Find Images: VRC Directory of External Image Sources

These are image resources representing broad content, with works of art and visual culture from around the world and/or across historical periods and disciplines.

Accunet/AP Multimedia Archive
An electronic library containing the Associated Press’ current year’s photo reports and a selection of photos from their 50 million image print and negative library. The Multimedia Archive also inlcudes AP graphics, text and audio. This resource provides access to over 700,000 photographs dating back to 1840 as well as audio and visual content from the AP archives (access is limited to the CU-Boulder community with a limit of one concurrent user).

Artstor (access limited to the CU community)
With approximately 300 collections offering over 2.5 million images (and growing), the Artstor Digital Library provides cross-disciplinary content “from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research — you are free to use them in classroom instruction and handouts, presentations, student assignments, and other noncommercial educational and scholarly activities.” The VRC provides training and support in this valuable resource.

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT)
A personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl. AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access, free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large.

Artserve
“Art and Architecture mainly from the Mediterranean Basin, Japan, India and Cambodia.” Created by Michael Greenhalgh, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Australian National University. Contains around 450,000 images, but does not include a database. Navigation can be cumbersome. Image quality varies; includes original photography (e.g., museums, archeological sites) and reproductions.

Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Image Index of Art and Architecture
“Its mission is to collect, index and make available photographs related to European art and architecture, as well as to conduct research on the history, practice and theory of how visual cultural assets are passed on, especially the accompanying transformation process as it relates to the media, the conditions of storing knowledge in visual form, and the significance to society of remembering visual culture. With its roughly 1.7 million photographs, Foto Marburg is one of the largest image archives on European art and architecture.”

Creative Commons Search
Looking for images or other creative works that you can reuse or modify? Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that provides creators with a set of flexible copyleft licenses and tools that they can easily assign to their works free of charge. This portal helps you find works with CC licenses, which you can reuse under the terms selected by the creator.

Digital Imaging Project
Photographs from the travels of Mary Ann Sullivan at Bluffton University. The archive currently contains over 25,000 images and grows as Sullivan continues her travels. Emphasis on European and American architecture, but also includes Egyptian, some Asian, and Mexican sites. They are freely available for personal or educational purposes.

Digital Public Library of America
DPLA's mission includes making materials from American libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions available to all in a one-stop discovery experience. Materials include images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States. With over 40 millions objects and counting, this is an important source for educators, scholars, and the general public.

Europeana
Aggregated collection that provides access to millions of books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools. “Around 1500 institutions have contributed to Europeana. Renowned names such as the British Library in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Louvre in Paris are featured alongside smaller organisations across Europe. Together, their assembled collections allow you to explore Europe’s history from ancient times to the modern day.”

Flickr
Online photo management and sharing application. Users upload and tag (label) photos, which they may choose to share publicly and allow others to tag for better search results. When opened, images available for downloading feature an ALL SIZES button that will reveal download options. Flickr Commons is a collection of publicly-held photography collections, launched in January of 2008. Also, many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search for content available under each type of license.

Joconde
A collective catalog of the collections of French museums. Over 200,000 records are accompanied by images. In French.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
With a concentration on its most rare collections and those unavailable anywhere else, this is a growing treasury of digitized photographs, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, and books, as well as born-digital materials such as websites.

Library of Congress Global Gateway
Links to individual digital collections from the Library of Congress and others that focus on history and cultures around the world, as well as collaborative digital libraries built with international partners.

LIFE Photo Archive, Hosted by Google
“Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.”

NYPL Digital Gallery
Provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the New York Public Library’s vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.

Oxford Art Online (access limited to the CU community)
Authoritative reference resource on the history of art; includes many illustrated articles.

Smithsonian Institution Collection Images
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums housing vast collections that represent American and global culture. Very broad range of content.

UNESCO World Heritage
The World Heritage List includes over 900 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. The list is arranged alphabetically by country, and most sites’ entries include a Gallery tab with images. Most images appear to be limited to 500 pixels. Many sites’ entries also feature a Video tab.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Digital Collections
Offers a broad array of content. Especially noteworthy is its Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture, with a particular focus on Early America.

VADS (Visual Arts Data Service)
Based in the UK. Visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.

Web Gallery of Art
A personal gallery with a searchable database of European painting and sculpture from the 12th to mid-19th centuries. Contains over 18,000 images. While most images are surrogates scanned from printed sources, many are of acceptable quality for classroom projection.

Wellcome Images
“Wellcome Images is one of the world’s richest and most unique collections, with themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science.”

