Open Licenses Librarian, Arts & Humanities Team Librarian
Finding Images
Please see the Finding Images Research Guide for more information on finding images and copyright information on using them.
Check for available dates for when the Finding Images Workshop will be offered if you would like to attend.
Finding Images in Image Databases and Books
You can see a list of all the library's image databases from the "By Type" drop down menu on the Research Databases page. Or use the list to the left here.
You can also check the library catalog for art books with images. Just use the keyword for the type of image you want and an abbreviation like ill or illus for illustration. Example: birds and ill or type in birds and illus. Other words for finding images that you can use in catalog searches are pictoral works, illustration, or "___ in art", for example "flowers in art".
We do own the Illustration Index, Sculpture Index, and Havlice's World Painting Index (tells you what book has a reproduction or illustration of known works by known artists) and Martha Moss's Photography Books Index, volumes I and II, a subject guide to photo anthologies. If you do a keyword search under “catalogue raisonne” you will get all the books of the complete works (catalogue raisonne) of particular artists.
Art & Design Image Databases
This is a list of image database related to art and design, BUT if you need other types of images there are many more on the Image Databases page.
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Ad*Access This link opens in a new window
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian magazine and newspaper advertisements in five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda. 1911-1955.
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AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window
Current and historical photographs, audio clips, & news from the Associated Press. Licensed for educational use. 1826 - present
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Art Images for College Teaching This link opens in a new windowImages of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance European art & architecture that can be used in any application that is both educational and non-commercial.
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ArtStor on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
High-quality image and media from some of the world's top photo archives, museums, libraries, scholars, and artists, including rare materials not available anywhere else.
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Over 600 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries (English and foreign language), thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific reference books.
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Grove encyclopedia of classical art and architecture This link opens in a new windowEssays on ceramics, metalwork, mosaics, painting and sculpture, art forms, artists, rulers, philosophers, architecture, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. 2000 BC to present.
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OAIster This link opens in a new window
Full text articles, books, texts, audio files, videos, images, and datasets stored in over 1,100 open access repositories all over the world.
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Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Center This link opens in a new window
Search millions of items from the Smithsonian's museum, archives, library, research holdings and collections.
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VADS This link opens in a new windowOnline portfolio of British visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images free for use in education.
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Web Gallery of Art This link opens in a new windowA virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. 1000-1850.
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WorldImages This link opens in a new window
Large, global collection of images free for non-profit, educational purposes. Includes all areas of visual imagery.
Finding Exhibition Catalogs
All exhibition catalogs are not kept in one place on any floor.
Try a search in the library catalog for the topic word, such as music, art, an artist's name, photography, history or a historical or cultural event with the word "and" and the word "exhibition". You don’t need the word “catalog” unless you really want to limit the results because there are some items with “catalog” in the subject heading. Using just the word “exhibition” will get you a lot more results as it is a more common subject heading with another subject. For example, searching the library catalog for "music and exhibition" will get you over 100 results which you could narrow down to just under 100 and only books that you can check out by limiting to Alkek General Collection. If you add the word "catalog" it narrows it down to under 30 so you may be missing some good ones by addiing the word "catalog".
If you have any questions please contact the Art & Design Librarian Tara Smith.
Finding Artists' Books
How to Search for Artists' Books, interesting formats or handmade, in the Library Catalog
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| Click on image to see details |