Detail
Sherwill, Walter S. The Opium Trade: Descending the Ganges en route to Calcutta, 1851. Chromolithograph. from: Sherwill. Illustrations of the mode of preparing the Indian opium intended for the Chinese market. Cornell University Library digital image source
Artstor images now in JSTOR
JSTOR is a growing digital library that includes multiple types and formats of content. Artstor images have now moved into JSTOR, to create a robust platform for discovering and working with both text and images. Images from Artstor collections can now be found in JSTOR, and JSTOR platform features and functionality have evolved to support work with multiple formats of research materials.
You can only download if you register for an account, which you'll need to do on campus. After you have an account, you can login from anywhere. More information and help in using JSTOR images.
Artstor includes collections such as:
- The American Museum of Natural History
- The Natural History Museum (London)
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
as well as images of animals in hundreds of thousands of works of art and photography
Johnson Museum Online
Databases & Collections
The library subscribes to or has built a number of image databases that are excellent sources of images you can download and add to your papers and other projects. You need to keep in mind that some of them have licensing restricts that prohibit the re-publication (including open web publishing, such as on a blog or on social networking sites) of images you download. There are also quite a few digital collections that are free and open on the web. Use the library Visual Resources page for links and information about how best to use ARTstor and other image databases.
Other digital collections Get help with digital images
Finding Images Library Research Guide
Digital Collections
Exhibition websites, such as this one (Water Memories, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022-23), are great sources of image materials.
There are also lots of great online collections that are free and open on the web, many of them on museum websites. Here are a few that may offer some good images of objects related to your research:
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American Memory, The Library of CongressSubject categories: Advertising, African American History, Architecture, Landscape, Cities, Towns, Culture, Folklife, Environment, Conservation, Government, Law, Immigration, American Expansion, Literature, Maps, Native American History, Performing Arts, Music, Presidents, Religion, Sports, Recreation, Technology, Industry, War, Military, Women's History. Also see the Library of Congress Flickr Commons collection.
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Art Institute of ChicagoExplore thousands of artworks in the museum’s wide-ranging collection—from our world-renowned icons to lesser-known gems from every corner of the globe—as well as our books, writings, reference materials, and other resources.
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Brooklyn Museum Online CollectionsBrooklyn Museum's digital gallery contains over 90,000 digitized images from its collections. Users can browse, save, research, comment and tag. Wide-range of cultures, regions, and temporal periods represented.
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Getty Research Institute Open Content Imageshigh-resolution images from the Research Institute include drawings and watercolors, artists’ sketchbooks, rare prints from the 16th through the 18th century, 19th-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks and 19th-century photographs of the Middle East and Asia.
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online CatalogContains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. Includes photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
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Metropolitan Museum of ArtSelected works of art in the Museum's collections. Also available (in higher resolution) from ARTstor.
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New York Public Library Digital GalleryProvides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
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POP : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine (French museum collections)French ministry of culture's site, in French. 500,000 records of objects (subject categories: archaeology, fine arts, ethnography, history, science & technology...).
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Smithsonian Institution Collections SearchSearch archival, print and digital content. Over 7.4 million records with 568,100 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries, including the American Art Museums, the Portrait Gallery, Archives of American Art, National Museum of American History, and more.
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VersaillesThe collections of the museum founded by Louis-Philippe, and still active today, offer a chronological overview of the history of France from the Middle Ages up to the late 19th century.
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Yale University ImagesYale University Library Digital Images Database. Includes: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Digital Images (especially rich in American literature and Western Americana), the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Map Collection.