Visual Culture 2: Unpacking Art, Power, and Modernity

Library Databases

Artstor on JSTOR
Artstor on JSTOR provides images of items in museum and archive collections.

Items encompass diverse time periods and world cultures, and are relevant to architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, anthropology, history, ethnography, women’s studies, and many aspects of visual culture. Entries include descriptive information and provenance, and there are curated collections. Curate your own collection by creating an account using your Otis SSO.
OtisDID
Otis Digital Image Database (OtisDID) focuses on art and design history.

Artists' Books and Woman's Buildings images are publicly accessible. Other collections require Otis SSO.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
DPLA provides free, global access to digitized books and images from various libraries in the US.

Browsing Collections Online

Many GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) institutions provide access to their collections online. Not all collections are featured in Artstor, so it can be useful to visit an institution's website directly. Often, they will be referred to as something along the lines of "digital image databases" or "collections online."

When using images from these sources, be sure to credit them properly. Many of these sites will include templates for formatting the citation and what information to include. Learn more about citing artwork and artifacts, as well as images of these objects.

Image Collections

Finding Images in Books and Periodicals

Try using OwlCat to find print items in our collection containing images of artworks and artifacts you might use for your exhibition.

Learn about call numbers here.

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