Welcome to Images & Visuals (Mideast & Islam)
Images: a guide to finding visual resources [CORNELL] 
This guide will help you find the images you need! Interested in finding digital images? This guide will lead you through the process of identifying image collections, searching for images in licensed and Cornell-built image collections, and finding 
images on the open web.
*The Jadaliyya Photography and Visual Narratives Page is an online space to showcase and discuss visual narratives from and/or about the Middle East and North Africa. The page serves both as a knowledge resource about visual production in the region, and also as a platform through which to expand perspectives related to how the region is represented, how communities see themselves, and one another.
*Visual Resources of the Middle East [Part of Yale University Open Community Collections]
Select Bibliography * Images & Visuals
A Guide to Online Visual Sources in Middle East, North Africa, and Islamic Studies / Hazine ; Amanda Hanoosh Steinberg.
This Who's who in Turkish Culture and Art is a database provided by the Turkish Cultural Foundation. "Artists and experts are included in this database based on a variety of criteria and are gathered from different sources through a TCF managed search process. The final selection is made by the selection committee. This online resource is constantly updated, and includes brief biographies and contact information for each individual, along with selected images of their art." The database also includes a section on Turkish academics.
Muqarnas : an annual on the visual cultures of the Islamic world by
The articles in "Muqarnas 27" address topics such as "spolia" in medieval Islamic architecture, Islamic coinage in the seventh century, the architecture of the Alhambra from an environmental perspective, and Ottoman Mamluk gift exchange in the fifteenth century. The volume also features a new section, entitled Notes and Sources, with pieces highlighting primary sources such as Akbar s "Kath sarits gara." "Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World" is sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts."
ISBN: 9789004191105Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World by
Following the tradition and style of the acclaimed Index Islamicus, the editors have created this new Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World. The editors have surveyed and, in many cases, annotated a wide range of books and articles from collected volumes and journals published in all European languages (except Turkish) between 1906 and 2011. The editors have ensured that material from a wide range of scholarly traditions and approaches has been consulted in order to make this comprehensive bibliography an indispensable tool for everyone involved in the study of material culture in Muslim societies.
Call Number: anx N6260 .B53 2012ISBN: 9789004170582Publication Date: 2012-04-03
Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East by
This timely book examines the power and role of the image in modern Middle Eastern societies. The essays explore the role and function of image making to highlight the ways in which the images "speak" and what visual languages mean for the construction of Islamic subjectivities, the distribution of power, and the formation of identity and belonging. Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East addresses aspects of the visual in the Islamic world, including the presentation of Islam on television; on the internet and other digital media; in banners, posters, murals, and graffiti; and in the satirical press, cartoons, and children's books.
Call Number: fine,anx NX180.S6 V475 2013ISBN: 9780253008848Publication Date: 2013-07-17
Enfoldment and Infinity : An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art by
Tracing the connections -- both visual and philosophical -- between new media art and classical Islamic art. In both classical Islamic art and contemporary new media art, one point can unfold to reveal an entire universe. A fourteenth-century dome decorated with geometric complexity and a new media work that shapes a dome from programmed beams of light: both can inspire feelings of immersion and transcendence. In Enfoldment and Infinity, Laura Marks traces the strong similarities, visual and philosophical, between these two kinds of art. Her argument is more than metaphorical; she shows that the "Islamic" quality of modern and new media art is a latent, deeply enfolded, historical inheritance from Islamic art and thought. Marks proposes an aesthetics of unfolding and enfolding in which image, information, and the infinite interact: image is an interface to information, and information (such as computer code or the words of the Qur'an) is an interface to the infinite. After demonstrating historically how Islamic aesthetics traveled into Western art, Marks draws explicit parallels between works of classical Islamic art and new media art, describing texts that burst into image, lines that multiply to form fractal spaces, "nonorganic life" in carpets and algorithms, and other shared concepts and images. Islamic philosophy, she suggests, can offer fruitful ways of understanding contemporary art.
ISBN: 9780262014212Publication Date: 2010-08-13
Creating the Mediterranean by
In Creating the Mediterranean: Maps and the Islamic Imagination Tarek Kahlaoui treats the subject of the Islamic visual representations of the Mediterranean. It tracks the history of the Islamic visualization of the sea from when geography was created by the Islamic state's bureaucrats of the tenth century C.E. located mainly in the central Islamic lands, to the later men of the field, specifically the sea captains from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries C.E. located in the western Islamic lands. A narrative has emerged from this investigation in which the metamorphosis of the identity of the author or mapmaker seemed to be changing with the rest of the elements that constitute the identity of a map: its reader or viewer, its style and structure, and its textual content.
ISBN: 9789004346192Publication Date: 2017-12-07
Islamic Art and Visual Culture by
Islamic Art and Visual Culture is a collection of primary sources in translation accompanied by clear and concise introductory essays that provide unique insights into the aesthetic and cultural history of one of the world′s major religions. Collects essential translations from sources as diverse as the Qur′an, court chronicles, technical treatises on calligraphy and painting, imperial memoirs, and foreign travel accounts Includes clear and concise introductory essays Situates each text and explains the circumstances in which it was written--the date, place, author, and political conditions Provides a vivid window into Islamic visual culture and society An indispensable tool for teachers and students of art and visual culture
ISBN: 9781405154024Publication Date: 2011-04-25
Islamic Art and Architecture by
From the supreme confidence of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to the scores of exquisite buildings of Ottoman Istanbul; from the extraordinary virtuosity of Persian painting in the fifteenth century to the vivid ceramic tradition of Ottoman Iznik--Hillenbrand does justice to both the highlights and the ongoing evolution of the full range of Islamic arts. Supported by a glossary of Islamic terms, a time line, and maps, this book traces the architecture, calligraphy, book illumination, painting, ceramics, textiles, and metalwork of a vastly accomplished and influential civilization.
