Research Guides: Art History: Digital Images

Copyright and Fair Use

The websites listed on this page are for reference and research purposes only.

Usage guidelines vary widely by resource. Some images are open-access and free to use, while others may require a licensing fee. It is every student’s ethical responsibility to evaluate the usage guidelines when choosing to reproduce any image to avoid copyright violation.

Respect the intellectual property of others and use your best judgment when deciding to reproduce an image, and always credit your source!

Donatello, David, 1430-1440

Image Research Help

Do you need help finding specific images in LUNA or on the Web but can't make it to the library to talk to the Visual Resources Librarian? Submit your question and our Visual Resources Librarian will get back to you, usually within 24 hours, Monday through Friday.

Faculty Digitization Requests

Faculty can submit requests to the Visual Resources Librarian at any time to have new images digitized locally and uploaded to LUNA to support their specific courses. If you would like more information about the faculty digitization request process, please contact the Visual Resources Librarian at library@academyart.edu.

Luna Image Database

LUNA Digital Image Collections This link opens in a new window
Search over 330,000 images, including over 114,000 works of art from the collections of contributing museums, universities and archives. Architectural photographs, gardens and landscapes, political Americana, historical maps, fashion plate collections and much more.

Images from the Saskia Gardner's Art through the Ages art history set.
The AMICA Library, which contains over 95,000 works of art from the collections of contributing museums.
Architectural photographs, gardens and landscapes, political Americana, historical maps, fashion plate collections and much more.
LUNA tutorials provide information on navigating LUNA, creating Media Groups, and more. Tutorials include:
- How-to Guide: Getting Started with LUNA (PDF)
- Introduction to LUNA Media Groups (PDF)
- Introduction to LUNA Presentations (PDF)
The following LUNA Search Guides are available:

In addition to LUNA, the library has a curated list of image resources on our D igital Images page.

How to Save Metadata from LUNA

At this time, images exported from LUNA do not include the accompanying metadata. Metadata provides the information necessary for identification and citation of an image.

This guide gives recommended methods to enable you to save image metadata so you will be able to quickly and easily access this information for your research and studies.

Citing Digital Images in Chicago Style

Format:

Last, First M. “Title.” Digital image. Website Title. Month Date, Year Published. Accessed Month

Date, Year. URL.

Example:

Guggenheim Museum in Spain. Digital image. HowStuffWorks. Accessed July 22, 2010.

www.howstuffworks.com.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Grande Odalisque, 1814

Other Resources for Finding Images

Art Images for College Teaching
A personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl. Images have been photographed on location by the author, who consents to their use in any application that is both educational and non-commercial in nature.
Artsy
Database comprised of a growing collection of over 50,000 artworks and 11,000 artists from hundreds of galleries, museums and foundations. More than 25,000 images are currently in the public domain, and available for download for teaching and research purposes.
The British Museum Online Collection
Almost 800,000 records in this database have images available for research purposes, some with multiple views.
California State Library Picture Catalog Collections
Search a selection of photographs and historic images from the California State Library's rich collections of photographs, prints, drawings, and sheet music.
Digital Imaging Project, Bluffton University
Historical images of sculpture and architecture, from pre-historic to post-modern, photographed by Mary Ann Sullivan, Professor Emerita of English and Art History, Bluffton University.
Europeana
Explore millions of digital resources from Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections, including images, texts, sound, and videos.
Flickr Commons
Access to hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives.
freeimages
Free stock photography database with access to hundreds of thousands of high-quality, handpicked stock photos and graphics. Activation of a personal membership account is required for full access but there is no cost to join.
George Eastman House Photo Collections
A steadily growing digital image sampler and browsing resource for the vast photography holdings of George Eastman House.
Getty Search Gateway
Search across several of the Getty repositories, including collections databases, library catalogs, collection inventories, and archival finding aids. Thousands of images are now available without restrictions and free of charge through the Open Content Program.
The Internet Archive
Provides access to a wide variety of texts, audio, moving images, software, and archived web pages.