Art and Architecture Collection > Decorative Arts: A Research Guide

Visual Image Databases

Databases of visual images for the decorative arts have been slow to develop but are growing. The decorative arts are often represented by commercial interests, however, so the following resources have been chosen for their usefulness for teaching and presentation purposes.

ARTstor
This organization is a not-for-profit scholarly developer and distributor of electronic digital images for art study, gathered from museums and other cultural institutions. Collections with strong decorative arts holdings in furniture, glass, metalware, and textiles are included. Users can build their own file of study images. Access this database through the Library’s Selected Electronic Resources page.

Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture
http://decorativearts.library.wisc.edu/images.html
An important image database from the University of Wisconsin offers an academic collection’s focus.

NYPL Digital Gallery/NYPL Digital Library Collections
The Library’s searchable database of visual materials documenting culture studies and social history from antiquity to the present. Among the over 450,000 images from the Library’s collections are many decorative arts objects, including furniture, glass, metalware, and rugs. Access is through the Library’s homepage at www.nypl.org and through the Selected Electronic Resources page.