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- Finding Images
Art 141 Siegel: Finding Images
Images in Books
Published books can be a good source for visual resources. The library has scanners you can use to copy images for your presentations.
Need help searching? Check out this handout on how to use the Library catalog.
Image Databases
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ARTstor This link opens in a new windowAs of August 1, 2024, the ARTstor platform is retired. The ARTstor Digital Library now resides on the JSTOR platform. JSTOR images include more than 3.5 million images. You must register for a JSTOR account to save any images for future reference and to use JSTOR's presentation tools. To register for a user account, you must either be logged into JSTOR from on campus or through the JSTOR database link on the library website. To stay logged in, select “Keep me Logged In” when registering for an account.
Using Images from Google
Google provides access to one of the world's largest collections of online images. But oftentimes the things you find there have been altered or attributed incorrectly, making them practically useless for papers and presentations.
According to an article published this year in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, "people have poor ability to identify whether a real-world image is original or has been manipulated." Don't be one of these people!
Before you grab an image from Google, use one of the websites or databases on this page first.
Image Websites
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Digital Public Library of America"The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world." It is a collection of photographs, documents, maps and more under the creative commons 3.0 license platform.
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Smithsonian Archives of American Art Image Collection"The image gallery contains over 8,000 photographs, letters, sketches, diaries, and other documents which have been scanned and individually described."
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International Center of PhotographyThe ICP collection spans the history of the photographic medium, from daguerreotypes to gelatin silver and digital chromogenic prints, but is strongest in its holdings of American and European documentary photography from about 1930 through the 1960s. Includes a searchable database of ICP's Photography Collection. Each record includes information about the photographer, title, date, medium, as well as an image, when available.
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online CatalogSearch the LOC catalog to find images. A rich collection of historic photographic images.
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Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Photography CollectionMoMA established the modern photography department in 1940. The Museum's holdings of more than 25,000 works constitute one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary photography in the world. As diverse as photography itself, the collection includes work not only by artists, but also by journalists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and amateurs.