History of Art and Architecture

Guide for research in Art History

Welcome!

This guide will help you conduct research in art history. It will cover library resources like books, databases, periodicals, and more.

Maybe I visited your class and pointed you to this guide, or maybe you're starting from here. In any case, I am happy to meet with you and talk about your research. I invite you to reach out and make an appointment.

Email me

Starting your research

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Academic Search Premier is the database where the most current issues of the Art Bulletin can be found. (If I could put a link here, I would!)
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Art books and magazines are on the 9th floor of the Du Bois library, as well as study carrels, chairs and tables. I welcome you to browse the stacks, using the LC Call numbers marked on the books and the shelves. The general categories are as follows:

N : Visual Arts
NA : Architecture
NB : Sculpture
NC : Drawing, Design, Illustrations
ND : Painting
NE : Print Media
NK : Decorative Arts
NX : Arts in General
TR : Photography

For example, if you are looking for Professor Tim Rohan's book, The Architecture of Paul Rudolph, you will find that its call number is NA737.R8 R64 2014. The call number is basically code for "architectural history, by Mr. Rohan, published in 2014."

A final note is that you will certainly find other call numbers useful! For example, the exhibition catalog Ming: 50 Years that Changed China has the call number DS753.2 .M523 2014 (which would be on the 15th floor, by the way!).

Subject headings are basically tags that are really helpful when searching in our catalog or databases. If you find something great in the catalog, take a look at the subject headings; you can click on these to find similar resources. Incorporating other terms can help you zero in on the best stuff for your research.

Examples of subjects that you may come across in art historical research, including some of my favorites:

Art--History.
Art and society
Art appreciation
Art Audiences
Brutalism (Architecture)
Christian art and symbolism
Bourgeois, Louise, 1911-2010. Spider.
Spider webs in art
Emotions (Psychology) in art
Installation art
Public art
Islamic art

Chicago is the standard style for citations in Art History. It's also very helpful for writing style! Are you anxious about whether to use "19th century" or "nineteenth century" in your papers? (See section 9.32: Centuries.) Is it the "Middle Ages" or just the "middle ages?" (see section 8.73: Traditional period names.) Chicago can help!

Chicago Manual of Style This link opens in a new window
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The widely-used citation and style guide for scholarly writing.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

As a UMass student you get a free digital subscription to the New York Times. Click here for instructions.

Hall's Subjects and Symbols and Art

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art
Electronic version of Hall's Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art. Click UMass: Link to Resource to access the ebook.

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall; Kenneth Clark
Call Number: N7560 .H34 2008
ISBN: 9780813343938
Publication Date: 2014-03-01
The understanding and enjoyment of a work of art depends as much on the story it depicts as on the artist's execution of it. But what were once biblical or classical commonplaces are not so readily recognizable today. This book relates in a succinct and readable way the themes, sacred and secular, on which the repertoire of Western art is based. Combined here in a single volume are religious, classical, and historical themes, figures of moral allegory, and characters from romantic poetry that appeared throughout paintings and sculpture in Western art before and after the Renaissance. More than just a dictionary, this text places these subjects in their narrative, historical, or mythological context and uses extensive cross-referencing to enhance and clarify the meanings of these themes for the reader. The definitive work by which others are compared, this volume has become an indispensable handbook for students and general appreciators alike. This wholly redesigned second edition includes a new insert of images chosen by the author, as well as a new preface and index to highlight the ideas, beliefs, and social and religious customs that form the background of much of this subject matter.

Databases for Art Historical Research

Following is a list of databases that contain scholarly content in Art History. I recommend starting with Oxford Art Online, which contains short articles that will help you get familiar with a topic. Those articles include bibliographies for further research.

The bibliographies on this list may not contain full-text articles. Use the citations you find to lead you to books or articles in our catalog, with a title search in Discovery or Google Scholar. Remember that I am here to help!

Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
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The best scholarly dictionary for all aspects of fine and applied arts, including design and architecture. Current.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Art and Architecture Source This link opens in a new window
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Full-text art research database covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as architecture and architectural design with international coverage.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Art & Architecture ePortal This link opens in a new window
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eBooks, images and coursepacks for art and architectural history scholarship from art publishers and museums.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
ARTbibliographies Modern This link opens in a new window
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Index to journal articles, books, chapters, exhibition catalogs and dissertations on modern art from the Impressionists to the present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Art Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Index to articles and reproductions of works of art in art-related magazines, journals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, 1929-1984.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Articles on architecture, planning, landscape architecture, interior design, and historic preservation, from journals published worldwide. Date coverage varies by title; some 1912-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Benezit Dictionary of Artists This link opens in a new window
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Artist biographies, auction records, exhibition histories, museum listings, bibliographies, images of artists signatures and monograms, and links to external websites of research value.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password
Benezit Dictionary of Asian Artists This link opens in a new window
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More than 4,700 entries on Asian artists representing all regions of the continent, including the Middle East, and every era from antiquity to the present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Bibliography of the History of Art This link opens in a new window
Index to articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and exhibition and dealer's catalogs on European and American art and art history from 1975-2007.
Content is freely available for use by all.
Design and Applied Arts Index This link opens in a new window
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Citations to articles in design and arts and crafts journals, 1980's-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
International Bibliography of Art This link opens in a new window
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Succeeds the defunct Bibliography of the History of Art, providing citations to publications American art and art history, 1990's-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Core scholarly journals from a range of disciplines, dating from the earliest issue of each journal to a few years before present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Finding Images

Your professors will appreciate your use of high-quality images, from reliable sources, rather than whatever you find on the web. Artstor is a source that serves images contributed by museums of their own holdings. Luna is our local collection of images, maintained by the Digital Scholarship Center. Many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum and the National Gallery of Art, offer high-quality image downloads for artworks that are in the public domain.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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More than two million digital images of works of fine art, architecture and design.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Luna Image Collections This link opens in a new window
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Several collections of art images and photography, from sources including the UMass Department of the History of Art and Architecture, The AMICA Library, and Archivision.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
AP Images This link opens in a new window
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Associated Press' library of photographs back to 1826, plus news stories, graphics and audio 1997-present. Mac: Requires latest version of Safari or Firefox for Mac, or OS 10 and higher.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Managing citations: Zotero

I recommend Zotero for managing your bibliographic citations. When installed on your own computer, you can quickly and easily save books, articles, videos, or other websites to your account. When you are ready to generate your works cited list, Zotero will help you format your entries in Chicago, MLA, or another style. It works best on your own computer. First, make an account and download the program. The best part is the bookmarklet that grabs citations from the web just for you!

Zotero
Free software that will let you collect and format citations.