Image Collections

For additional image sources, check the subject pages for Art and Theatre & Costume.

Information on fair use can be found on the Passports Copyright Resources page.

Databases (Webster/Eden Only)

AP Photo Archive: Contains over 700,000 Associated Press photos covering contemporary news events and people as well as historical coverage of the 20th century. Some images date from the 19th century. An additional graphics file offers graphics, maps, illustrations, diagrams, and charts. Updated daily. These images are offered for educational use by students for research papers, theses, reports and PowerPoint presentations.

Academic Search Premier - Image Collection: Click on the "Images" button in this Ebscohost database to search a collection of over 100,000 images. Photos cover world news and events, contemporary and historical coverage of people and places, maps, flags, and natural science.

Grove Art Online: In addition to encyclopedia articles on all art topics, this recognized reference database links to the image collections of Art Resource, Bridgeman Art Library and Art Image Links. Thumbnail images of key works of art are included in the text of encyclopedia articles.

BUBL LINK: Image Collections
http://bubl.ac.uk/link/types/images.htm: A directory of annotated links to around 140 collections of images.

Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web: Images
http://www.digital-librarian.com/images.html: Over 800 annotated links to image collections selected by librarians.

Finding Images Online: Directory of Web Image Sites
http://www.berinsteinresearch.com/fiolinks.htm: Author Paula Berinstein organizes over 1,000 links to image collections. Links are arranged alphabetically by category.

Yotophoto
http://yotophoto.com/: Index of free-to-use photos in the public domain or available under Creative Commons, GNU FDL, and other licensing conditons.

American Memory, Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/: The Library of Congress site provides access to thousands of photographs in its collection. Follow the link to "photos & prints". A number of photo collections record life during the Civil War, nineteenth and turn of the century America, small town and rural life during the Depression, architecture and design from the 1930's to the 1950's and more.

British Library Images Online
http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/: Thousands of images from the United Kingdom's national library include manuscripts, rare books and maps.

NYPL Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm: Access to over 300,000 images digitized from the collectons of the New York Public Library. Historical materials include illuminated manuscripts, maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books and more.

The Picture Collection Online (New York Public Library)
http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/index.cfm: Over 30,000 digitized images from the New York Public Library Picture Collection. Most of the images were created before 1923. Many costume categories are covered (clothing & dress, fashion drawings, fur fashions,gloves, hats, hairdressing, hosiery, shoes) but additional categories cover American life and history.

Additional art & museum sites are listed on the Art subject page.

Artcyclopedia The Guide to Museum-Quality Art on the Internet
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/: Provides an index of artists represented at hundreds of museum sites, image archives, and other online resources. Focuses on fine art painting and sculpture but other artistic media may be included.

CGFA Carol Gerten's Fine Art
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/: More than 5000 scanned works of art dating from the medieval age to the early 20th century. Artist biographical information from Microsoft Encarta is included.

Great Buildings Online
http://www.greatbuildings.com/gbc/buildings.html: Gateway to more that 800 architectural structures from around the world and throughout history. The site includes photographic images, architectural drawings and information on architects. There are "3-D walk-throughs" available to download and view.

Mother of All Art History Links
http://www.art-design.umich.edu/mother/: This gateway site affiliated with the University of Michigan links to art history departments, research resources, resources for visual collections, image collections, online exhibitions, art schools, art museums, and textual and linguistic resources.

Web Gallery of Art
http://www.wga.hu/: Digital reproductions of over 9,000 European paintings and sculpture created between 1150 and 1800. Many reproductions include commentary and biographical information for the artist. Visitors may browse an alphabetical list of artists, select from a number of guided tours, or use the search engine to search by artist name, nationality, form (media format), museum location, title word in name of work and other options.

WebMuseum
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/: Works of art, including many from the Louvre, displayed online.

World Art Treasures
http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/index.html: A virtual gallery of over 100,000 slides organized by the Jacques-Edouard Berger Foundation in Switzerland. Itineraries take you through painting, sculpture, prints and other media from Asia and Europe.

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Updated February 25, 2008
The URL for this page is http://library.webster.edu/netresearch/images.html