WorldImages
Provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It has just been selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collection of Internet materials. It contains approximately 80,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery.

World Digital Library
Launched in 2009, the World Digital Library (WDL) was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world. The materials collected by the WDL include  books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films. It is currently transitioning to the Library of Congress’s main website. .

Yale Digital Content, Cross Collection Discovery
“Cross Collection Discovery (CCD) provides a way to search across Yale’s collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video documenting people, places, and events that form part of Yale’s institutional identity and contribution to scholarship.”

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, 18th-Century Art
Art History Resources, 19th-Century Art
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture
The Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture collects and creates electronic resources for study and research of the decorative arts, with a particular focus on Early America. From the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

John Carter Brown Library, Archive of Early American Images
“A database of graphic representations of the colonial Americas, from Hudson Bay to Tierra del Fuego, drawn entirely from primary sources printed or created between 1492 and ca. 1825.”

Lewis Walpole Library
“The main focus of the Digital Collection is the Library’s world-renowned collection of English caricatures and political satirical prints from the late-seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries. Included are works by Bunbury, Woodward, Gillray, Rowlandson, and Newton, among others.”

Library of Congress: American Memory
“American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among nineteen curatorial departments. The Collections Database is a searchable database of artworks and related materials from the permanent collection of the Met. The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History provides short introductions to periods, cultures, and geographical areas in the history of world art illustrated with works from the Met’s permanent collection.”

Musée d’Orsay
The Orsay collection consists mainly French art from 1848 to 1915. Its collection of impressionist and post-impressionist is the largest in the world. While there is a search interface in English, the item records are in French.

National Archives’ Archival Research Catalog
The online catalog of NARA’s nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. There are many selected topics relating to both national and regional American history and culture.

Slavery Images
“The 1,280 images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public – in brief, anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World.”

Smithsonian American Art Museum
“The nation’s first collection of American art and one of the world’s largest and most inclusive collections of art made in the United States.”

World Images
Browse curated collections in WorldImages, managed by California State University, to find images of 18th and 19th century European and American art: Baroque and Rococo: 17th & 18th Centuries and The Americas. “You are free to use these images for non-profit educational purposes, but we ask that you give credit to the copyright holders who retain rights to the images. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.”

See the "Islamic" and "​Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian" sections below for Islamic and Ancient Egyptian content.

Image Finding Guides

Africa South of the Sahara: Art (Selected Internet Resources)
Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources is an extensive annotated directory of online resources about Africa from Stanford Libraries.

Art History Resources, Art in Africa
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

American Museum of Natural History, African Ethnographic Collection
“Over 36,000 objects and textiles represent the diverse peoples of Africa.”

Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa
“The collection of the arts of Africa reflects the continent’s great cultural and geographic diversity and deep, complex history through over 500 works of art from the 11th through the 20th century.”

Barnes Foundation 
“The mission of the Barnes is to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” The online collection includes over 100 works of African art.

British Museum, Africa 
"Our African collection represents the rich and diverse history of a continent, from the beautiful bronze-casting of Igbo-Ukwu, Ife and Benin to objects that delve into the ritual of masquerade – traditional performances that express the secret knowledge of local communities."

Brooklyn Museum: Collection: Arts of Africa
The Brooklyn Museum features over 4,000 highlights from the African collection online.

Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The collection includes approximately 300 works of modern and contemporary African art.

Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art Department
Over 400 images of works from its collection.

Dallas Museum of Art, Arts of Africa 
The Dallas Museum of Art features over 700 highlights from the African collection online.

Fowler Museum at UCLA
“The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts and cultures with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Indigenous Americas—past and present.” The online collections include almost 800 images of African art.

Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
“Beginning with the acquisition of ethnographic curiosities around 1796, the collection has grown to nearly 2,000 objects that reflect all regions of the African continent and diaspora, and represent canonical and historical art forms and styles as well as modern and contemporary works in a variety of media.”

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois
Online collections include almost 300 images of African art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Africa
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features nearly 3,000 highlights from the African collection online.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Art of Africa and Oceania
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston showcases sixty highlights from the African collection. Each image is viewable in the round.

National Museum of African Art
“These Highlights are created to serve as entry points to explore the diversity of African Art. Please visit us often to see new Highlights or ‘mini’ exhibitions selected by NMAA Curators and Staff for your enjoyment.”

