History of Art
A range of links to library and information resources for History of Art. These include local collections, networked services and external websites.
Library News and Events
Information about Library news, training, events and service updates.
Academic Support Librarian for History of Art
Race and Decolonial Studies Guide and Diversifying Toolkit guide
The Academic Support Librarian team have created two new subject guides giving advice on resources relating to race studies, diversifying and decolonising the curriculum, and matters relating to EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion).
You can access the Diversifying Toolkit here.
This guide assists with the work of diversifying resources used in teaching. Designed to help academic staff begin assessing the readings they already use to make their curriculum more inclusive.
You can find the Race and Decolonial Studies subject guide here.
Libraries for History of Art
- Main LibraryThe Main Library at George Square holds a large collection of History of Art related materials, including the Centre for Research Collections.
- ECA LibraryECA Library at Evolution House, West Port, includes print and electronic resources for History of Art and also contemporary art subjects.
- Art & Architecture LibraryThe A&A Library holds an excellent collection of resources for History of Art, and Architectural History, and is accessible to all ECA students.
Keep up-to-date with the Library!
- ECA Library BlogThis blog provides information relating to ECA Library services, collections and displays.
- Link to index of all Library blogsThis page indexes all the University of Edinburgh Library blogs.
Feedback
- Feedback FormSuggestions or feedback on this guide are welcome. Please get in touch via the form.
Databases for History of Art
- Art and Architecture SourceArt Source, from EBSCO, covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Providing over 600 full-text journals, more than 220 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,0000 images, it is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers. This resource replaces Art Full Text.
- Art and Architecture ArchiveThis is a ProQuest resource, and is an archival collection of digitized searchable backfiles from first issue to the year 2005, of many of the foremost art and architecture magazines of the 20th-century, supports scholarship across the spectrum of disciplines in the arts, from fine and applied arts through to interior design, industrial design, and landscape gardening. The title list includes: Apollo, Architectural Review, Architects Journal, Art Monthly, British Journal of Photography, Country Life, Eye, Graphis, Ornament and more.
- Eighteenth Century Collections onlineContains over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes) published during the 18th Century, covering a range of subjects including history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, and science. The full text of the collection is searchable, from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons to advertisements.
- Oxford Art OnlineOxford Art Online gives access to an expanding range of Oxford University Press art reference works: Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, all of which can be cross-searched or individually searched. Oxford Art Online can also be used as an image search tool.
For a complete list of history of art related databases please go to this webpage.
Internet resources for History of Art
The following is a selection of publicly-accessible collections which you may find useful. Each collection meets one or more of the following criteria:
- Providing access to high quality images,
- Website terms and conditions permit use for private study or educational purposes,
- Being a nationally or internationally significant collection.
Remember that the exact permitted uses vary for each collection.
You should check each website’s terms and conditions or copyright information before reproducing any images.
Art gallery collections
Courtauld Institute of Art
40,000 images from the Courtauld Institute and Conway Library collections.
Louvre
This website provides access to various databases - some in French only, others available in English - including the Atlas database of 35,000 works of art exhibited in the world-famous Paris museum.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum's world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum's website for non-commercial use-including in scholarly publications in any media-without permission from the Museum and without a fee. The number of available images will increase as new digital files are added on a regular basis. Works that are covered by the new policy are identified on the Museum's website with the acronym OASC (Open Access for Scholarly Content). The Museum provides access to images of art in its collection that it believes to be in the public domain and free of other known restrictions; these images are now available for scholarly use in any media.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Browse or search over 30,000 works from the museum’s collection.
National Gallery, London
View the Gallery’s collection of over 2,300 works online, with the ability to zoom in and view paintings in considerable detail.
National Portrait Gallery
Explore and search the online collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Tate Gallery
Online database of the collections of Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives, including many images and accompanying information.
V&A
The V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum’s award-winning collections database. Contents include ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, metalwork, paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture and textiles.
Other digital collections
IDE Virtual Design Museum
A collection of images of work by well-known designers and companies.
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is an independent resource dedicated to avant-garde arts, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts, including film, sound, music and dance. All materials on UbuWeb are made available for non-commercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s). UbuWeb is free to access.
Visual Arts Database (VADS)
An archive of electronic information in the visual arts incorporating a growing number of image collections for educational use.
Visual Collections - images of art, history and culture
Over 300,000 images from 50 collections using Insight image handling software from Luna Imaging.
Europeana
Multimedia portal that allows you to search over 14 million items from museums, libraries, archives and other collections across Europe. These include images of paintings, drawings, maps, photos and museum objects as well as text, audio and video.
Library of Congress
Online catalogue of prints and photographs held by the United States Library of Congress.
LUNA Commons
Provides free access to high quality images from worldwide digital collections of reputable organizations such as galleries and museums, using the Luna Insight browser.
Collections for History of Art
Collections for History of Art at Edinburgh University.
Main Library
Standard and short loan books are shelved, together with reference books for the subject, at Library or Congress (LC) classification shelfmarks N and NA.
Older standard and short loan books are located at Dewey shelfmark .72 onwards.
The following link gives full details of the locations of all of the Main Library's collections:
Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) Library
The ECA Library collection consists of some 65,000 books and 300 periodical subscriptions along with DVDs, maps, slides and artists' books. ECA Library supports learning, teaching and research in architecture, landscape architecture, architectural history, history of art, and art and design.
Art & Architecture Library
Contains books on architectural design, architectural theory and practice, architectural history, construction, planning and urban design, technical books, landscape architecture and landscape history, professional practice, presentation techniques, CAAD and digital media.
About 80 current journal titles and CDs, student dissertations and work placement reports are held in the Art & Architecture Library.
DiscoverEd
Course resource lists
- Course resource listsCheck the resource lists website for essential readings and resources for your courses.
Referencing
- Cite Them Right onlineEverything you need to know about referencing your resources.
- Read. Write. CiteSome useful general guidance from the Students Association' (EUSA).
- Cite this for meA free online tool that automates the building of a bibliography using the Harvard referencing format.
Avoiding plagiarism
- Institute for Academic DevelopmentThe IAD can give advice on academic writing skills including how to avoid plagiarism.
- Plagiarism adviceClick here for more guidance on avoiding plagiarism.
Looking for images?
- Image databasesCheck out our collections of still and moving images.
Looking for theses and dissertations?
We have various databases dedicated to searching for theses and dissertations.