InfoGuides: Photography: Find Images

Historic Photographic Collections

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Updated frequently, please check back often for updated searches & collections. Note: ARTstor users must create a free account to save and share images. Users must turn off the popup blocker.
Tutorial for the ARTstor database.
AP Images This link opens in a new window
Collects historical and contemporary imagery from Associated Press with a 50 million image print and negative archive including graphics and audio clips.
Tutorial for the AP Images database.

International Center for Photography - Collections
ICP's collections include > 200,000 prints and related materials that range from the earliest forms of photography to contemporary work.
NYPL Picture Collection
New York Public Library Online Picture Collection has more than 30,000 digitized images, mostly created before 1923.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Updated frequently, please check back often for updated searches & collections.
Requires separate login. Use the "Register" link to set up an account with your Mason email.

Artsy
Represents contemporary/practicing artists, with over 50,000 artworks from galleries, museums, and artists' estates.

Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly art encyclopedia. Includes over 200,000 reference articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present, with selected images, written by over 6,800 scholars. Serves as the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources. Tutorial for the Oxford Art Online database.
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.

Smithsonian Image Gallery
Includes over 530,000 electronic images from several archival repositories and museums at the Smithsonian.

Anatomy.TV This link opens in a new window
3D computer-generated models of human anatomy that may be manipulated rotating, zooming, and peeling away layers, while viewing accompanying text. For best results, use Google Chrome.
Tutorial for the Anatomy TV database.

Wellcome Images
Historic and contemporary images related to the biomedical sciences, including a clinical collection of photos, X-rays, and MRIs.
New England Journal of Medicine: Images
Images from NEJM publications and research, including clinical photos
NASA: Visible Earth Images
Images and animations of Earth from NASA satellites. Topics include earth sciences, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, solar physics, and human dimensions.

Daily Life through History This link opens in a new window
Supplies primary documents, reference works, monographs, images, maps, illustrations, and time lines depicting activities of daily life across the globe and throughout history. Covered time periods: Ancient (beginning of time to 4th century), Medieval (5th century to 14th century), Modern (15th century to 19th century), and Present (20th century to 21st century).
Tutorial for the Daily Life through History database.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Getty Open Content
Prints, drawings, photographs, and other images from the Getty's collections.
Digital History: Maps
Links to historic maps from 1400's - 1900's

AD*Access
U.S. and Canadian advertisements from 1911-1955, from the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University
Hoover Institution Political Poster Database
Over 33,000 digitized international political posters