ISBN: 9780500203057Publication Date: 1999-01-17
Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250 by
This richly illustrated book provides an unsurpassed overview of Islamic art and architecture from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, a time of the formation of a new artistic culture and its first, medieval, flowering in the vast area from the Atlantic to India. Inspired by Ettinghausen and Grabar's original text, this book has been completely rewritten and updated to take into account recent information and methodological advances. The volume focuses special attention on the development of numerous regional centers of art in Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as the western and northeastern provinces of Iran. It traces the cultural and artistic evolution of such centers in the seminal early Islamic period and examines the wealth of different ways of creating a beautiful environment. The book approaches the arts with new classifications of architecture and architectural decoration, the art of the object, and the art of the book. With many new illustrations, often in color, this volume broadens the picture of Islamic artistic production and discusses objects in a wide range of media, including textiles, ceramics, metal, and wood. The book incorporates extensive accounts of the cultural contexts of the arts and defines the originality of each period. A final chapter explores the impact of Islamic art on the creativity of non-Muslims within the Islamic realm and in areas surrounding the Muslim world.
ISBN: 9780300088694Publication Date: 2003-07-11
Islamic Arts by
A comprehensive survey that brilliantly captures the essence of Islamic culture. Islamic Arts, a comprehensive survey covering a thousand years, highlights those characteristics that connect the various arts of the Islamic lands without minimizing the differences. The book is divided into three time periods - 600-900, 900-1500 and 1500-1800 - and each section analyses architecture, the arts of the book, decorative and applied arts. Islamic Artsbrilliantly captures the essence of Islamic culture.
ISBN: 9780714831763Publication Date: 1997-04-24
Al-Andalus : The Art of Islamic Spain by
"In 711 an army of Arabs and Berbers from North Africa, united by their faith in Islam, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and arrived on the Iberian Peninsula. In less than a decade the Muslims brought most of the peninsula under their domination; they called the Iberian lands they controlled al-Andalus. Although the borders of al-Andalus shifted over the centuries, the Muslims remained a powerful force on the peninsula for almost eight hundred years, until 1492, when they were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella. This volume, which accompanies a major exhibition presented at the Alhambra in Granada and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is devoted to the little-known artistic legacy of Islamic Spain." "From 711 to 1492 al-Andalus was the occidental frontier of Islam. Floating on the western edge of the Mediterranean, cut off from the European continent by jagged mountains, it was geographically isolated from both North Africa and Europe, from Islamic as well as Christian lands. Physical remoteness gave al-Andalus a privileged place in medieval myths but also separated it from the communities of the east and the west, so that it received only sporadic attention from both worlds. Although a small group of scholars pursued the serious study of the arts of Islamic Spain, these arts have for the most part been viewed as brilliant and exotic vestiges of a lost culture, as objects and monuments that left no mark on European tradition." "A goal of this book, the first publication in over forty years to study the art and architecture of al-Andalus in depth, is to reveal the value of these arts as part of an autonomous culture and also as a presence with deep significance for both Europe and the Islamic world. Toward this end, twenty-four international scholars have contributed a wide-ranging series of essays and catalogue entries in which the art, architecture, and cultural climate of al-Andalus are approached from a broad variety of perspectives. A significant achievement of this volume, in fact, is that it brings together American and European scholars, two groups that until now have worked largely in isolation from each other." "Most of the art and architecture that remains from Islamic Spain was produced for palatine settings and aristocratic patrons; representing, as these works do, almost eight centuries of history, they issue from diverse rules and traditions. The lavishly illustrated essays and catalogue entries present the full spectrum of the art of al-Andalus: intricately carved ivories, metalwork, and ceramics, luxurious textiles, jewelry, arms, marble capitals, stucco panels, and tiles, as well as major monuments of religious and secular architecture such as the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the palace city of Madinat al-Zahra', and the Alhambra." "The texts unfold chronologically to trace the brilliant architecture and courtly arts of the Umayyad caliphate, the refined and original accomplishments of the succeeding Taifa kingdoms, the more rigorous contributions of the Almoravids and Almohads who followed, and, finally, the opulent palaces and objects created for the Nasrids of Granada, the last Muslim dynasty in Spain. The essays are broad and synthetic in nature, creating cultural and artistic contexts for the objects that are discussed in detail in the 136 catalogue entries. Some authors interpret the relationship between patrons and works of art; others illuminate the architectural surroundings in which the objects existed as well as the meanings inherent in the pieces themselves. Still others trace developments within specific mediums, integrating recent technological and historical studies that view the function and meaning of crafts in their social and cultural contexts. An entire section of essays is devoted to the Alhambra of Granada, the crowning architectural achievement of the Nasrids. Every entry is illustrated in color. Notes, literature, an extensive bibliography, a chronology, a glossary, architectural plans, maps showing the extent of al-Andalus at various stages in its history, and an index are provided." "Thus, the volume addresses a general as well as a specialized audience and serves both as an introduction to the visual world of a nearly vanished culture and as a point of departure for future scholarly study."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 0870996371Publication Date: 1992-03-01
Islamic Gardens and Landscapes by
"In the course of my research," writes D. Fairchild Ruggles, "I devoured Arabic agricultural manuals from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries. I love gardening, and in these texts I was able to enter the minds of agriculturalists and botanists of a thousand years ago who likewise believed it was important and interesting to record all the known ways of propagating olive trees, the various uses of rosemary, and how best to fertilize a garden bed." Western admirers have long seen the Islamic garden as an earthly reflection of the paradise said to await the faithful. However, such simplification, Ruggles contends, denies the sophistication and diversity of the art form. Islamic Gardens and Landscapes immerses the reader in the world of the architects of the great gardens of the Islamic world, from medieval Morocco to contemporary India. Just as Islamic culture is historically dense, sophisticated, and complex, so too is the history of its built landscapes. Islamic gardens began from the practical need to organize the surrounding space of human civilization, tame nature, enhance the earth's yield, and create a legible map on which to distribute natural resources. Ruggles follows the evolution of these early farming efforts to their aristocratic apex in famous formal gardens of the Alhambra in Spain and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Whether in a humble city home or a royal courtyard, the garden has several defining characteristics, which Ruggles discusses. Most notable is an enclosed space divided into four equal parts surrounding a central design element. The traditional Islamic garden is inwardly focused, usually surrounded by buildings or in the form of a courtyard. Water provides a counterpoint to the portioned green sections. Ranging across poetry, court documents, agronomy manuals, and early garden representations, and richly illustrated with pictures and site plans, Islamic Gardens and Landscapes is a book of impressive scope sure to interest scholars and enthusiasts alike.
