InfoGuides: Art and Design: Find Images

Artstor for Images

Need to find an artwork for a paper or research project? Interested in looking at historic fashion or armor? Want to know what a 5th century Cypriot footstool looks like?

Artstor Digital Library is an image database containing millions of images from museums and institutions worldwide. These collections cover global arts and culture, from historic paintings, sculpture, and prints to contemporary photojournalism, indigenous studies, artists' books and zines, and more.

As a Mason student, you have exclusive access to Artstor!

How to register & use Artstor:

Use the link below to visit the Artstor Digital Library database.
Look for the "Log in or Register" links in the upper-right corner and choose "Register"
Use your Mason email address and fill out your details.

Registering allows you to download high-resolution images and save materials to your personal account. You can bookmark the link below for easy access.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Note: Artstor users must create a free account to save and share images.

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Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new window
Provides access to interdisciplinary and integrated text, image, and journal content on world dress and fashion.
Tutorial for the Berg Fashion Library database.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Note: ARTstor users must create a free account to save and share images. Users must turn off the popup blocker.

Artsy
Represents contemporary/practicing artists, with over 50,000 artworks from galleries, museums, and artists' estates.
AP Images
A collection of historical and contemporary imagery, with a 50 million image print and negative archive. Included are graphics and audio clips.
AD*Access
U.S. and Canadian advertisements from 1911-1955, from the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University

Explore the Smithsonian Art & Design Collections
Contains everything from Chicano art to ballet images, artists books, portraits, pottery, and cat paintings, all sourced from the Smithsonian Museums' collections.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Many of the images in the Library of Congress' Prints, Photographs, and Drawings division are in the public domain and available for use. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for any image to verify its status.
Wellcome Images
Historic and contemporary images related to the biomedical sciences, including a clinical collection of photos, X-rays, and MRIs.

Creative Commons
Search for Creative Commons-licensed images, including images available for commercial uses or for remix/creative reuse.
Wikimedia Commons
A collection of 35,137,374 freely usable media files
Library of Congress - Prints & Photographs
Many of the images in the Library of Congress' Prints, Photographs, and Drawings division are in the public domain and available for use.
Flickr: the Commons
Images from public photography archives from both US and International institutions. Good for historic photographs of people and places.
Morguefile
Free images “for creatives, by creatives.” A post production file, over 350,000 free stock photos for commercial use.
Pixabay
Over 820000 high quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Pexels
Images are free for personal and commercial uses (Creative Commons Zero / CCO license)