New Orleans Museum of Art
“The collection, noted for its extraordinary strengths in French and American art, photography, glass, and African and Japanese works, continues to expand and grow, making NOMA one of the top art museums in the South.” Includes around 400 works of African art online.

Ross Archive of African Images
“Approximately 5,000 pictures of African art published before 1921. The Archive aspires to include all the figurative African objects in books, periodicals, catalogues, newspapers, and other publications appearing in 1920 and earlier – the oldest dates to 1591.”

Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Over 3,500 works available in its online collection. “The strength of the museum’s collection lies in its unmatched depth and diversity It is a collection that embraces the artistic expressions of Africa, from the ancient to contemporary times.”

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
“VMFA’s collection of African art, regarded as one of the most comprehensive in the United States, features figures, masks, textiles, regalia, and ritual objects from more than 100 cultures throughout the continent. The collection presents a coherent, broad-based view of the arts and cultural history in Africa from the first millennium BC to the present day.”

World Images
Browse curated Africa collections in WorldImages, managed by California State University. Collections include Africa’s People; African Diaspora; Egypt; Nubian Art & History; Ethiopia; East Africa; West African Art and Environment; Central & Southern African Art & History; and North Africa. “You are free to use these images for non-profit educational purposes, but we ask that you give credit to the copyright holders who retain rights to the images. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.”

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Ancient Greek Art
Art History Resources, Ancient Roman Art
Art History Resources, Etruscan Art
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Classical Art Research Centre and the Beazley Archive
“The Classical Art Research Centre leads and supports research on ancient art. At its heart is the Beazley Archive, which includes the world’s largest collection of images of ancient figure-decorated pottery. The Beazley Archive’s online databases and our other web resources are freely available through this site.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greece
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features 30+ high quality images of highlights of the Greek collection.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rome
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features 30+ high quality images of highlights of the Roman Empire collection.

Perseus Digital Library Art & Archaeology Artifact Browser
“Look through a massive library of art objects, sites, and buildings. The library’s catalogs document 1305 coins, 1909 vases, 2003 sculptures, 179 sites, 140 gems, and 424 buildings. Each catalog entry has a description of the object and its context; most have images. Descriptions and images have been produced in collaboration with many museums, institutions, and scholars. Catalog information and keywords have been taken from standard sources, which are cited in the entries for each object.” Administered through Tufts University.

Stoa Image Gallery
“The Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication exists primarily to serve classicists. Its image gallery contains user-created albums with many large, high quality images available for non-commercial purposes.”

WorldImages, Greek
Collections include Greek Architecture, Greek Sculpture, Greek Ceramics, Greek Applied Arts, Greek Asia Minor. From California State University.

WorldImages, Prehistoric and Ancient Mediterranean
Collections include Paleolithic; Neolithic; Anatolia: Prehistory; Anatolia: Hittites, Hatti, Phrygians & Urartians; Ancient Aegean; Cypriot; Phoenician/ Punic; Greek; Etruscan; and Roman. From California State University.

WorldImages, Roman
Collections include Roman Architecture, Roman Painting and Mosaics, Roman Sculpture, Roman Applied Arts, Religions of Rome, Roman & Early Christian Anatolia. From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Ancient Near East and Egypt
Research Guide from the UCLA Library

Art History Resources, Ancient Egyptian Art
Art History Resources, Ancient Near East
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Ancient Near East Photographs
“This collection, created by Professor Scott Noegel, documents artifacts and archaeological sites of the ancient Near East. Currently, all images are of Egypt and Israel, although plans exist to eventually add images from Anatolia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.”

Brooklyn Museum: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
The Brooklyn Museum features 8500+ high quality images from their Ancient Near Eastern Art.

Duke Papyrus Archive
“The Duke Papyrus Archive provides electronic access to texts about and images of nearly 1400 papyri from ancient Egypt. The target audience includes: papyrologists, ancient historians, archaeologists, biblical scholars, classicists, Coptologists, Egyptologists, students of literature and religion and all others interested in ancient Egypt.”

https://asia.si.edu/collection-area/ancient-egyptian-art/
The Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art feature 1,100+ high quality images of their Ancient Egyptian Art collection ranging from 5,000 BCE. to 651 BCE.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egypt
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features over 30,000 images from the Egyptian Collection.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ancient Near Eastern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features over 6,000 images from the Ancient Near Eastern Collection.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Art of the Ancient World
“The Art of the Ancient World collection ranks among the premier encyclopedic collections in the world, with over 83,000 works of art from Egypt, Nubia, the Near East, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and Anatolia. The objects in the collection range in date from about 6500 BC to AD 600 and cover a broad geographical expanse, from Britain to Afghanistan. There is something for everyone, including sculpture, jewelry, coffins, mummies, coins, weapons, architecture, vases, carved gems, musical instruments, and mosaics.”