ISBN: 9780812240252Publication Date: 2008-01-16
Selected Image Collections, Archives & Databases on the Web
Visual Resources of the Middle East [Part of Yale University Open Community Collections] Yale University holds a wide array of images from the Middle East across its encyclopedic collections. Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) has manuscript paintings from early modern Iran and India, and strong holdings in textiles, ceramics, photography and contemporary art. 18th- and 19th-century highlights include objects that document British travels through the Middle East from the Yale Center for British Art and the Lewis Walpole Library. Sterling Memorial Library offers visual resources from books and periodicals published in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, while the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library houses numerous scientific manuscripts. Beinecke Library's renowned rare book and manuscript collections encompass resources from Safavid Shahnama manuscripts to 20th-century field photographs. Included among the Peabody Museum of Natural History’s collection are archaeological objects from the Islamic world. Artstor also includes the YUAG Gerasa and Dura-Europos collections. Image credit: Tapestry of a Hunting Scene, Iranian/Persian, mid-16th century, Yale University Art Gallery.
The Middle East Digital Humanities Digest [BLOG]
Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative [MEPP] - MEPPI is led jointly by the Arab Image Foundation, the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Conservation Institute. The Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI) is a strategic multi-year program designed to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the region’s photographic heritage. Launched in 2009 with a pilot workshop, it has grown into a multi-faceted initiative with an ambitious program of complementary research and capacity-building objectives.
Visualizing Palestine
"Visualizing Palestine creates data-driven tools to advance a factual, rights-based narrative of the Palestinian-Israeli issue. Our researchers, designers, technologists, and communications specialists work in partnership with civil society actors to amplify their impact and promote justice and equality."
Diarna : The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life "Diarna (דיארנא ديارنا “Our homes” in Judeo-Arabic): The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life is working to digitally preserve the physical remnants of Jewish history throughout the region. We are in a race against time to capture site data and record place-based oral histories before even the memories of these communities are lost. Diarna pioneers the synthesis of digital mapping technology, traditional scholarship, and field research, as well as a trove of multimedia documentation. All of these combine to lend a virtual presence and guarantee untrammeled access to Jewish historical sites lest they be forgotten or erased."
The Not-So-Funny Papers Explore Cold War Propaganda, Afghanistan, and more! The Not-So-Funny Papers - By Matthew Trevithick | Foreign Policy.
Syria, Iraq & Afghanistan : Mapping migration, social media and topography
Authors: Wolfgang Taucher - Mathias Vogl - Peter Webinger
Published by: Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
Date: 2017. 71 pages. ISBN: 9783950364392
Modernism in the Middle East and Arab World By Tagharobi, Kaveh; Zarei, Ali
How the CIA Secretly Funded Arab Art to Fight Communism [Apr 21, 2017]
Mapping Islamophobia – Visualizing Islamophobia and Its Effects 
"Mapping Islamophobia is a project headed by Grinnell College history and religious studies professor Caleb Elfenbein, with contributions from a number of Grinnell College students and technical support from Mike Conner. The project utilizes a series of powerful interactive maps that document incidents of violence, discrimination, and bias targeting Muslim individuals and communities in the United States. One such map, along with an accompanying interactive timeline, allows visitors to view the prevalence of Islamophobia between the years 2011 and 2018. In addition, these maps allow visitors to investigate Islamophobic incidents by incident type (including legislation, public campaigns, and crimes against people) and the gender of the targeted individual. The team behind Mapping Islamophobia collected information about these incidents from a variety of "media outlets with clear editorial oversight." By selecting individual pins on these maps, visitors can learn more about specific incidents and news sources. The Mapping Islamophobia project also contains Countering Islamophobia, an interactive map that documents "how American Muslim communities have responded to the increasing presence of anti-Muslim hostility in American public life over time." This map highlights community outreach activities, interfaith initiatives, and more."
