Research Guides: Archival Research: Images

Images

Images are another format of valuable non-text sources to include in your research. This section of the guide contains links to library subscription databases and open access sources of images from libraries and museums as well as tips for finding images in books and serials.

One Story of a Rescued Photo Archive

"Three years ago, The Municipal Archives received a call from the NYPD, wanting to know whether they could help dispose of a roomful of photographic material stored at One Police Plaza. The final yield amounted to about 180,000 images from perhaps 50,000 cases, ranging from an uncertain point prior to 1914 all the way to 1972. These pictures are of undeniable photographic significance."

Read the whole story and other fascinating stories about archives in our Zotero Library, Archives in the News.

Library Databases

Grove Art Online
Search the Grove Dictionary of Art via the Oxford Art Online platform. Grove contains entries on artists, architects, craftsmen, patrons, movements, locations, and periods, as well as bibliographies for further research and thousands of searchable images made available through Oxford’s partnerships with museums, galleries, and other outstanding arts organizations. Browse through Timelines of World Art, Subject Guides or Resources for Educators created by organizations like MoMA and the Met. Create an optional subscriber account to save searches.
Archive Grid
Searchable database containing over 7 million records describing archival collections in 1,400 libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies around the world. Search ArchiveGrid to find collections of photographs, drawings, posters, or other graphic materials in archival repositories.
Artstor
A rich database of over 2.5 million images of art and architecture from 300 museums, libraries, artists, scholars, and photo archives around the world. In addition to its core collections, Artstor offers public collections consisting of roughly 1.3 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files cataloged, managed, and shared by various institutions. Images in Artstor may be freely used in noncommercial educational and scholarly activities. Artstor’s images are now also discoverable in JSTOR. See the “Teach with Artstor” page for user guides, subject guides, and teaching and curriculum resources. Please note: To download and save images, you must register for your own personal account (click "Register" for first time users on the upper right of the screen). The GC does not have an institutional login.

Primary Document Databases @ the GC
The GC Library subscribes to dozens of databases containing primary sources in a wide variety of formats, including images. Find the databases by selecting the filters for Primary Source Collections and/or Newspapers on our A-Z List.

Selected Open Access Sources

Digital Public Library of America
"DPLA offers a single point of access to millions of items from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Users can browse and search DPLA’s collections by timeline, map, virtual bookshelf, and faceted search; save and share customized lists of items; explore digital exhibitions; and interact with DPLA-powered apps in the app library." See the DPLA's Primary Source Sets of topically arranged resources.
Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
DCMNY provides online access to digital collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in and around New York City. The collections include photographs, maps, letters, postcards, manuscripts, scrapbooks, programs from events, catalogues, memorabilia and ephemera, and much. New collections are being added on an ongoing basis, and contributors are also adding new material to existing collections.
FSA-OWI (Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information) Photographs
A searchable collection of over 170,000 mostly public domain photographs taken between 1935 and 1944 by the FSA and OWI depicting life in America during the Great Depression and World War II.
Getty Photo Archive
"The Photo Archive's two million photographs provide supplementary and original pictorial research for the study of fine arts from antiquity to the modern period. The archive's strength lies in the photographic reproduction of western art, architecture, and decorative arts."
Getty Search Gateway
Search or browse the J. Paul Getty Museum collections, Getty Research Institute (GRI) digital collections, GRI library catalog or explore by type (photographs, visual material, vessels, coins, manuscripts). Select "Open Content Images" to view, download, and use more than 165,000 open access images.
Library of Congress
A vast resource containing millions of images of materials in every format, including maps, notated music, photographs, letters, diaries, newspapers, books, legislation, and audio visual materials.

Manar Al-Athar
The Manar al-Athar digital archive, an open access photo archive based at the University of Oxford, provides high resolution, searchable and downloadable images for teaching, research, and publication. The digital archive is in continuous development and contains nearly 82,000 images. Strengths include Late Antiquity (250–750 AD), the period of transition from paganism to Christianity, and then to Islam, especially religious buildings (temples, churches, synagogues, mosques) and monumental art (including floor mosaics), early Islamic art (paintings, mosaics, relief sculpture), as well as Roman and early Islamic (Umayyad) architecture, and evidence of iconoclasm. Material is labelled in both English and Arabic to facilitate regional use, with the main instructions also available in some other languages.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Online Collection
Over 490,000 works of art from the museum's collection, 375,000 of which are open access and freely available to use, share, and remix without restriction.
Museum of the City of New York Collections Portal
A growing collection of more than 250,000 images and objects from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York.
NYC Municipal Archives Online Gallery
Over 1.6 million images from the collections of the Municipal Archives. Includes photographs, maps, motion picture and audio recordings.
New York Heritage Digital Collections
"[A] portal for learning more about the people, places and events that contributed to the making of New York State."
NYPL Digital Collections
Collection of more than 870,000 images covering nearly every topic imaginable. Formats include visually appealing items such as drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, and rare illustrated books, along with video, audio, and more. Search or browse by item, collection, or NYPL division.
NYPL Picture Collection
More than 45,000 images digitized from the NYPL's Picture Collection. The circulating collection consists of 1.5 million images clipped from books, magazines, and newspapers, as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923.
NYPL Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
The NYPL's Print Collection contains over 200,000 original prints, including woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, screen prints, and digital prints, and dates from the 10th C to the present. The Photography Collection comprises more than 500,000 photographs by 6,000 photographers. Search across both collections using this catalog.
Smithsonian Open Access
Search over 4.9 million 2D and 3D open access digital items, including images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. Filter search results by museum, topic, date range, resource type, place, or group.
Museums & Libraries
Many museums and libraries have digital editions of their collections online, especially of their most visually striking holdings. Visit their websites to see what's available.

Illustrations in Books & Periodicals

Books: When searching OneSearch, WorldCat Discovery, or other library catalogs, add the word "illustrated" to your search to find works with images.

Periodicals: Photographs, drawings, maps, reproductions of artworks, advertisements, and other illustrations and images can be readily found in newspapers and magazines. Microform and reprint editions will likely be in black and white. See our Newspapers Research Guide for tips on finding current and historical mainstream and alternative serials in print, on microfilm, and online.