Stoa Image Gallery
“The Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication exists primarily to serve classicists. Its image gallery contains user-created albums with many large, high quality images available for non-commercial purposes.”

The Walters Art Museum, Ancient Egypt and Nubia
“Statuary, reliefs, stelae, funerary objects, jewelry and objects from daily life, dating from prehistoric to Roman Egypt (5th millennium BC– 4th century AD), can be found in the Walters’ collection of ancient Egyptian art.”

The Walters Art Museum, Ancient Near East
The features 250+ high quality images from their Ancient Near East collection.

WorldImages, Egypt
“The long history of Egyptian art is divided into art forms, starting with architecture, then painting, sculpture and the applied arts.” From California State University.

WorldImages, Iran (Persia)
Collections include Iranian Prehistory; Achaemenid & Parthian Art; Sasanian Art; and Safavid. From California State University.

WorldImages, The Levant (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon)
Collections include Levant: Prehistoric; Phoenicians; Levantines: Selucids, Palmyrans & Nabateans; Ancient Lebanon; Medieval to Modern Syria

WorldImages, Mesopotamia & Anatolia
Collections include Sumerians & Akkadians; Babylonians & Kassites; Assyrians; and Anatolians, Hittites & Urartians. From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Architecture Images, Free Access Databases from the University of Michigan Library
“These databases are free to the public and can be accessed anywhere.  That does not mean that the images are without copyright -- you may still need to get copyright clearance for publishing.”

Finding Images and Video: Architecture and Engineering, from the University of Illinois Library

Finding Images and Video: Landscape Architecture, from the University of Illinois Library

Selected Image Resources

Aga Khan Visual Archive, MIT
Over 30,000 “digital images of architecture, urbanism, and the built environment in the Islamic world, donated by students, scholars, and architectural firms.”

Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photographs
“Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs of architecture, decorative arts and sculpture. White (1832-1918), the first president of Cornell University, established the collection by donating several thousand images from his personal architectural library. ...Currently, the image database contains approximately 1,300 images.”

Great Buildings
Provides links to buildings famous throughout the world, along with other types of dwellings. Includes historical information, photos, architectural details and plans, architect information, books on architecture, 3D walkthrough computer models, picture index, discussion group, search engines, and access to ArchitectureWeek electronic magazine. While this is a commercial website that links to items for sale through Amazon or Artifice, it offers a great deal of basic building information for free. 

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
"The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes, including examples as diverse as the Pueblo of Acoma, houses, windmills, one-room schools, the Golden Gate Bridge, and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright."

National Register of Historic Places, Flickr Collection
"The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources."

Smithsonian Libraries 
Over 1,200 images from their Architecture and Landscape Design collection.

Society of Architectural Historians Architecture Resources Archive (SAHARA) (access limited to CU Boulder users through the Artstor digital library)
“Digital image archive developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with Artstor. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, SAHARA contains over 100,000 images of architecture and landscapes contributed by SAH members—architects, scholars, photographers, graduate students, preservationists, and others who share an interest in the built environment. 

Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia
"SAH Archipedia is an authoritative online encyclopedia of the U.S. built environment organized by the Society of Architectural Historians and the University of Virginia Press. It contains histories, photographs, and maps for over 20,000 structures and places. ...This cross-section of the country demonstrates the richness and diversity of architecture and building practice across many centuries, from mud brick to steel, from ancient cliff dwellings to contemporary office towers—a history that unfolds in individual building entries and thematic essays written by leading architectural historians who survey and explain styles and typologies, materials and techniques, and social and political contexts, from local to state to national levels."

ArchNet
“Archnet is a globally-accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world… Officially launched in 2002 as a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Archnet has since evolved into the largest open, online architectural library with a focus on Muslim cultures. Its digital archives form a comprehensive resource on architecture, urban design, landscape, development, and related issues.”

Asian Historical Architecture
“Over 36,000 photos of sites in twenty-three countries, with background information and virtual tours. This website is a collection of photos from many different contributors.”

Cities and Buildings Database, University of Washington
“The Cities and Buildings Database is a collection of digitized images of buildings and cities drawn from across time and throughout the world, available to students, researchers and educators on the web.” Currently over 12,000 images.

