Unexpected Images
This guide is designed to help researchers discover images in text databases. Many text-based databases (subscription and open access) include rich image resources. This guide will help you find some of those "hidden" images and introduce other resources for finding archival images.
Some of the image types it covers include:
- illustrations
- broadsides
- political cartoons
- portraits
- menus
- sheet music
- other ephemera
- for maps, see the excellent guide, Finding Cartographic Resources Online
Image: Self-portrait in word cloud, 12 June 2013, by "Ray."
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Librarian
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
Guidelines for Use
The digital image and text collections on this page are for personal, research, and instruction use only. The terms of Cornell's database licenses usually do not permit re-publication of images.
Image Databases
If you're interested in some of the major image databases that Cornell has either built or for which we have licensed access, try our guide to finding visual resources
Looking for illustrated books
An illustrated book will have at least one of the following terms in the Description field:
ill. (for "illustrated"), maps, pl. (plates), col. (color), plans, ports (portraits)
Here are two examples:
- x, 414 p. illus., diagrs., 23 col. plates. tables. 26 cm.
- 71 p. illus., 9 pl., 2 col. maps. 25 cm.
Commonly-used subject headings include:
[Try some of the links to subject terms above explore further]
Sample catalog record
In this example, the description tells us that the book includes 72 pages, illustrations, portraits, and is 29 centimeters (11.4 inches) high.
The subject headings also tell us that the subject matter is focused on pictorial material.