Art + Design

Image Databases


Art in the Christian Tradition - "The visual images in the ACT database represent the continuum of the practice of Christianity from the 1st century A.D. to the present."
 

ArtStor on JSTOR [TWU login required]  - A large repository of images.  For a guides to using ArtStor on JSTOR, see the bulleted links below.  [Note that ArtStor moved to the JSTOR platform as of August 2024 and ceased to be a separate database.]

Important links during the transition and beyond:

ArtStor public images - No login required
 

Canadian Online Art Book Project (Art Canada Institute) - "Founded in 2013, the Canadian Online Art Book Project is a growing digital library of books–all original works commissioned by the Art Canada Institute–by the country’s leading art experts on artists who have made a critical contribution to the evolution of the nation’s art history. Each year the ACI releases six new titles in this program."

Cities and Buildings Database - "A collection of digitized images of buildings and cities drawn from across time and throughout the world."

Creative Commons image search - More than 300 million images available under Creative Commons licenses.

Google Cultural Institute - Growing collection of high resolution images from the world's art galleries.

Life Photo Archive - Archive from Life Magazine.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - A large part of their digital image collection is now open access. Includes 200,000 public domain artworks in the collection that the Museum has digitally cataloged. 

New York Public Library Digital Collections - Public domain images in high resolution that are free to use as you see fit.

Unsplash - Free high resolution photos to use as you wish.

VADS Online Resource for the Visual Arts - "VADS (the Visual Arts Data Service) has ... a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 140,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK. VADS is a service of the Centre for Digital Scholarship in the Library & Student Services department of the University for the Creative Arts."

Watercolour World - Large British digital collection of pre-1900 watercolours

Web Gallery of Art - "A virtual museum and searchable database of Western (European) fine arts of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism periods (1000-1900), currently containing over 39.300 reproductions. Artist biographies, commentaries, guided tours, period music, catalogue, free postcard and mobile services are provided."

Wikimedia Commons - Good source for images with few limitations on copyright.

Yale Digital Commons - Images from Yale University ("art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video").

Yale University Art Gallery - The Yale University Art Gallery collects, preserves, studies, and presents art in all media, from all regions of the globe and across time.

Images and Copyright

The use of images can be a challenge when it comes to copyright restrictions.  See this guide's page on copyright, or go to http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/online-images and find the section on "Copyright" (left column).

CC Search is an excellent resource to search for images that have a Creative Commons license allowing various types of use.