UNESCO World Heritage
The World Heritage List includes around 900 cultural properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. The list is arranged alphabetically by country, and most sites’ entries include a Gallery tab with images. Most images appear to be limited to 500 pixels. Many sites’ entries also feature a Video tab.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Chinese Art
Art History Resources, Japanese Art
Art History Resources, Art of India
Art History Resources, Art in Southeast Asia
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Image Archives
From NYU’s Arts of China Consortium

Sources on South Asian Art and Architecture
From Columbia University

Visual Resources for Japan
From Duke University Libraries

Selected Image Resources

American Geographical Society Library (AGSL) Digital Photo Archive, Asia and Middle East
“The AGSL Digital Photo Archive presents over 7,000 images from the holdings of the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library. The selection focuses on the countries of Asia and the Middle East. The images come from the collections acquired over many decades by the AGS Library including an extensive photographic print collection. The digital collection is under continuing development.”

Art Institute of Chicago, Asian collection
“The Art Institute’s distinguished Asian collection comprises works spanning nearly five millennia from China, Korea, Japan, India, southwest Asia, and the Near and Middle East.”

Asia Art Archive
“AAA’s collection is a dynamic, growing body of material intended to reflect contemporary artistic practice and developments of Asia within an international context. Built through a systematic programme of research and information gathering, AAA is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading public collections of primary and secondary source material about contemporary art in Asia.”

Asian Historical Architecture
“A photographic survey of Asia’s architectural heritage. Here you can view over 34,000 photos of 1,311 sites in twenty-three countries, with background information and virtual tours. This website is a collection of photos from many different contributors.”

Cleveland Museum of Art, Collection Online
The Cleveland Museum of Art is known for its substantial and wide-ranging holdings of Asian art.

Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
“Together, both galleries form the national museums of Asian art at the Smithsonian Institution. More than 11,000 objects from our collection are available online. New objects are added each month.”

The Huntington Archive
“This digital collection includes more than 40,000 photographs of art and architecture from throughout Asia. The countries included in this collection are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.”

National Museum of Korea
“Previously, exhibitions at the NMK featured only Korean arts, but we have expanded our focus in both our permanent collection and our newly expanded collections from Asian countries.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asian Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art features over 68,000 images from the Asian Collection.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Among the finest in the Western world, the MFA’s collection of Asian art covers the creative achievement of more than half the world’s population since 4,000 BC. The collection encompasses Japanese, Chinese, and Indian painting and sculpture; Japanese prints and metalwork; Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese ceramics; and the arts of the Islamic world.”

National Palace Museum, Taiwan
Taiwan’s National Palace Museum maintains one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks. Their Open Data photo-sharing initiative has made around 17,000 objects available online. “Applicants must complete the NPM application procedure in order to use image files sized over 300 dpi or when applying for publication licensing. For all other use of images on this site, users need only indicate the image source and the complete title of the National Palace Museum.”

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, East Asian Art
Over 6,000 images from the Nelson-Atkins world-class collection of East Asian art. “The Chinese art collection is one of the finest collections in the West with more than 7,000 works from every phase of China’s artistic activity.”

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, South and Southeast Asian Art
Over 1,000 images from one of the most important collections in America.The collection contains 945 objects of the highest quality from the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religions. Objects range from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 19th century C.E., from areas covered by modern-day India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.”

Sidney D. Gamble Photographs
“Approximately 5,000 photographs, primarily of China, 1917-1932.”  The online collection is maintained by Duke University.

WorldImages, Asia
“This section contains images from all over Asia, from China, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, India, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Nepal and the Philippines. In addition to artworks there are images of Asians themselves and of their interactions with the west.” From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Art of Pacific Cultures
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Oceania
Online collection is maintained by Voice of the Shuttle, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Selected Image Resources

National Archives of Australia
“The National Archives collection mainly documents Australian Government activities since Federation in 1901. Most of our records are files of documents, but our collection includes posters, plans, films, sound recordings, videotapes, digital records and many photographs.”

National Library of New Zealand
The extensive online collection includes the following subject areas: children’s literature, family history, music, Maori, NZ and the Pacific, school curriculum, and library science.

National Museum Australia
“At the core of the Museum and its exhibitions is the National Historical Collection – more than 200,000 objects representing Australia’s history and cultural heritage. This online database provides access to a subset of the collection. New collection records are being added continuously and the information improved.”

Trove
From the National Library of Australia. “Find and get over 302,328,976 Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more.”

