Art and Architecture: History of Collecting

Since 1954, the Archives has collected roughly 16 million letters, photographs, diaries, oral history interviews, sketches, scrapbooks, business records, and other documents that support the study of the history of the visual arts in America.

Access to the massive photographic collection (ca. 200,000 images) assembled by art historian and connoisseur Fererico Zeri. The photographs document mainly Italian art, located in Italy and also elsewhere.

The Getty Provenance Index® Databases, part of the Project for the Study of Collecting and Provenance (PSCP), are compiled with the collaborative participation of institutions and individuals in Europe and the United States. The databases contain indexed transcriptions of material from auction catalogs and archival inventories of western European works of art, and contain nearly 1,000,000 records that cover the period from the late 16th century to the early 20th century. The databases are available free of charge via the Web.

Compiled by the late John Michael Montias, the database contains information from 1,280 inventories of goods (paintings, prints, sculpture, furniture, etc.) owned by people living in 17th century Amsterdam.

The Art Sales Catalogues online database is the online edition of the Répetoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques by Frits Lugt combined with the possibility to access complete art sales catalogues. This database provides a multitude of search options. Many recently discovered catalogues have been added and corrections to the original Répertoire have been made. The database can be consulted both in French and in English. The Libraries database gives the opportunity to search through libraries with holdings of art sales catalogues.

SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs describes art auction and rare book catalogs for sales from the late sixteenth century to scheduled auctions not yet held. Records include the dates and places of sales, the auction houses, sellers, institutional holdings, and titles of works. Updated daily, SCIPIO has more than 500,000 records.

After twelve years' work, involving over 10,000 people, writing and editing 60 million words to produce a 60 volume book, and a website with over 100,000 pages, the Oxford DNB was published on 23 September 2004.

An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000. Remarkable people in any walk of life who were connected with the British Isles - excluding living people. It includes not just the great and good, but people who have left a mark for any reason, good, bad, or bizarre.

Full-text archive (1897-2005) of the weekly British culture and lifestyle magazine, Country Life. Focuses on fine art and architecture; the UK’s great country houses and their collections, gardens and landscaping; and rural living, including activities such as art and antique collecting, hunting, shooting, equestrian news and gardening.

Images of country houses and gardens, interiors and architectural details, historic buildings and churches from the photo-archive of Country Life magazine. All images reference the original Country Life articles for which they were commissioned.

Sole online index of 42 art journals published in the U.S. during the 19th century. Contains articles, art notes, stories, poems and advertisements. Offers essential information on artists and illustrators, painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, architecture and design, exhibitions and sales, decoration, and collecting.

Coverage: 1800 - 1899

OCLC catalogue of books, web resources, and other material worldwide.

Contains all the records catalogued by OCLC member libraries. Offers millions of bibliographic records. Includes records representing 400 languages. Over 95,000,000 records added since 1971.

Coverage - before 1000 BC to present, updated daily.