LibGuides: Meredith's Mega Guide: Art History

Finding Books in Art History

General Library Collection Catalogs

CLIO
CLIO catalog allows you to search the complete holdings (books, e-books, media materials, journal databases, and journal articles) within the Columbia Library system.
Art Discovery Catologue
The Art Discovery Group Catalogue (ADGC) brings together millions of records for art resources from leading art libraries around the globe.

WorldCat
Contains over 48 million records, covering all materials (books, special collections, DVDs/VHS, serials, etc) cataloged by over 10,000 libraries around the world.

Museum Library Catalogs

Frick Art Research Library
The mission of the Frick Art Research Library is to provide public access to materials and programs focused on the study of fine and decorative arts created in the European tradition from the fourth through the twentieth century, as well as art from around the world that has been influenced by or had an influence on this tradition. The library serves an international research community and supports scholarly and programmatic initiatives throughout The Frick Collection.
Getty Research Portal
The Getty Research Portal™ is a free online search platform providing worldwide access to an extensive collection of digitized art history texts from a range of institutions. This multilingual and multicultural union catalog affords art historians and other researchers the ability to search and download complete digital copies of publications devoted to art, architecture, material culture, and related fields.
Hispanic Society of America
The Hispanic Society of America’s renowned library offers unrivaled resources for researchers interested in the history and culture of Spain, Portugal, and the Americas. The collections of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books are among the most extensive outside Spain, containing more than 250,000 manuscripts, documents, and letters dating from the 11th to 20th centuries, along with 30,000 books printed before 1830, which include some 250 incunabula (books printed before 1500). In addition to rare books, the Hispanic Society maintains a modern research library on the literature, fine arts, geography, history, and cultures of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines, now comprising over 300,000 volumes plus 1,500 periodicals dating from the 19th century up to the present.
International Center of Photography
ICP's William Randolph Hearst Library lives at the heart of our home in the Lower East Side of New York City. The library is dedicated to the entire discipline of photography and houses an extensive collection of photobooks and other resources.
Metropolitan Museum: Watsonline
Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its collection of books and periodicals relating to the history of art is one of the most comprehensive in the world. The primary mission of the library is to support the research activities of the Museum staff; in addition, it welcomes a broad range of students and researchers college age and above.
MoMA Library
The Museum of Modern Art Library is a comprehensive collection devoted to modern and contemporary art. The noncirculating collection documents painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, architecture, design, performance, video, film, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present (from 1830 for photography). The Library’s holdings include approximately 400,000 books and exhibition catalogs, over 1,000 periodical titles, and over 90,000 files of ephemera about individual artists and groups.
Morgan Library and Museum, CORSAIR
The Morgan Library & Museum's collection is searchable through their database, CORSAIR.
New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center, is a specialized research library within the New York Public Library system, with collections by and about Black culture in the United States.
New York Public Library Art and Architecture Collection
The Art and Architecture Collection contains published works on fine art, decorative arts, architecture and design history in general. The scope of the Collection is international, covering the arts from prehistory through the contemporary period. The holdings are remarkably rich for scholarship as a result of the original bequests from the Astor and Lenox collections, and other generous gifts. The Collection is particularly strong in the decorative arts; included among its early holdings is an antiquarian-based collection of portfolio and plate-books; the history of painting and drawing; and in Western European and American architectural history.
NYARC Arcade
This online catalog from the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) unites the collections of the Frick Art Reference Library and the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum and The Museum of Modern Art under a single search.
Whitney Museum Library: WhitneyCat
The Frances Mulhall Achilles Library at the Whitney Museum of American Art is a comprehensive research collection in the field of twentieth-century and contemporary American art. Of paramount importance to American art research and scholarship, its collections of books, periodicals, archives, and special collections are accessed by the Whitney’s own staff as well as by visiting scholars and researchers by appointment.

Top Picks for Art History Research

Background Resources

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online enables access and cross-search functionality to Grove and Oxford reference content in one location. Provides access to Grove Art Online, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society and numerous international art galleries and artists.

Heilbrunn Timeline of the History of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History presents the Met’s collection through a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of global art history. Great for scholarly contextual information - even for works outside the Met's collection.