Selected Image Resources
Note that many of the resources listed in other sections of this guide contain images of ceramic objects from those respective geographic areas and periods.

accessCeramics
A curated image collection of contemporary ceramics by recognized artists. Administered by Lewis and Clark College.

Art Institute of Chicago
Around 18,000 images of ceramic objects from around the world and throughout history.

artaxis
“An evolving independent network of contemporary artists and their work… A peer reviewed source of contemporary artwork in ceramics and sculpture.”

American Museum of Ceramic Art
“AMOCA preserves and collects significant ceramic achievements of the world’s cultures from ancient times to the present. Our permanent collection, which consists of over 7,000 pieces, is a growing representation of the impact of ceramics on the development of human cultures.”

Beazley Archive Pottery Database
"The Archive contains around 100,000 photographs of ancient Greek (mainly Athenian) painted pottery, as well as relevant books and offprints, extensive material on the history of gem-collecting, and thousands of other documents and photographs relating to classical archaeology and to [Professor Sir John] Beazley's own career."

The Color Network Database
“The Color Network’s mission is to aid in the advancement of people of color in the ceramic arts. We aim to assist artists develop, network, and create dialogue while maintaining a place for a database, resources, and mentorship. We hope to foster a community of artists of all professional and skill levels that help each other grow.”

Dallas Museum of Art
One of the 10 largest art museums in the country; strong focus on global collections. The Keir Collection of Islamic Art features around 700 online images of ceramic objects from the Islamic world. A search on ceramics in the Arts of the Americas collection yields around 1,000 results of historical pieces from North, Central, and South America.

Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum houses a significant number of ceramic objects, and is especially well known for their Art of the Ancient Americas collection.

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture
From the University of Wisconsin Libraries, includes the Longridge Ceramics Collection, which has been called "the finest private collection of British delft and slipware in the world," and the North Carolina Earthenware, a "searchable digital collection of approximately 600 ceramic works created by Moravian potters in North Carolina in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Pieces include slip decorated dishes and other tableware, sculptural bottle forms, and fragmentary remains recovered from North Carolina pottery sites.

Europeana
“Europeana works with thousands of European archives, libraries and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education and research. This website gives you access to millions of books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for.” A keyword search on ceramics currently offers almost 150,000 results.

Freer and Sackler Galleries, Arts of the Islamic World
“The Freer and Sackler galleries have one of the finest collections of Islamic art in the United States, with particular strengths in ceramics and illustrated manuscripts.”

Functional and Vessel-Based Ceramics
Links to contemporary functional and vessel-based works, curated by ceramic artist Ayumi Horie.

Gardiner Museum
“The Gardiner Museum is Canada’s national museum of ceramics. It is one of a small number of specialized museums of ceramics in the world.”

International Museum of Dinnerware Design
“The International Museum of Dinnerware Design collects, preserves and celebrates masterpieces of the tabletop genre created by leading artists and designers worldwide. Through its collections, exhibitions, and educational programming, it provides a window on the varied cultural and societal attitudes toward food and dining and commemorates the objects that exalt and venerate the dining experience.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Over 25,000 images of ceramic objects from around the world and throughout history.

National Museum of the American Indian
"An active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution... The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego." Includes many types of ceramic objects. Browse by object type, or enter a search term and narrow results as needed.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
With a particular strength in Asian art, the museum has one of the best collections of Chinese ceramics in the US, as well as objects from Afghanistan, Japan, India, Iran, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art
Promotes and preserves the unique legacy of Biloxi potter George E. Ohr and the cultural heritage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Rijksmuseum
"The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands. We tell the story of 800 years of Dutch history, from 1200 to now." The museum owns approximately 7,250 ceramic objects, with more than 4,600 porcelain, 400 majolica, 1750 faience, and 850 stoneware pieces. Included among its holdings are an important collection of German Meissen porcelain, and an important collection of Delft faience. Make an account in the Rijksstudio, their online collection, and create image groups that you can share and download, with many high-resolution, copyright-lenient images that you can use for almost any purpose.

Rosenfield Collection
David and Louise Rosenfield’s online ceramics collection of contemporary, functional ceramic art. Continually being updated. Over 3,000 objects by more than 800 artists.

Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum's collection of Asian ceramics is especially strong.

Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums housing vast collections that represent American and global culture. A search for ceramics on the online collection portal yields over 50,000 results from the various museums. Experiment with narrowing results by museum, topic, date, place, etc. to home in on your particular research area. 

