Amon Carter Museum Archives collection was established in 1991 with a two-year grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The museum acquires, preserves, and makes accessible collections of private papers and institutional records of enduring value. Archival collections are available by appointment to qualified researchers who demonstrate a need to use the unique materials in the collection.