Journal Articles

BHA and RILA

A comprehensive bibliographical database of scholarly writing about the history of western art, containing "abstracts and indexes of current publications in the history of art, including scholarly journals, conferences, book, exhibition reviews, and exhibition catalogues." The abstracts may be in English or in French, and index terms (descriptors) are in both English and French. BHA and RILA cover European and American visual arts material published between 1975 and 2007.
International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
The bibliography provides authoritative coverage of international scholarship within the following broad parameters: European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945; Visual arts in all media, plus decorative and applied arts, museum studies and conservation, archaeology and classical studies, antiques and architectural history, and related fields; Scholarship from at least 500 core journals, plus detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues; Very international coverage, with at least 60% of records from non-English-language publications (principally German, French, Italian and Spanish).
JSTOR
Beginning August 1st Jstor's image search will replace Artstor. Artstor is a federated search that offers high quality images across art and design fields from museums around the globe.

Image Collections

ARTstor

Artstor is a searchable database of digital images and associated catalog data from museum, archives, galleries and libraries from around the globe. ARTstor documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, ethnographic and women's studies, as well as many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, download and organize images.

Tips for Beginning your Research

Beginning your Research

If you don't know where to start, or even if you do, it's always a good idea to read some background resources on the topic you wish to write about. Not only can they help you get a broad overview of your topic, but because they often include a bibliography of key resources on the topic to help you build your argument. Resources like Oxford Art Online, and the Metropolitan Museum's Heilbrunn Timeline of the History of Art are excellent sources to consult when because their articles offer encyclopedic, but benefit from the fact that they are written by scholars in the field.

A Note on Wikipedia

Another great resources to keep in mind is Wikipedia. While you can't cite Wikipedia because articles on the platform can edited by anyone and the content always in flux, the quality of Wikipedia articles is comparable to that of many scholarly encyclopedias. Furthermore, Wikipedia provides useful citations and external links that you can cite! Finally, because Wikipedia articles can be edited instantly, you are more likely to find information on research conducted in the last year than you would find in a scholarly encyclopedia that requires a lengthy peer review process to be published.

Museum Collection Databases

Another place to find information about the object your researching are museum collections databases. For many objects they may be the only place that references your particular object. Mining museum databases for information about object's creator, period of creation, and related contextual information can be a great first step to finding keywords to use in your searching. Occasionally these databases even provide further reading.

Keywords Derived from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collections Database:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544514

Fragment of a Queen's Face, ca. 1353 - 36 B.C. Yellow jasper. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Artist/Creator: Unknown
Movement/Style/Period: New Kingdom, Amarna Period
Location/Region:Egypt
Technique: Sculpture
Culture/Religion/Reign: Rein of Akhenaten

General Reference Resources for Art History

Background resources in art history

Metropolitan Museum's Heilbrunn Timeline of the History of Art
The Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as demonstrated through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Users can compare art across cultures and geographic areas for a given time span or pursue the development of art for a single place or culture over an extended time period. The integration of maps, timelines and special features makes navigation of the site fun and easy.

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online enables access and cross-search functionality to Grove and Oxford reference content in one location. Provides access to Grove Art Online, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society and numerous international art galleries and artists.

Smarthistory
Smarthistory provides conversational videos and essays about works of art around the globe. It takes you inside museums and outside to ancient temples and engages in conversations about how to interpret and understand the images you’re seeing.

CLIO Catalog Searching

CLIO Catalog

CLIO is the online catalog to Columbia University Libraries (including Barnard), but excluding Teacher's College and the Law Library who maintain their own catalogs. CLIO contains over 7 million records for books, online resources, journals & newspapers, conference proceedings, sound recordings & scores, videos, archival collections & oral history transcripts, online databases, maps & images, and more!

CLIO Search Tips:

Use the Catalog Search to find books, journal and newspaper titles, media materials, musical scores, archival collections and databases (but not articles within databases). You can also find maps and atlases.
Article Search allows you to search articles indexed in all of Columbia's databases
Search for specific e-journal titles using the E-journal Title search
Use the link to Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan when the book or media item is checked out.

