Art History: Databases
Resources for Art History
General Databases
These are general databases that are useful for for finding both books and journals. Please note that they are not always full-text and the Library may not subscribe to all the titles on them.
- Library search This link opens in a new windowa single access point to many of the Library's e-resources - databases, e-journals, e-books and print books.
- Arts and Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new windowindex of articles from more than 1,300 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and relevant articles in over 5,000 social science and science journals, from 1975 onward. Updated weekly. Part of Web of Knowledge.
- Box of Broadcasts This link opens in a new windowBoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education; Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and an extensive archive of tv and radio broadcasts. You can create and share playlists and clips. NB: BoB is NOT AVAILABLE outside the UK.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowfull text access to over 1000 journals in the arts and humanities.
- WorldCatOver 179 million records from the combined OCLC libraries. If a book has been published, chances are there will be a record here!
Specialist Databases
- A&AePortal This link opens in a new windowMore than 100 Art History eBooks, including monographs and exhibition catalogues, from Yale University Press, Art Institute of Chicago, The MIT Press, Yale University Art Gallery, Harvard Art Museum and more
- Artists of the World (Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon) This link opens in a new window"The Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (AKL), [Artists of the World], is the successor to the traditional Thieme-Becker and Vollmer standard reference works on art history. It has been published since 1991. Long a standard work in its own right, the AKL is intentionally not limited to the “grand masters”, but includes artists from all over the world and throughout the ages from antiquity to the present. It not only contains painters, sculptors and graphic designers, but gives equal weight to architects, designers, photographers, calligraphers, craftsmen and many other artistic professions. Around 1,500 artist biographies are contained in each volume." (Publisher's description)
- Art History Research net This link opens in a new windowConsists of Design Abstracts Retrospective (DAR), covers many of the most important design and applied arts journals and annuals published during the 20th century; Arts + architecture ProFiles (AAP), most comprehensive dictionary of design and designers ever compiled. It includes profiles of every single designer, architect, craftsperson, studio, workshop, etc. whose work is discussed or illustrated in the journals and yearbooks covered by DAR; ReVIEW, digitized, searchable full-text versions of 19th and early 20th century art journals and Research Sources: 1. THE POSTER – Contains extensive information on the Poster, including: A History of the Poster: a Bibliographical and Online Survey; digitizations of the most of the significant books, exhibition catalogues and journals on the Poster published between 1890s-1920s; and an International Directory of Poster Collections.
- ARTstor Digital Library This link opens in a new windowover 1.5 million digital images in arts, architecture, humanities & sciences, from international museums, photographers, libraries, photo archives, artists, etc. Also has relevance to anthropology, classics, history, literature, music, religion.
- Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) and Répertoire de la litterature de l'art (RILA) This link opens in a new windowCovers fine arts - painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, and architecture—as well as decorative and applied arts—crafts, graphic arts, folk, and popular art. Indexes and abstracts art-related books and articles from more than 2,500 of periodicals, conference proceedings, theses, and exhibition and dealers' catalogues in many languages. Covers items published between 1975 and 2007
- Box of Broadcasts This link opens in a new windowBoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education; Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and an extensive archive of tv and radio broadcasts. You can create and share playlists and clips. NB: BoB is NOT AVAILABLE outside the UK.
- Bridgeman Art LibraryFounded in 1972, the Bridgeman Art Library works with museums, art galleries and artists to make the best art available for reproduction. The result is an outstanding archive of images drawn from collections throughout the world. Every subject, concept, style and medium is represented, from the masterpieces of national museums to the hidden treasures of private collections. Fine art is just one of the sources of images; design, antiques, maps, architecture, furniture, glass, ceramics, anthropological artefacts and many others also feature in the collection. The Bridgeman Art Library Archive represents a large part of the complete collection, chosen for its suitability for web use. A considerable number of individual works of art are featured here. Part of Credo reference.
- Illustrated London News: Historical Archive 1842-2003 This link opens in a new windowThe Illustrated London News Historical Archive gives online access to the entire run of the ILN from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003. Facsimilies of articles and illustrations can be viewed, printed and saved. (From publisher's description)
- ImageQuest This link opens in a new windowMillions of rights-cleared images that can be used by University students and staff for educational purposes. (Please credit photos with Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest and the date retrieved.)
- Index of Medieval Art This link opens in a new windowPrinceton's collectRecords works of art from early apostolic times to AD1550. It has an emphasis on the western world, but also includes material on Coptic Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia and the Near East.
- International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new windowBrepolis International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) contains articles from journals, collected essays, conference proceedings and Festschriften. Select the database from the list on the Brepolis homepage.
- The John Johnson Collection: an archive of printed ephemera This link opens in a new windowFully searchable colour images of 65,000 items from the Bodleian Library's John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, offering unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowProvides fully searchable web access to the entire text of 'The Dictionary of Art', ed. Jane Turner (1996, 34 vols.) and 'The Oxford Companion to Western Art', ed. Hugh Brigstocke (2001). It is constantly updated and contains 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts – painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts and photography – from prehistory to the present day. Includes links to searchable image databases and editorially selected links to over 40,000 art images on museum and gallery web sites around the world.
- Picture Post Historical Archive This link opens in a new windowunique archive of the complete Picture Post, the pioneering illustrated newspaper published in Britain between 1938-1957, and containing thousands of images
- SCRAN (Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network) This link opens in a new windowScran is a Scottish charity & online learning resource base with over 360,000 images & media from museums, galleries, archives and the media.
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowcomplete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current issue