[Description from Scout Report]
"Akkasah, the Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi, is home to an archive of the photographic heritage of the Middle East and North Africa. The Center is dedicated to documenting and preserving the diverse histories and practices of photography from the region, and our growing archive contains at present over 60,000 images."
The Bavarian Air Force World War I Aerial Photography of Palestine = Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv: Bildsammlung Palästina. "The 2,872 photographs, comprising both aerial and ground photographs that are
now available on the website of the Central State Archive of the Bavarian State Office
for Surveying, constitute an important resource for the study of many aspects of the
landscape of Palestine and other territories at the end of Ottoman rule in the region.
These photographs offer an overview of the region’s topography as it was almost one
hundred years ago, and as such are of great significance to geographers, historians, and
researchers working on urban cultural history "
Mapping Palestine: The Bavarian Air Force WWI Aerial Photography
Islamic Painted Page: A database of Islamic Arts of the Book Islamic Painted Page database - a huge free database of references for Persian paintings, Ottoman paintings, Arab paintings and Mughal paintings. This site enables you to locate printed reproductions, commentaries and weblinks for thousands of Islamic paintings, including illuminated "carpet" pages, decorated Quran pages, and book bindings from over 230 collections all over the world.
Ottoman-Era Photographs Take on New Meaning in Their Digital Life Thousands of images from the Pierre de Gigord Collection are now accessible online [The Getty Research Institute]
Digital History of British Colonial Cairo: Media and the Potentialities of History The project aims at developing a site to publish electronic articles that use various audio-visual media to reconstruct an understanding of the history of Cairo under British occupation. It is based on the employment of media and maps in order to achieve two objectives: 1) overcome publication barriers that prevent the optimal use of the possibilities of Digital Media, 2) provide a new style of critical historical writing about Cairo to readers in Arabic.
Exhibition: Arab Cinema Posters - Yale University Library, December 2008 to February 2009
The Ellen-Fairbanks D. Bodman Collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic World Films @ UNC Over 500 films and willing to lend to other academic institutions with two week notice. Please contact your librarian to arrange such a loan.
- Amb. Richard B. Parker Photographs of Islamic Monuments 1965-1979 (Smithsonian Institution)"The Amb. Richard B. Parker Photographs contains 200 black and white prints, 481 black and white negatives, and two black and white contact sheets of Islamic monuments in Algeria, Cairo, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Spain. The Morocco series in the largest in the collection covering four cities. Photographs from Cairo span the years 1965-1968. All other photographs span the years 1970-1979. "
- Arab Image FoundationImages from early 19th century to the present. Register to view and save full-size images.
- ArchNet Digital LibraryArchNet is an "international online community for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, conservationists, and scholars, with a focus on Muslim cultures and civilisations."
- ArteEastArteEast presents the works of contemporary artists from the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas to a wide audience in order to foster a more complex understanding of the regions’ arts and cultures and to encourage artistic excellence.
- Brooklyn Museum Online CollectionsBrooklyn Museum's digital gallery contains over 1,400 images on Art of the Islamic World.
- Casselman Archive of Islamic and Mudejar Architecture in Spain (Univ. Wisconsin Digital Collections)"This collection contains over four thousand color slides and black and white photographs of medieval Spain taken by the late Eugene Casselman (1912-1996) during his thirty years of travel throughout the Iberian peninsula. The images span over one thousand years of architectural history, from the seventh to the seventeenth century."
- FlickrA popular, free online photo sharing site containing millions of photos, including current events like protests in Egypt or the Iraq War. You can limit your search to photos with different Creative Commons licenses.
- Flickr CommonsPhotos from various cultural institutions in the world including the Library of Congress. Flickr users can add tags and comments to add to the knowledge of the photographs. A special "no known copyright restrictions" is applied.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online CatalogIncludes Abdul-Hamid II Collection (1,800 photos in albums ca. 1880-1893) and Matson Negative Collection (over 13,000 negatives from 1898-1946).
- LIFE Photo Archive (hosted by Google)Search millions of photos from the magazine's archive (published and unpublished). 19th century to the present.
- Middle East Photograph Archive (Univ. of Chicago)Online archive of early photographs.
- Poetry and Prayer: Islamic Manuscripts from the Walters Museum of ArtThese digital images accompany the exhibition of illuminated and illustrated Islamic manuscripts from the ninth to the nineteenth century at the Walters. It coincides with a larger initiative to make high-resolution digital surrogates of all of the Islamic manuscripts and single pages at the Walters.
- Saudi Aramco World Digital ArchiveContains more than 40,000 historic and current images of the Middle East and the Islamic world. Most of the images online are published and unpublished images from the bimonthly magazine Aramco World, from 1964 to 2000, and Saudi Aramco World, to current.
- The American University in Cairo Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library"Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library at the American University in Cairo supports research and teaching in the arts, culture, and society of Egypt and the Middle East by providing online access to unique cultural heritage resources. Browse and search photographs, videos, oral histories, architectural drawings, and visual art."
- The Middle East in Early Prints & Photographs (NYPL Digital Gallery)Several thousand images contained in works from the 17th to early 20th century.
- The Palestine Poster Project ArchiveAn online archive of thousands of posters, created by M.A. candidate Dan Walsh of Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies .
- Williams Afghan Media ProjectPhotos of Afghanistan from the late 19th century to the Soviet occupation.