Finding Journal Articles in Art History

Databases in CLIO

There are nearly 90 databases covering art, architecture, and the applied arts in the Columbia Library system. Many of these are specialty databases that cover a particular culture, period, or discipline. Below you will find some of the most commonly used databases in art history. You can find a complete list in CLIO. Three key databases to consult are:

Art and Architecture Source

Covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. This database features full-text articles as well as detailed indexing and abstracts for an array of journals, books, podcasts and more. International in scope, Art Source includes periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch and is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers.
BHA and RILA

A comprehensive bibliographical database of scholarly writing about the history of western art, containing "abstracts and indexes of current publications in the history of art, including scholarly journals, conferences, book, exhibition reviews, and exhibition catalogues." The abstracts may be in English or in French, and index terms (descriptors) are in both English and French. BHA and RILA cover European and American visual arts material published between 1975 and 2007.
International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
The definitive resource for scholarly literature on Western art, IBA is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and retains the editorial policies which made BHA one of the most trusted and frequently consulted sources in the field.

Other commonly used databases

ARTbibliographies Modern
ABM provides full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art. The coverage includes performance art, installation works, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artist's books, theatre arts, conservation, crafts, ceramic and glass art, ethnic arts, graphic and museum design, fashion, and calligraphy, as well as traditional media including illustration, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. Indexes world's leading arts and humanities journals with selected, relevant items from major science and social science journals.
Design & Applied Arts Index (DAAI)
International index to over 130,000 annotated references from more than 500 design and craft journals and newspapers published from 1973 onwards, and data on over 50,000 designers, craftspeople, studios, workshops and firms. DAAI also includes two supplementary databases: Education Directory, an international directory of universities and colleges that offer courses in design and craft subjects and the Periodical Directory, an international directory of design and craft journals. Research articles are covered, along with topical news items, conference and seminar reports, and book, video and exhibition reviews.

E-Flux
e-flux is a publishing platform and archive, artist project, curatorial platform, and enterprise which was founded in 1998. Its news digest, events, exhibitions, schools, journal, books, and the art projects produced and/or disseminated by e-flux describe strains of critical discourse surrounding contemporary art, culture, and theory internationally. Its monthly publication e-flux journal has produced essays commissioned since 2008 about cultural, political, and structural paradigms that inform contemporary artistic production.

Index of Medieval Art
Formerly the Index of Christian Art, The index of Medieval Art is a thematic and iconographic index of medieval art that encompasses early Christian, Jewish and Islamic works from the first centuries of the common era to the 16th century. Entries include descritpive information, provenance, location and ownership information, bibliographical references, and when available, photographic reproductions of the works themselves.
Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals
Indexes 42 art journals published in the US during the 19th century, providing nearly complete coverage of journals from this period. The Index describes the entire journal contents articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems, and advertisements.
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance

For eBooks: Iter, University of Toronto Libraries : Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series & Iter : Gateway to the Middle Ages & Renaissance migrated to database "Scholars Portal Books: Iter"
Library Stack
Library Stack is a living collection of independent ebooks, audio files, videos and digital documents being published within the fields of contemporary art, design, media studies, cinema, architecture and philosophy.

Selected Image Databases in Art History

Large repositories of art images

ARTstor

Artstor is a searchable database of digital images and associated catalog data from museum, archives, galleries and libraries from around the globe. ARTstor documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, ethnographic and women's studies, as well as many other forms of visual culture. Users can search, view, download and organize images.

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here.

Select U.S. Museum Collections

Digital museum collections are a great place to find high-quality reproductions of works of art, as well as all the information you need to properly caption your images. Below you will find a selection of New York City museums (and a couple of others too), which have strong digital collections online.

Brooklyn Museum Collection
Welcome to our collection online, where you’ll find a wealth of information about many of the objects in our rich holdings. We hope these pages will inspire you to explore further—both here and in our galleries.
Getty Open Content Images
Find selected digitized materials from the Research Institute's collection that are free to view and download. Materials include over 2.5 million digital images of rare and public domain books, photographs, prints, manuscripts, sketchbooks, and archives.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Collection
The Met's collections - including over 5,000 years of art from around the globe - are accessible through this online database. You can search by artist or culture, object type or material, geographic location, date or era, and by department. Select "Public Domain Artworks" to limit your search to only those images that are free to use without permission.
Morgan Library and Museum, CORSAIR
The Morgan Library & Museum's collection is searchable through their database, CORSAIR.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
An evolving collection contains almost 200,000 works of modern and
contemporary art. More than 77,000 works are currently available online.
National Gallery of Art
Search the entire National Gallery of Art collection by artist's last name, key words in the title, key words in object information, credit line, provenance name, accession number, exhibition history, and/or catalogue raisonné. You will be able to filter your search results by medium, nationality, time span, styles, images, and whether an object is on view.
New York Historical Society: Digital Collections
Created as part of the library, this digital collection represents a small portion of NYHS' archival and photographic holdings. You can search the entire holdings of NYHS' library through their catalog.
Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem’s permanent collection represents more than 400 artists, spans 200 years of history and includes over 2,200 works of art, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, watercolors, photographs, videos and mixed-media installations.
Whitney Museum of American Art
Explore the Whitney's collection of over 23,000 works, created by more than 3,000 American artists during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. See work on view in our galleries below, or browse the full collection.

