Research Guides: Art & the History of Art Research Guide: Find Images & Other Media

Find Images

Find images in books by searching the Five College Library catalog (see Tip below). The library also subscribes to a variety of image databases and is the home of Amherst College Digital Collections (ACDC), a repository of images, texts, videos, and more from the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections and Art & Architecture Collection.

Access digital images through these library databases or online resources:

Amherst College Art & Architecture Collection (now on JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
Digital image collection of high quality photographs for scholarship and teaching in architecture and the visual arts. This collection was formerly part of the Amherst College Digital Collections repository and is now hosted on JSTOR.
ARTstor (now on JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
The ARTStor Collections on JSTOR include images of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.
Bridgeman Education This link opens in a new window
A visual resource offering digital images of art, history, and culture from museums, galleries, private collections, and contemporary artists.

Getty Open Content Images database
Digitized materials from the Research Institute's collection.
British Museum Images
Images depicting world culture and history including ceramics, sculpture, prints, drawings, and paintings.
World Heritage Sites: Africa
Visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.
Gallica
The French aggregator for the European Digital Library, Europeana. Developed and maintained by the Bibliotheque Nacional de France, Gallica provides access to over one million items, including books, manuscripts, scores, audio files, and more. While Gallica is not exclusively dedicated to Medieval and Early Modern works, it maintains a very strong collection in this time period. The interface is accessible in both English and French.
VADS: the Online Resource for the Visual Arts
Digital images from visual art collections, including art, architecture, fashion, and textiles.
Wikipmedia Commons
Public domain and freely-licensed images and audio-visual material.

Tip: Searching for images in the Five College Libraries

Library records for books with illustrations contain the word "illustrations." Target illustrated works in a search of the Library catalog by including illustrations, “pictorial works”, plates, or “color plates” along with your other search term(s). For example, looking for images of birds? Search for birds AND illustrations.

For more about finding and using images, visit the Image Research guide.

Find Film, Video, and Art

Find DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS formats on A Level of Frost Library, behind the IT help desk. There are also viewing stations in this area, if you want to watch at the library.

Access streaming video through these library databases or online resources:

Academic Video Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Streaming video spanning a wide range of subject areas and including documentaries, films, and demonstrations.
Kanopy Streaming Video This link opens in a new window
Broad selection of thousands of streaming films, documentaries, and theatrical releases covering a wide variety of subject areas, with regular new releases and transcripts.
Naxos Video Library This link opens in a new window
A performing arts video library that includes operas, ballets, documentaries, live concerts, and musical tours of historic places.

Art21
Video and information about contemporary artists
UbuWeb
"All avant-garde. All the time."

Rhizome ArtBase This link opens in a new window
An open access archive of born-digital artworks from 1983 to the present day and encompasses a vast range of projects by artists all over the world that employ materials including software, code, websites, moving image, games and browsers.

Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library
Digital video library of performance practices in the Americas. Includes artist profiles, interviews, bibliographies, production information, image galleries, scripts, and additional materials.

Tip: Searching for Film & Video in the Five College Libraries

Use the main search box, Discover, on the Library homepage to search for books at Amherst and across the Five Colleges.

You can filter your results by format (video) or filter by library location.

Check Location (Call Number) and Status/Due Date to see where something's located and if it's currently checked out.