Visual Arts, Art & Architecture Bibliography
- Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World by
Following the tradition and style of the acclaimed Index Islamicus, the editors have created this new Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World. The editors have surveyed and, in many cases, annotated a wide range of books and articles from collected volumes and journals published in all European languages (except Turkish) between 1906 and 2011. The editors have ensured that material from a wide range of scholarly traditions and approaches has been consulted in order to make this comprehensive bibliography an indispensable tool for everyone involved in the study of material culture in Muslim societies.
Call Number: Fine Arts Library N6260 .B53 2012ISBN: 9789004170582Publication Date: 2012-04-03
Dictionary of Islamic Architecture by
The Dictionary of Islamic Architectureprovides the fullest range of artistic, technical, archaeological, cultural and biographical data for the entire geographical and chronological spread of Islamic architecture - from West Africa through the Middle East to Indonesia, and from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries of the Common Era. Over 500 entries are arranged alphabetically and fully cross-referenced and indexed to permit easy access to the text and to link items of related interest. Four main categories of subject matter are explored: * dynasticand regional overviews * individual site descriptions * biographical entries * technical definitions Over 100 relevant plans, sketch maps, photographs and other illustrations complement and illuminate the entries, and the needs of the reader requiring further information are met by individual entry bibliographies.the needs of the reader requiring further information are met by individual entry bibliographies.
Call Number: Online and Fine Arts Library Reference NA380 .P48 1996ISBN: 0203203879Publication Date: 2002-03-11
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture by
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture is the most comprehensive reference work in this complex and diverse area of art history. Built on the acclaimed scholarship of the Grove Dictionary of Art, this work offers over 1,600 up-to-date entries on Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, Africa, and Europe and spans over a thousand years of history. Recent changes in Islamic art in areas such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq are elucidated here by distinguished scholars. Entries provide in-depth art historical and cultural information about dynasties, art forms, artists, architecture, rulers, monuments, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. In addition, over 500 illustrations of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ceramics, architecture, metalwork and calligraphy illuminate the rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world. With the fundamental understanding that Islamic art is not limited to a particular region, or to a defined period of time, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture offers pathways into Islamic culture through its art.
Call Number: Fine Arts Library N6260 .G75 2009ISBN: 9780195309911Publication Date: 2009-03-23
Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo by
Examines the art and architectural treasures of Cairo from the Arab to the Ottoman conquests (642-1517). Set within an historical narrative, the stylistic development of the visual arts is explained within changing religious, social, and political contexts. Examples of the decorative arts-ceramics, glass, woodwork, metalwork, textiles, and manuscripts-are examined from the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, and other major collections in Europe and the USA.
Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781859641545Publication Date: 2006-06-01
The Art Salon in the Arab Region by ISBN: 9783956505270Publication Date: 2019-03-01
Manazir Journal - Published by the University of Bern. vol. 1; 2019- ISSN: 2673-4354. "Manazir Journal is a peer-reviewed academic Platinum Open Access journal dedicated to visual arts, architecture and cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Every.
Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is a free and open-access online platform of digital resources to aid the teaching of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. It is sponsored by the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC) at the University of Michigan through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In its initial stage, the platform provides original multimedia content developed by scholars from across the field of Islamic art, which is intended to aid educators in the creation of an interactive learning environment and to contribute to new ways of teaching in general, bringing new voices, perspectives, and materials into our classrooms.
The Crafts of Iraq site contains information about craft activities in cities, towns, and rural areas across Iraq, drawn from primary texts, archaeological and ethnographic publications, historical photographs, online sources, and signatures on objects, buildings and manuscripts. Entries cover a period from the seventh century to the present day. The site also comprises a glossary of technical terms, timeline, and other research supports..." Project of Dr Marcus Milwright, Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology, University of Victoria, Canada.
Crafts of Syria This site is organized according to the cities, towns, and other settlements of modern Syria. Within each of these you will find primary written sources, secondary historical studies, ethnographic and archaeological research, and photographs that provide evidence for craft activities conducted in these locations across Syria from the seventh century to the present.
3D Models, VR Models, Panographies, etc.
Open Access Sources for Images & Visuals
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Visual Resources of the Middle East [Part of Yale University Open Community Collections] Yale University holds a wide array of images from the Middle East across its encyclopedic collections. Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) has manuscript paintings from early modern Iran and India, and strong holdings in textiles, ceramics, photography and contemporary art. 18th- and 19th-century highlights include objects that document British travels through the Middle East from the Yale Center for British Art and the Lewis Walpole Library. Sterling Memorial Library offers visual resources from books and periodicals published in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, while the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library houses numerous scientific manuscripts. Beinecke Library's renowned rare book and manuscript collections encompass resources from Safavid Shahnama manuscripts to 20th-century field photographs. Included among the Peabody Museum of Natural History’s collection are archaeological objects from the Islamic world. Artstor also includes the YUAG Gerasa and Dura-Europos collections. Image credit: Tapestry of a Hunting Scene, Iranian/Persian, mid-16th century, Yale University Art Gallery.
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Aga Khan Library Digital Collections The Aga Khan Library, London, a world-class resource for Islamic studies, houses an invaluable collection of rare books, manuscripts, and artefacts produced in different regions of the Muslim realm, part of which we present in digital format for the first time. The Aga Khan Library has digitised its extensive special collections to offer a wide range of research materials on the history, politics, customs, and beliefs that have shaped the contemporary global Muslim community.