Writing About Art

The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth; Gregory G. Colomb; Joseph M. Williams; Joseph Bizup; William T. FitzGerald
ISBN: 9780226239569

Publication Date: 2016-10-19

This is a great book to refer to at any stage in the research process.
A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Sylvan Barnet
Call Number: N7476 .B37 2008 (Butler Reserves)

ISBN: 9780205708253

Publication Date: 2010-01-03

This best-selling text has guided tens of thousands of art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing.
Writing about Art by Henry M. Sayre
Call Number: Barnard N7476 .S29 2009; Milstein (Butler) N7476 .S29 2009; Avery Reference N28 Sa99

ISBN: 9780205645787

Publication Date: 2008-07-10

This straightforward guide prepares students to describe, interpret, and write about works of art in meaningful and lasting terms. Designed as a supplement to Art History survey and period texts, this efficient book features a step-by-step approach to writing-from choosing a work to write about, to essay organization, to research techniques, to footnote form, to preparing the final essay. For beginners as well as more advanced students.

Citing and Captioning in Art History

Citation Basics

Most professors of art history require that you use of the Chicago citation style to create bibliographies and footnotes. There is also a variant of Chicago known as the Turabian citation style that is used as well. Because citations direct your reader back to the work of scholarship you are using in your research, they will differ slightly depending on the type of research material you are working with. For example, an article in a book will include information about the publisher of the book, while an article in a journal will include the name of the journal and its volume and issue number. It is best to include as much information about the resources you are working with as possible so anyone who wishes to look at those resources will be able to find them.

Online Citation Style Guides

Chicago Manual of Style Online
Now in its 17th edition, The Chicago Manual of Style—with more than a thousand pages in print or more than two thousand hyperlinked paragraphs online—has become the authoritative reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL)
OWL has lots of general and subject-specific writing tips and techniques, along with research advice and detailed citation and formatting standards for the APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
OWL (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)
Has detailed citation formatting and style advice for APA, Chicago, and MLA styles. It also includes general and subject specific writing advice, as well as tips on writing for a job search.

Making Image Captions in Chicago Citation Style

Title: Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress

Artist: Frida Kahlo

Date: 1926

Medium: Oil on canvas

Location of work: Private Collection

Where image was found: Wikimedia

URL (if applicable): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self_Portrait_in_a_Velvet_Dress.jpg

Caption Examples

Captions are used to offer basic information to your reader about images you provide in your papers or digital projects. When captioning artwork you should include the location where the image was acquired.

Image obtained in-person:

Fig. 1. Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress, 1926. Oil on canvas. Private collection.

Image obtained online:

Fig. 1. Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress, 1926. Oil on canvas. Wikipedia.org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Self_Portrait_in_a_Velvet_Dress.jpg

Image obtained in print:

Fig. 1. Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress, 1926. Oil on canvas. In Title of Book, by AuthorFirst AuthorLast. City: Publisher, Date.

Finding Exhibition Catalogs

Finding exhibition catalogs through known item searches

An exhibition catalog, like any book, can be found in CLIO by its title using what is called a "known item search."
Simply enter the exact title in quotation marks to find the catalog you are looking for

To Find exhibition catalogs using Advanced Search

In CLIO select catalog from the menu of options on the left side
Select advanced search (to the right of the search box)
In the first search box select "Subject" from the dropdown menu and enter exhibition catalogs in the box (no quotation marks)
In the second search under "All Fields" use the topic of your search. This could be a museum itself, or a general topic of interest

Call Numbers in the Arts

Library of Congress Classification System

The Library of Congress Classification System (LC) arranges areas of study so that researchers can browse areas of the stacks (library shelves) to find similar information. Most visual arts research can therefore be found in the N call number ranges. There are inherent biases baked into the classification system. As an example: Indigenous art forms from the Americas are found in the E & F call number ranges (History of the Americas). See the LC Classification Guide for additional areas of study.

