Art & Art History
Information resources for research in Art and Art History
Find Images in Research Databases
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JSTOR
Provides access to journal articles, books, images, and primary sources. Contents include the Artstor image collection, archival and current scholarly journal content, and historical documents.
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UWM Libraries Digital CollectionsThe Digital Collections at the UWM Libraries include over 180,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection.
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Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
The Digital Public Library of America strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. Contains materials from all the UW System Digital Collections, Recollection Wisconsin, the National Archives and Records Administration, University of California System, the Smithsonian, and the New York Public Library.
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Europeana
Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.
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ArtveeSeveral major museums and libraries have instituted an open access policy by designating most or all of the public domain art in their collections with a creative commons license making them available for use for any purpose with no restrictions attached. Artvee sorts through and aggregates the best of these images in one location to make them easy to discover and download.
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Getty Research Institute Photo Archive GuideApproximately half the holdings in the Photo Archive are represented by descriptive, nonpictorial records in the Photo Archive Database. Searchable by key word and artist name, the database is particularly useful for patrons conducting iconographic or thematic research as searches can be conducted across periods, styles, and media.
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Library of Congress: Prints and Online Photograph CatalogThe collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the U.S. and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
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New York Public Library Digital CollectionsThis site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
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Smithsonian Collections Search CenterSearch over 17.1 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 6.3 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts.
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CC SearchCC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone. Creative Commons, the nonprofit behind CC Search, is the maker of the CC licenses, used over 1.4 billion times to help creators share knowledge and creativity online.
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Google Images Reverse Image SearchFour ways to search by image via Google: Drag and drop, upload an image, copy and paste the URL for an image, right-click an image on the web (some functions require Chrome browser).
Find Images from Museum Collections
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UWM Art CollectionThe UWM Art Collection encompasses 7,600 objects – Western and Non-western art, ancient to contemporary. Areas of special strength include prints from the 15th to 20th century, Greek and Russian Icons, American folk art, and ethnographic collections of Africa and Oceania.
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The Frick Digital CollectionsThe Frick Collection is internationally recognized as a premier museum and research center known for its distinguished Old Master paintings and outstanding examples of European sculpture and decorative arts.
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Google Arts & Culture Museum PartnersInternational museums you can visit virtually.
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Guggenheim Collection OnlineFeaturing over 1,700 artworks by more than 625 artists, the Collection Online presents a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection of approximately 8,000 artworks.
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Louvre CollectionsThe Collections database consists of entries for more than 480,000 works in the Musée du Louvre and Musée National Eugène-Delacroix. Updated on a daily basis, it is the result of the continuous research and documentation efforts carried out by teams of experts from both museums.
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Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) CollectionEvolving collection contains almost 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art. More than 91,000 works are currently available online.
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NARA National Museum JapanThe Nara National Museum is located in a corner of Nara Park surrounded by the Tōdai-ji Temple, the Kōfuku-ji Temple, and the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. With the cooperation of temples, shrines, and other cultural properties’ owners, we conserve and study cultural properties, including artworks and archeological artifacts related to Buddhist art.
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Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) Digital ExhibitionsDigital exhibitions showcase photographs from the MoCP permanent collection that have been selected by artists, curators, cultural producers, educators, and students often in response to the current exhibition on view.
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The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division (NYPL)The Art and Artifacts Division collects, documents, preserves, and interprets art and artifacts by and about peoples of African heritage throughout the world. Fine and applied art and material culture objects from the seventeenth century to the present are collected, with emphasis on the visual arts of the twentieth century in the United States and Africa.
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Asian Art MuseumLocated in the heart of San Francisco, the museum is home to one of the world’s finest collections of Asian art, boasting more than 18,000 awe-inspiring artworks ranging from ancient jades and ceramics to contemporary video installations. Dynamic special exhibitions, cultural celebrations and public programs for all ages provide rich art experiences that unlock the past and spark questions about the future.
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Leslie-Lohman Museum of ArtThe Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is the only dedicated LGBTQIA+ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQIA+ art and foster the artists who create it.
Find Local Art Museums
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Emile H. Mathis Art GalleryThe Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery is home to the UWM Art Collection. The Gallery is located on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus in Mitchell Hall 170. Gallery exhibitions serve both the campus and greater Milwaukee community by providing access to the UWM Art Collection.
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Milwaukee Art MuseumThe Milwaukee Art Museum’s Collection includes over 31,000 works from antiquity to the present, encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, video art and installations, and textiles. The Museum’s collections of American decorative arts, German Expressionist prints and paintings, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960 are among the nation’s finest.
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Grohmann MuseumThe Grohmann Museum Collection is comprised of more than 1,500 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism– dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.
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Museum of Wisconsin ArtThe Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) explores the art and culture of Wisconsin. Founded in 1961, MOWA is one of the top museums of regional art in the United States, with over 5,000 works of contemporary and historic art by more than 350 artists. Through rotating exhibitions and educational programs, MOWA provides an innovative forum for the culturally engaged.
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John Michael Kohler Art CenterThe John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a contemporary art museum and performing arts complex located in downtown Sheboygan.
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Chazen Museum of ArtWhen the Chazen Museum of Art opened in the fall of 1970 as the Elvehjem Art Center, the collection of 1,600 paintings and works on paper had been acquired by the UW–Madison since 1885. Today, there are over 23,000 works of art in the museum’s collections. These holdings represent the entire spectrum of art history across culture, period, media, and genre.
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Madison Museum of Contermporary Art (MMoCA)The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is an independent organization that exhibits, collects, and preserves modern and contemporary art to provide transformative experiences that educate, reflect, and inspire us as individuals and a community. The collection includes nearly 6,000 objects, comprising one of the nation’s finest collections of Chicago Imagism as well as significant holdings in Mexican Modernist prints, Wisconsin-based artists, and contemporary photography.
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Art Institute of ChicagoLocated in downtown Chicago, the Art Institute is one of the world’s great art museums, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe.
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Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fabric ArtsThe Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, located just east of historic downtown Cedarburg, Wisconsin, is dedicated to educating the public about the artistic, cultural, historic and social importance of quilts and fiber arts. We also seek to increase the awareness of historic structure preservation.
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Intuit - Center for Intuitive and Outsider ArtIntuit is a premier museum of outsider and self-taught art, defined as work created by artists who faced marginalization, overcame personal odds to make their artwork, or who did not, or sometimes could not, follow a traditional path of art making, often using materials at hand to realize their artistic vision. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audience.