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American Center Of Oriental Research Photo Archive The ACOR Library holds a remarkable photographic archive related to its role in preserving and promoting the country’s heritage. The complete collection, estimated to number more than 100,000 images, provides primary visual documentation of Jordan, including the major archaeological and cultural heritage projects that the center has sponsored across the country over the decades.
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Arab Image Foundation المؤسّسة العربيّة للصورة The Arab Image Foundation is a non-profit organization established in Beirut in 1997. Its mission is to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.
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MEPPI is led jointly by the Arab Image Foundation, the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Conservation Institute.
Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative [MEPP] - MEPPI is led jointly by the Arab Image Foundation, the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Conservation Institute. The Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI) is a strategic multi-year program designed to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the region’s photographic heritage. Launched in 2009 with a pilot workshop, it has grown into a multi-faceted initiative with an ambitious program of complementary research and capacity-building objectives.
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Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is a free and open-access online platform of digital resources to aid the teaching of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. It is sponsored by the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC) at the University of Michigan through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In its initial stage, the platform provides original multimedia content developed by scholars from across the field of Islamic art, which is intended to aid educators in the creation of an interactive learning environment and to contribute to new ways of teaching in general, bringing new voices, perspectives, and materials into our classrooms.Islamic Painted Page: A database of Islamic Arts of the Book Islamic Painted Page database - a huge free database of references for Persian paintings, Ottoman paintings, Arab paintings and Mughal paintings. This site enables you to locate printed reproductions, commentaries and weblinks for thousands of Islamic paintings, including illuminated "carpet" pages, decorated Quran pages, and book bindings from over 230 collections all over the world.
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Digital Muṣḥaf "The Digital Muṣḥaf Project aims to create a database of images of early Qurʾānic fragments from dispersed muṣḥafs or codices of the Qurʾanic text and, as far as possible, virtually re-create the original codices so that they are available for scholars and the public in one place together with descriptions and metadata.
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Landscapes and monuments: Iran to Spain
Garth Fowden is a historian of first millennium CE Eurasia, who in pursuit of his interests has travelled extensively in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa. For the greater part of his career he has lived and worked in Greece. This site presents a digitized version of the photographic archive he developed while conducting research on the landscapes and monuments of these regions. . The main regions covered are Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran and Yemen, and less extensively Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. Within each site, the photographs are arranged in a sequence designed to convey some sense of a physical visit, sometimes starting and/or ending with more general shots of the surrounding landscape and of the routes that traverse it. Photographs taken on site are occasionally supplemented by items from museums or print publications designed to make the collection more suitable for teaching purposes. -
AUB Libraries Digital Collections is a gateway to our digitized and preserved collections featuring manuscripts, maps, photos, posters, books, multimedia and other resources. This online growing repository aims to continuously disseminate knowledge about AUB, the region, our history and cultural heritage for the purpose of research, teaching and education. It is also a hub for collaboration with other departments, faculties, scholars in addition to external partners libraries and institutions to support digital scholarship initiatives.
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Postcards [AUB Libraries Digital Collections] The postcard played a crucial role in 20th c. visual culture, tourism and global exchanges, defining modern national topographies and iconic ways of seeing (and being in) the world. Postcards contribute to place and sight making and to constructing visual as well as nationalistic and cultural discourses, travel networks ...
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Manazir Journal - Published by the University of Bern. vol. 1; 2019- ISSN: 2673-4354. "Manazir Journal is a peer-reviewed academic Platinum Open Access journal dedicated to visual arts, architecture and cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Every.
- Abdul Hamid II Collection (Library of Congress) : This monumental collection portrays the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. The 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire, featuring images of educational facilities and students; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.
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The American University of Beirut Jafet Library's Poster Collection
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The Jadaliyya Photography and Visual Narratives Page is an online space to showcase and discuss visual narratives from and/or about the Middle East and North Africa. The page serves both as a knowledge resource about visual production in the region, and also as a platform through which to expand perspectives related to how the region is represented, how communities see themselves, and one another.
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Archnet is a globally-accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world. Archnet’s mission is to provide ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality. Officially launched in 2002 as a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Archnet has since evolved into the largest open, online architectural library with a focus on Muslim cultures. Its digital archives form a comprehensive resource on architecture, urban design, landscape, development, and related issues. Archnet provides a bridge for interested persons to learn how to enhance the quality of the built environment, to compensate for lack of resources for students and faculty in academic institutions, and to highlight the culture and traditions of Islam.
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Chusseau-Flaviens's photographs of late Ottoman Istanbul (ca. 1900-1919).
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Crafts of Syria / Dr Marcus Milwright, Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology, Department of Art History and Visual Studies University of Victoria
"... Many of the monuments and archaeological sites have been looted, with some deliberately destroyed during the conflict. The crafts are another significant component of the rich cultural heritage of Syria, and this site is intended to preserve information on aspects of traditional manufacturing practices of urban and rural areas. It is hoped that this will be a resource for students and researchers working on the material cultures and socio-economic life of Syria and the surrounding regions of the Middle East. This site is organized according to the cities, towns, and other settlements of modern Syria. Within each of these you will find primary written sources, secondary historical studies, ethnographic and archaeological research, and photographs that provide evidence for craft activities conducted in these locations across Syria from the seventh century to the present. The site will also be complemented by a range of resources designed to aid in the study of the craft traditions of this region. Some are already available on the site, and others will be added soon. These comprise: essays dealing with specific aspects of the crafts of Islamic Syria, links to related archives and collections, maps, short biographies of major primary sources, a glossary of technical terms, and a bibliography."
