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Art & Photography
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Reference Desk (413) 774-1509 |
Selected Reference Sources
Use reference sources to choose a topic, understand terminology, locate background information, and identify good search terms.
- The Dictionary of Art, R 703 D554tu
- Encyclopedia of World Art, R 703 E56
- The Oxford Companion to Western Art, R 703 O98co
- The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History, R 709 F848p
- Art in World History, R 709 H741ar
- Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Art, R 709.04 C538d
- Encyclopedia of American Art Before 1914, R 709.73 E56
- Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art, R 709.8 E56
- St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists, R 709.8 S143
- The Encyclopedia of Sculpture, R 735.29 E56
- The Photography Encyclopedia, R 770.3 M134p
Finding Books (and more) in the Online Catalog
Materials about fine and decorative arts are located in the 700-769 areas of the circulating collection:
- landscape art and architecture--710-719
- architecture--720-729
- sculpture--730-739
- drawing--740-743
- painting--750-759
Photography is located in 770-779.
Try a subject search in the catalog for a specific art topic. If a subject search is not successful or the topic consists of multiple concepts, try a keyword search (combine multiple concepts with "and"). Note the subject headings that appear in all records and use them to find additional information.
The following sub-headings under the subject heading "Art" are examples to illustrate that sub-headings are helpful in narrowing the search for information. Sub-headings can refer to location, time period, religion, and more:
- Art--Africa
- Art--African
- Art--American
- Art--Ancient
- Art and Society--United States--History--19th Century
- Art and the War--World War--1939-1945
- Art--Baroque
- Art--Buddhist
- Art--Chinese
- Art--Criticism
Finding Articles in Research Databases
(go to DA Orgs/Library for off-campus access)
- Grove Art Online (full text)
Online access to the full text of The Dictionary of Art (1996) and The Oxford Companion to Western Art (2001) --includes images, drawings, links to image databases (Art Resource, Bridgeman Art Library), and selected links to thousands of images on museum and gallery websites around the world - General databases also include art topics--search these databases to find full text and citations for periodical articles
- Look for the option to search for Images in research databases--example: Academic Search Premier
- EBSCOhost database searches can be limited to articles with images (PDF files or graphics)--see Limit Your Results/Articles with Images
Selected Internet Resources
(Websites should always be evaluated for authorship, accuracy, and currency)
Art Gateways
- Art (Librarians Index to the Internet)
- Art (from Voice of the Shuttle)
- History of Art (World Wide Web Virtual Library)
- Art History Resources on the Web
- Mother of All Art and Art History Links
- Photography (Librarians Index to the Internet
- Photography: General Resources
- Photography Collections
Online Reference Sources
Selected Art Museums
- American Museum of Photography
- Louvre Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- MoMA: Museum of Modern Art
- National Gallery of Art
- National Gallery, London
- National Gallery of Canada
- National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Smithsonian Archives of American Art
- Art Museums in the United States
- Museums of the World
- Virtual Library Museums (around the world)
Finding Images
Art and Images (also try the Encyclopaedia Britannica database)
- Ad Access (1911-1950's)
- Advertising in America : 1850-1920
- Artcyclopedia
- Art Images for College Teaching
- Big Cartoon Database
- British Library Images Online
- Digital Treasures (digital library collection of the agricultural and industrial cultural history of Central and Western Massachusetts)
- Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
- Exploring Image Collections on the Internet: Resources at MIT and Beyond
- Greek Mythology Link: Catalogue of Images
- Image Collections and Online Art
- Image Links from Digital Librarian
- Image Sites (Technical Advisory Service for Images)
- Medical Photographic Library
- National Image Library (from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery (free access to 1000's of digital images)
- OAIster (academically oriented digital resources--text, images, audio,video)
- Picture Collection Online (New York Public Library)
- Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives
- Prints and Photographs (from the Library of Congress)
- Southern Media Archive (U. Mississippi)
- Smithsonian American Art Museum: Online Exhibitions
- Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Digital Collections
- Timeline of Art History (from the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- U.S. Government Photos and Multimedia
- Web Gallery of Art (Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque period--1100 to 1850)
- World Images
Art News
- Artdaily (the first art newspaper on the Internet--includes links to artists, galleries, museums, photographers, etc.)
Need help with citing sources?
MLA Citation Style Guide
NoodleBib (citation management tool)