Library of Congress Call Numbers	Subjects
N N1-58 General N61-72 Theory. Philosophy. Aesthetics of the visual arts N81-390 Study and teaching. Research N400-3990 Art museums, galleries, etc. N4390-5098 Exhibitions N5198-5299 Private collections and collectors N5300-7418 History N7420-7525.8 General works N7560-8266 Special subjects of art N8350-8356 Art as a profession. Artists N8510-8553 Art studios, materials, etc. N8554-8585 Examination and conservation of works of art N8600-8675 Economics of art N8700-9165 Art and the state. Public art	Visual Arts
NA NA1-60 General NA100-130 Architecture and the state NA190-1555.5 History NA1995 Architecture as a profession NA2000-2320 Study and teaching. Research NA2335-2360 Competitions NA2400-2460 Museums. Exhibitions NA2500-2599 General works NA 2599.5-2599.9 Architectural criticism NA2695-2793 Architectural drawing and design NA2835-4050 Details and decoration NA4100-8480 Special classes of buildings NA9000-9428 Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying	Architecture
NB NB1-50 General NB60-1115 History NB1120-1133 Study and teaching NB1134-1134.4 Competitions NB1135-1150 General works NB1160-1195 Designs and technique NB1199-1200 Restoration of sculptures NB1203-1270 Special materials NB1272-1291 Mobiles, color, sculpture gardens, etc. NB1293-1895 Special forms NB1910-1952 Special subjects	Sculpture
NC NC1-1940 Drawing. Design. Illustration NC1-45 General Including collective biography NC50-266 History of drawing NC390-670 Study and teaching NC673-677 Competitions NC703-725 General works NC730-758 Technique NC760-825 Special subjects NC845-915 Graphic art materials NC930 Conservation and restoration of drawings NC950-(996) Illustration NC997-1003 Commercial art. Advertising art NC1280-1284 Printed ephemera. Imagerie populaire NC1300-1766 Pictorial humor, caricature, etc. NC1800-1850 Posters NC1860-1896 Greeting cards, postcards, invitations, book jackets, etc. NC1920-1940 Copying, enlarging, and reduction of drawings	Drawing, Design, Illustration
ND ND25-3416 Painting ND25-(48) General ND49-813 History ND1115-1120 Study and teaching ND1130-1156 General works ND1288-1460 Special subjects ND1290-1293 Human figure ND1300-1337 Portraits ND1340-1367 Landscape painting ND1370-1375 Marine painting ND1380-1383 Animals. Birds ND1385-1388 Sports. Hunting, fishing, etc. ND1390-1393 Still life ND1400-1403 Flowers. Fruit. Trees ND1410-1460 Other subjects ND1470-1625 Technique and materials ND1630-1662 Examination and conservation of paintings ND1700-2495 Watercolor painting ND2550-2733 Mural painting ND2889-3416 Illuminating of manuscripts and books	Painting
NE NE1-3002 Print media NE1-978 Printmaking and engraving NE1000-1352 Wood engraving NE1400-1879 Metal engraving NE1940-2232.5 Etching and aquatint NE2236-2240.6 Serigraphy NE2242-2246 Monotype (Printmaking) NE2250-2570 Lithography NE2685-2685.8 Lumiprints NE2690 Engraving on glass NE2800-2880 Printing of engravings NE3000-3002 Copying art. Copying machine art	Print Media
NK NK1-(9990) Decorative arts NK1-570 General NK600-806 History NK1135-1149.5 Arts and crafts movement NK1160-1590 Decoration and ornament. Design NK1648-1678 Religious art NK1700-2195 Interior decoration. House decoration NK2200-2750 Furniture NK2775-2898 Rugs and carpets NK2975-3049 Tapestries NK3175-3296.3 Upholstery. Drapery NK3375-3496.3 Wallpapers NK3600-(9990) Other arts and art industries	Decorative Arts
NX NX1-820 Arts in general NX1-260 General NX280-410 Study and teaching. Research NX411-415 Competitions NX420-430 Exhibitions NX440-632 History of the arts NX650-694 Special subjects, characters, persons, religious arts, etc. NX700-750 Patronage of the arts NX760-770 Administration of the arts NX775-777 Voluntarism in the arts NX798-820 Arts centers and facilities	Arts in General
Other Useful Call Numbers	Subjects
D	World History (Arts of non-Western cultures)
E & F	History of the Americas (for Native American art)
TR	Photography
TT	Handicrafts. Arts and Crafts

