LibGuides: Image Resources: Home

Searchable Image Collections

Artstor
TCU Logon Required
The Artstor Digital Library provides more than one million images with tools for teaching and research. Its collections comprise contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates from all over the world. The collections encompass a wide variety of subject areas, including art, architecture, music, religion, anthropology, literature, world history, American Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, and more.
Life Magazine Archive
TCU Logon Required
American photojournalism magazine. Focused on story-telling through documentary photographs. Coverage dates: 1936 - 2000.
Images of the American Civil War
TCU Logon Required
Photographs, Posters, and ephemera documenting military and civilian life during the American Civil War. Coverage dates: 1860-1865.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
TCU Logon Required
Primary source documents from the 19th century. Coverage dates: 1790-1900. Contains a module with images on "Photography: The World Through the Lens."
Bloomsbury Design Library
TCU Logon Required
Comprehensive global coverage of the history, theory and practice of crafts and design. Coverage dates: Prehistoric times to the present.
Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)
Over 140,000 images from over 300 art and design collections in the UK, free for use in education.

Free Online Searchable Image Collections

New York Public Library: NYPL Digital
Over 700,000 digital images from a wide variety of primary sources including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs, illustrated books, and printed ephemera. Images may be copied or downloaded.
Europeana
Discover inspiring cultural heritage from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives
Vatican Library – Digitization Project
Google Arts & Culture Museums large and small, classic and modern, world-renowned and community-based from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture. Some paintings are available in ‘gigapixel’ format, allowing you to zoom in at brushstroke level to examine incredible detail.
Paris Art Museum
A collection of 14 museums in Paris have recently made high-res digital copies of 100,000 artworks freely available to the public on their collections website.
Smithsonian Institution Digital Collections
Search more than 536,000 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from all of the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries. Included are more than 10,000 photographs, letters, sketches and sketchbooks, diaries, printed materials, ephemera, and other documents representing Archives of American Art collections.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: Collections Online
Provides access to the Peabody Museum's database for objects, paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs. The Peabody's Online Database offers access to over 300,000 records and images.
Marburger Index: Bilddokumentation zur Kunst in Deutschland
Contains approximately one million photographic reproductions. Covers all media: art, architecture, furniture, paintings, drawings, manuscripts, reliefs, facades, portals, glass, ceramics, sculpture, mosaics, collages, etc., from medieval to present-day Germany. In German and English.
Harvard Art Museums: Collections Online
Collections Online provides access to basic information about every object on exhibition in HAM galleries as well as approximately 81,000 works of art in HAM collections. Digital images are included for most objects.

Library of Congress: Digital Collections
Primary sources from the Library of Congress and other institutions around the world. Coverage dates: 900 - present

The Commons on Flickr
The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world's public photography archives.

Library Help

Laura 'Lily' Steinbach

Email Me

Subjects: Art & Design, Art Education, Art History, Fashion Merchandising, General Research, Graphic & Design Studies, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Reference, Studio Art

Artstor Teaching & Learning Resources

10 great reasons to use Artstor in your teaching
The Artstor Digital Library is used by educators in 1,900 institutions around the world–and with good reason. Here are just ten ways you can enhance your teaching with Artstor.
Artstor Across Disciplines
A guide to the many disciplines supported by the Artstor Digital Library.