Skip to Main Content

Architecture for Continuing Education: Finding images

Country Life Picture Library

Images, including country houses and gardens, from the Country Life from the photo-archive of Country Life magazine. Single Sign On needed for access from home

Key resource: Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)

Finding images

You may wish to find images, both for your own study and to illustrate assignments. It is easy to find free images on the internet using tools such as Flickr and Google Image search. However, when using tools such as these, you need to be aware of both quality and copyright issues.

The boxes on the right will help you to explore these issues in more depth.

If you use image databases purchased by Oxford University, you will be assured of a higher quality product, and images on these databases are copyright cleared for educational use. The other boxes on this page introduce some key image databases for Architecture. 

If you wish to use image databases at home, you will need to use your Single Sign On (available to all students with a full University card)

Remember that images need to be cited, just as other material you refer to in your assignments.

Key resource: ARTstor

Oxford has a subscription to this prestigious database of over 1 million images from the world's leading museums, photo archives, art galleries and libraries (including the Bodleian). 

ARTstor enables you create your own image collections and use them in presentations. If you register for an ARTstor account on a PC connected to the Oxford network, you can use ARTstor at home without using a Single Sign On.

Key resource: Bridgeman Art Library

Bridgeman Education is a subscription database of 300,000 images from museums, galleries and private collections worldwide, from pre-History to the present. All images are cleared for educational use. Single Sign On needed for access at home.

Copyright at Oxford

The Bodleian Libraries' Quick guide to copyright and digital sources.