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Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is a free and open-access online platform of digital resources to aid the teaching of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. It is sponsored by the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC) at the University of Michigan through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In its initial stage, the platform provides original multimedia content developed by scholars from across the field of Islamic art, which is intended to aid educators in the creation of an interactive learning environment and to contribute to new ways of teaching in general, bringing new voices, perspectives, and materials into our classrooms.
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The Gertrude Bell Collection comprises books on Arabic and Persian languages and on the histories of Arabia, and the Near and Middle East which were formerly part of Gertrude's working library.
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Ibraaz Contemporary Visual Culture in North Africa and the Middle East
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Maps of the (Late) Ottoman Empire: especially useful for those interested in 19th-century eastern Anatolia, Greater Syria and Iraq
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The Middle East Film Posters Digitization Initiative (Princeton University)
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Tehran Propaganda Murals (Harvard)
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Travelers in the Middle East (TIMEA) is a digital archive that focuses on Western interactions with the Middle East, particularly travels to Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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The University of Chicago Library's Guide to Middle Eastern Posters Collections 1970s-1990s
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The University of Chicago Library's The Middle East Photograph Archive
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Archnet Digital Library - provides images, publication information and references on architecture from around the world.
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One reference provided is the Dictionary of Islamic Architecture.
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The WADE Photo Archive - provides images of patterns in Islamic art from diverse parts of the Islamic World (Morocco to India). Citations are included for each image giving basic information; i.e., what, where, and type of pattern.
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The Middle East Outreach Council has an online gallery of images submitted by its members which are a part of the creative commons. Photos are free for classroom use, but are not allowed to be used in derivative works.
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Title: Western Arabia in the Leiden Collections: Traces of a Colourful Past.
Authors: Mols, Luitgard E. M., and Arnoud Vrolijk.
Published: Leiden : Leiden University Press, 2016
Summary:
"In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Dutch diplomats, scholars and travellers assembled unique collections in Jeddah, Mecca and Medina. The Dutch presence in Arabia, where they established a consulate in Jeddah, was intimately connected with the supervision of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca from the Netherlands East Indies, present-day Indonesia. Notable guests at this consulate included the formidable Dutch Islamicist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, visiting Arabia in 1884-1885. With the invaluable help of local Muslims, Dutch collectors tried to capture the essence of what they regarded as an 'authentic' Oriental culture in a period when Arabia was already looking towards modernity. These extensive collections are now preserved at the Leiden Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde, est. 1837) and Leiden University (founded 1575). Together, they allow a glimpse into a colourful and vibrant society, one virtually vanished today under ever-growing numbers of pilgrims, changing political and religious allegiances and sudden economic prosperity." -
Syria, Iraq & Afghanistan : Mapping migration, social media and topography
Authors: Wolfgang Taucher - Mathias Vogl - Peter Webinger
Published by: Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
Date: 2017. 71 pages. ISBN: 9783950364392 -
The First Hundred Years of Iranian Photography: A Bibliography / Maria Francesca Bonetti , Khadijeh Mohammadi Nameghi & Alberto Prandi
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Photography in the Grey Years (1920–40) Translated by Reza Sheikh Mohammad Khodadadi Motarjemzadeh.
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Qajar Photography and its Relationship to Iranian Art: A Reassessment Layla S. Diba
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Photography and the Illustrated Journals Sharaf and Sharāfat Translated by Reza Sheikh Mohammad Sattari & Houshang Salamat
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From Sitters to Photographers: Women in Photography from the Qajar Era to the 1930s Khadijeh Mohammadi Nameghi & Carmen Pérez González
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‘Greetings from Shiraz, the city of the purest air and clearest sky in the world’:
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Ordinary Pictorial Delights from the Collections of Leiden University Library Corien J. M. Vuurman
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Italian Photographers in Iran 1848–64 Translated by Christina Cawthra Maria Francesca Bonetti & Alberto Prandi
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Photography in Iran: A Chronology Translated and edited by Reza Sheikh Mohammad Reza Tahmasbpour.
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Database for Ottoman Inscriptions -Osmanli Kitableri Projesi The Database of Ottoman Inscriptions (DOI) is searchable digital database comprising information about, as well as transliterations and pictures of, all the Turkish, Arabic and Persian architectural inscriptions created in the Ottoman lands during Ottoman times. For more information, click here.
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Abdul-Hamid II collection of photographs of the Ottoman Empire U.S. [Library of Congress]
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Images of the Ottoman Empire: the photograph albums presented by Sultan Abdulhamid II [the British Library, U.K.]
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Artstor: the sublime architecture of the Indo-Islamic empires. The current selection in Artstor provides a survey of Indo-Islamic architecture in India from the time of the successive Sultanates of Delhi (~1200-1525) through the long rule of the dominant Mughal Dynasty (1526-1857). The material focuses on the structures and projects patronized by emperors, sultans, and their officials: mosques, tombs/mausolea, palaces, forts, and the refined gardens that surrounded them.
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Digital History of British Colonial Cairo: Media and the Potentialities of History The project aims at developing a site to publish electronic articles that use various audio-visual media to reconstruct an understanding of the history of Cairo under British occupation. It is based on the employment of media and maps in order to achieve two objectives: 1) overcome publication barriers that prevent the optimal use of the possibilities of Digital Media, 2) provide a new style of critical historical writing about Cairo to readers in Arabic.