Victoria and Albert Museum
"Holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance." Over 50,000 ceramics objects.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Early Medieval Art
Art History Resources, Gothic Art
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies, Georgetown University
“The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth’s easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world.” The Art category provides links to a wealth of resources. The online collection is sponsored by Georgetown University.

Selected Image Resources

Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
“Search 250,000 digitized images of photographs, textual documents, illuminated manuscripts, maps, works of art, and books from the Beinecke’s collections.”

Bodleian Libraries Digital Collections
Collections include Greek manuscripts; Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript illumination; Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures; SJC Ms17: a unique work of medieval science; and Western Manuscripts.

CORSAIR Online Collection Catalog
“CORSAIR is a single database providing unified access to over 330,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects. Records continue to be added for new acquisitions.”

Digital Medieval Manuscripts at Houghton Library
“The Houghton Library’s distinguished collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts represents a significant resource for the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Western Europe. Assembled through gifts and purchase over the past two centuries, this collection includes works in Latin, Greek, and most of the vernacular languages of Europe that are the primary sources for the study of the literature, art, history, music, philosophy, and theology of the periods.”

Gothic Past, Trinity College Dublin
“An open-access resource for the study of medieval Irish architecture and sculpture. The site showcases images from three significant collections of image archives housed in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College.”

International Center of Medieval Art’s Flickr Photostream
The International Center of Medieval Art is formed “to promote and encourage the study, understanding, and appreciation of the visual arts of the Middle Ages produced in Europe, the Mediterranean region, and the Slavic world, during the period between ca. 300 and ca. 1500 C.E.; and to this end to sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, exhibitions, displays, and publications devoted to medieval art and culture.”

Mapping Gothic France
“With a database of images, texts, charts and historical maps, Mapping Gothic France invites you to explore the parallel stories of Gothic architecture and the formation of France in the 12th and 13th centuries.”

WorldImages, Medieval: 5th-15th Centuries
Collections include Early Christian; Byzantine; Migration; Carolingian; Ottonian; Romanesque 11th-12th centuries; and Gothic 12th-15th centuries.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Renaissance Art in Italy
Art History Resources, Renaissance Art Outside Italy
Art History Resources, Baroque Art
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Bodleian Libraries Digital Collections
Collections include Greek manuscripts; Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript illumination; Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures; SJC Ms17: a unique work of medieval science; and Western Manuscripts.

CORSAIR Online Collection Catalog
“CORSAIR is a single database providing unified access to over 330,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects. Records continue to be added for new acquisitions.”

WorldImages, Renaissance: 15th-16th Centuries
Collections include Burgundian Renaissance; French Renaissance; German Renaissance; Italian Renaissance; Netherlandish Renaissance; Spanish Renaissance; and Renaissance Graphic Arts. From California State University.

WorldImages, Baroque and Rococo: 17th & 18th Centuries
Collections include Italian 17th-18th centuries; Dutch & Flemish 17th-18th Century Art; French 17th -18th Century Art; German & Austrian 17th and 18th Century Art; Balkans & Central Europe; British Art 16th-18th Century; Russian Art 16th-19th Century; Spanish 17th-19th Century Art; Scandinavia. From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Art of the Americas
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Wayeb, European Association of Mayanists
“The European Association of Mayanists, Wayeb, is an academically oriented non-profit association that promotes Maya Studies in Europe. It was created in 1996 by a group of young scholars seeking to build academic contacts.”

Selected Image Resources

Architecture, Restoration, And Imaging Of The Maya Cities Of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, And Labná
A project of Charles S. Rhyne, Professor Emeritus, Reed College. “The main purpose of this web site is to make available more comprehensive visual documentation of these world famous Maya cities than has previously been available in print or on the web. I hope this will help viewers to explore these sites on their own, perhaps even to decide that this is one place on earth they absolutely must visit in person.”

Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Collection
“The Pre-Columbian Collection includes objects created during three thousand years of history in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Intermediate Area of Latin America. Its holdings of over 700 objects include stone sculpture, ceramics, architectural panels, small metal objects and textiles.”

LACMA, Art of the Ancient Americas collection
“A rich array of objects from the major civilizations of ancient Mexico constitute the heart of the collection.”

MayaRuins.com
“A photographic tour of sites in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.” Photographs taken during Barbara McKenzie’s trips to archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America from 1995-2004.”