Selected New York Archival Collections in the Arts

Selected Collections

Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
The Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America was developed by the Frick's Center for the History of Collecting to guide art researchers to primary source material about American collectors and those who assisted in forming their collections.
Archives of American Art: Smithsonian
The Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.
Avery Classics
The Avery Classics Collection is the rare book collection of Avery Library and one of the largest architectural rare book collections in the world. Its strengths reflect the Library's original subject scope, established by Avery's founders in 1890: architecture, archaeology, urbanism and the decorative arts.
Avery Drawings & Archives
Avery Library’s Drawings & Archives department collects drawings, photographs, and architectural records documenting architecture and design practices, and also include project and building files, business records, correspondence, and faculty and personal papers. Their collections focus largely on American and New York City architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Brooklyn Museum Archives
The Archives of the Brooklyn Museum collect, organize, preserve, and enable access to the Museum’s history. The Archives contain more than fifty collections documenting the history of the Museum from 1823 through the present day. Totaling over 3,200 linear feet of records, these collections include letters, photographs, exhibition catalogues, and ephemera created by employees in all the Museum’s departments, from Audiovisual to Visitor Services.
Cooper Hewitt Research Library
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s Library is a branch of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and contains more than 100,000 volumes, including books, periodicals, catalogs, and trade literature dating from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. About 30% of the collection including all rare book materials are maintained on site.
MoMA Archives: Archival Holdings
A list of collections held by MoMA Archives.
Whitney Museum Archives
he Whitney Museum of American Art Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to primary source materials that further the study of twentieth-century and contemporary American art. The Institutional Archives document the origins, development, and activities of the Museum, with records dating back to the establishment of the Whitney Studio in 1914. The Archives also holds distinct manuscript collections that complement the Museum’s extensive exhibition history and permanent collection of over 25,000 artworks by more than 3,600 artists.

Highlights from MoMA

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros at MoMA
In the 1990s Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros formalized their growing art collection as the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) in order to share their holdings internationally. They had already been collecting Latin American art for decades, with five distinct areas of focus: modern art, traveler artists from the 17th to 19th centuries, ethnographic objects from the Orinoco river basin, art from the colonial period, and contemporary art.

The CPPC's modern collection is particularly strong in geometric abstraction from the region's major metropolitan centers: Caracas, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. By lending works to major museums around the world and fomenting scholarship into the CPPC's collecting strengths, the Colección helped shift the conversation about Latin American art toward abstraction and incorporate Latin American art into understandings of international modernism.
Just Above Midtown:Archive at MoMA
Just Above Midtown, or JAM, was an influential New York art gallery from 1974 to 1986. Founded by Linda Goode Bryant, JAM served more as a laboratory than a traditional gallery and helped to launch the careers of many artists well-known today, such as David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Edgar Heap of Birds, Lorraine O’Grady, Dawoud Bey, and Lorna Simpson. This archive comprises the records produced and collected by JAM staff and artists, including documentation of general operations, exhibitions, public programs, and publications. The finding aid for the Just Above Midtown Archives can be found here. This research guide will go into more detail about JAM’s history and influence, and give further context to the time period using resources within MoMA and other outside collections.
MoMA: Exhibition History
Exhibitions from our founding in 1929 to the present are available online. These pages are updated continually.
MoMA Film Library
Founded in 1935 as the Film Library, this department’s collection now includes more than 30,000 films and 1.5 million film stills; the strongest international film collection in the United States, it incorporates all periods and genres. Among the holdings are original negatives of the Biograph and Edison companies, and the world’s largest collection of D. W. Griffith films. The film collection is stored in the Museum’s Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center, a state-of-the-art facility that opened in June 1996.
Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D) Archive at MoMA
Political Art Documentation/Distribution, an artists’ collective conceived by critic Lucy Lippard in 1979, was active through 1988. Its archive was organized by colleagues Barbara Moore and Mimi Smith and was donated to the Library in 1989. PAD/D’s stated goal was: to provide artists with an organized relationship to society, to demonstrate the political effectiveness of image making, and to provide a framework within which progressive artists can discuss and develop alternatives to the mainstream art system. Search the collection through MoMA's catalog DADABase (http://arcade.nyarc.org/search~S8)

Meredith's Mega Guide