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Mapping Islamophobia – Visualizing Islamophobia and Its Effects
"Mapping Islamophobia is a project headed by Grinnell College history and religious studies professor Caleb Elfenbein, with contributions from a number of Grinnell College students and technical support from Mike Conner. The project utilizes a series of powerful interactive maps that document incidents of violence, discrimination, and bias targeting Muslim individuals and communities in the United States. One such map, along with an accompanying interactive timeline, allows visitors to view the prevalence of Islamophobia between the years 2011 and 2018. In addition, these maps allow visitors to investigate Islamophobic incidents by incident type (including legislation, public campaigns, and crimes against people) and the gender of the targeted individual. The team behind Mapping Islamophobia collected information about these incidents from a variety of "media outlets with clear editorial oversight." By selecting individual pins on these maps, visitors can learn more about specific incidents and news sources. The Mapping Islamophobia project also contains Countering Islamophobia, an interactive map that documents "how American Muslim communities have responded to the increasing presence of anti-Muslim hostility in American public life over time." This map highlights community outreach activities, interfaith initiatives, and more."
[Description from Scout Report]Islamic Painted Page: A database of Islamic Arts of the BookIslamic Painted Page database - a huge free database of references for Persian paintings, Ottoman paintings, Arab paintings and Mughal paintings. This site enables you to locate printed reproductions, commentaries and weblinks for thousands of Islamic paintings, including illuminated "carpet" pages, decorated Quran pages, and book bindings from over 230 collections all over the world.
"Akkasah, the Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi, is home to an archive of the photographic heritage of the Middle East and North Africa. The Center is dedicated to documenting and preserving the diverse histories and practices of photography from the region, and our growing archive contains at present over 60,000 images."
Ottoman-Era Photographs Take on New Meaning in Their Digital Life Thousands of images from the Pierre de Gigord Collection are now accessible online [The Getty Research Institute]
Discover Egypt's Monuments
"Supported by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Discover Egypt's Monuments invites visitors on a virtual trip through Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, Luxor, South Sinai, Wadi Natrun, Al-Minya, and the Red Sea. Clicking "Explore Egypt's Maps" leads visitors to an interactive map where they can scroll through locations (using the Places to Visit box on the right-hand side, under Sites and Monuments) and find pinpointed sites along the way. Each site includes a brief description (available in English or Arabic).
Open Access Digital Catalogue of a Photographic Archive of Cairo - The Photographs of Beniamino Facchinelli (1839-1895)
"I am pleased to release of the digital catalogue of views of Cairo's monumental heritage taken by Italian photographer Beniamino Facchinelli (1839-1895) after his settling in 1875 in the Egyptian capital, where he died twenty years later. The catalogue currently features 726 high-definition reproductions of images identified among the holdings of six libraries and museums across the globe; it is designed to incorporate further ones as they appear in collections willing to share their content in full Open Access mode.
It is estimated that Facchinelli produced about 1200 topographical views during his stay in Egypt, of which 900 have been already listed and located, though not all copyright-cleared yet. All images are authenticated through cross-referencing, and their original captions are listed in the entries, as well as the albums and publications where they were reproduced. The whole represents a unique documentation on buildings which have either disappeared since then, or been radically transformed in course of restoration; it also includes rare views on their furnishings. Because the photographs of the reconstructed corpus were often commissioned by dedicated preservationists and inserted in their publications (although without any credit to their author), one can closely follow through them how a vanishing architectural, visual and material culture was then viewed, valued and defended."
[Mercedes Volait - CNRS Research Professor at InVisu - https://invisu.cnrs.fr/ via H-Islamart ]
Mühür Veritabanı / Seal Database
The Crafts of Iraq site contains information about craft activities in cities, towns, and rural areas across Iraq, drawn from primary texts, archaeological and ethnographic publications, historical photographs, online sources, and signatures on objects, buildings and manuscripts. Entries cover a period from the seventh century to the present day. The site also comprises a glossary of technical terms, timeline, and other research supports..." Project of Dr Marcus Milwright, Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology, University of Victoria, Canada.
Crafts of Syria This site is organized according to the cities, towns, and other settlements of modern Syria. Within each of these you will find primary written sources, secondary historical studies, ethnographic and archaeological research, and photographs that provide evidence for craft activities conducted in these locations across Syria from the seventh century to the present.
Licensed Image Databases available at Cornell
- AP ImagesContains Associated Press photographs from their 50 million image print and negative library, as well as charts, graphs, tables, and maps from the AP's graphics portfolio.
- ARTstor images on JSTORSearchable database of digital images and associated catalog data. Covers the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture. The Artstor website was retired on August 1, 2024. Artstor's content, key resources, and functionality were migrated to JSTOR.
- LunaCornell University offers a range of digital collections that showcase visual resources from its rich cultural collections.Original materials include fine art, archival photographs, ephemera, images in rare books, and other original works from its library collections, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, as well as visual resources and original pictorial field work for the study of art, architecture, anthropology, and classics.
Sounds
Arabic 78 Collection In celebration of this year’s landmark entry of pre-1923 published sound recordings into the public domain, the Loeb Music Library has released a small subset of our early 20th century Arabic 78 collection on our new Aviary site. Acquired over many years, the Arabic 78 Collection currently contains nearly 600 cataloged recordings of Arab and Arab-American music spanning the first half of the 20th century, from roughly 1903 through the 1950s, valuable not only for their musical content, but also as artifacts of the early sound recording industry.
"The Memory of Modern Egypt" provides access to open sound recordings.