Princeton University Art Museum, Art of the Ancient Americas collection
A “range of artistic production from the ancient American past, as well as Native American arts from more recent times. Geographically, the collection ranges from Chile (Diaquita culture) to Alaska (esp. Eskimo and Tlingit) and Greenland (Inuit).”

World Digital Library
“The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”

WorldImages, Pre-Columbian
Collections include Pre-Columbian: Andean; Pre-Columbian: Central American & Amazon; Pre-Columbian: Mesoamerican; and Pre-Columbian: Maya. From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Art of the Americas
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Architecture, Restoration, And Imaging Of The Maya Cities Of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, And Labná
A project of Charles S. Rhyne, Professor Emeritus, Reed College. “The main purpose of this web site is to make available more comprehensive visual documentation of these world famous Maya cities than has previously been available in print or on the web. I hope this will help viewers to explore these sites on their own, perhaps even to decide that this is one place on earth they absolutely must visit in person.

Dumbarton Oaks, Pre-Columbian Collection
“The Pre-Columbian Collection includes objects created during three thousand years of history in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Intermediate Area of Latin America. Its holdings of over 700 objects include stone sculpture, ceramics, architectural panels, small metal objects and textiles.”

LACMA, Art of the Ancient Americas collection
“A rich array of objects from the major civilizations of ancient Mexico constitute the heart of the collection.”

MayaRuins.com
“A photographic tour of sites in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.” Photographs taken during Barbara McKenzie’s trips to archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America from 1995-2004.”

National Museum of the Native American
“An active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution... The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.”

Pomona College Museum of Art, Native American Collection
Begin your search by selecting the “Browse” option at the top, then narrow your search on the left by selecting “Native American.”

Princeton University Art Museum, Art of the Ancient Americas collection
A “range of artistic production from the ancient American past, as well as Native American arts from more recent times. Geographically, the collection ranges from Chile (Diaquita culture) to Alaska (esp. Eskimo and Tlingit) and Greenland (Inuit).”

University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections
Particularly strong in materials related to the Pacific Northwest and Native Americans.

World Digital Library
“The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”

WorldImages, Pre-Columbian
Collections include Pre-Columbian: Andean; Pre-Columbian: Central American & Amazon; Pre-Columbian: Mesoamerican; and Pre-Columbian: Maya. From California State University.

WorldImages, Native American
Collections include Native American: Paleo-Indian & Archaic; Native American: Southwestern; Native American: Pacific Coast & Alaska; Native American: Eastern & Southeastern; Native American: Great Plains; Representations of Native Americans. From California State University.

Image Finding Guides

Art History Resources, Islamic Art
These are art history resources selected by Christopher Witcombe (Department of Art and Art History, Sweet Briar College, Virginia). Many of them feature images.

Selected Image Resources

Aga Khan Visual Archive, MIT
“Consists of over 120,000 slides and digital images of architecture, urbanism, and the built environment in the Islamic world, donated by students, scholars, and architectural firms.”

ArchNet
“Archnet is a globally-accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world… Officially launched in 2002 as a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Archnet has since evolved into the largest open, online architectural library with a focus on Muslim cultures. Its digital archives form a comprehensive resource on architecture, urban design, landscape, development, and related issues.”

Freer and Sackler Galleries, Arts of the Islamic World
“The Freer and Sackler galleries have one of the finest collections of Islamic art in the United States, with particular strengths in ceramics and illustrated manuscripts.”

Islamic Art, LACMA Collections Online
“The Los Angeles County Museum of Art houses one of the most significant collections of Islamic art in the world. These widely diverse arts, from an area extending from southern Spain to Central Asia, trace the distinctive visual imagination of Islamic artists over a period of fourteen hundred years.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Islamic Art
The Met feature over 4,000 images of Islamic works from its collection.

Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts
“The Princeton University Library is recataloging and initially digitizing 200 of its approximately 9,500 volumes of Islamic manuscripts from Robert Garrett and other sources. These 200 will be the core of the Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts. These manuscripts constitute the premier collection of Islamic manuscripts in the Western Hemisphere and number among the finest in the world.”

WorldImages, Islamic Art & Culture
Collections include Islam; Islamic Architecture; Islamic Clothing; Islamic Painting; and Islamic Applied Arts & Sculpture. From California State University.

Coming soon...

Coming soon...

Survey of GLAM open access policy and practice
This extensive survey lists open access policies and practice of over 800 galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs), with links to the collections. Sorted alphabetically by country. From Douglas McCarthy and Dr. Andrea Wallace (CC BY 4.0, 2018 to present).

Coming soon...