See Also
Connecting from Off-Campus: VPN and Proxy Tutorials
The Library's online subscription resources can always be accessed from computers and wireless networks on campus. However, off-campus access is restricted to current UCLA, students, faculty, and staff who have set up their computer using one of the methods below. Click on the other tabs to see how four Bruins got their computers set up and ready to go for remote access!
If you still need help, you can contact the UCLA IT Support Center at (310) 267-4357 or help@it.ucla.edu. They provide 24/7 phone support.
- Virtual Private Networking (VPN)A program you can download and install, or use the built-in version on many computers or mobile devices. VPN software must be logged on manually before you access a restricted site, but works for all programs on your computer. It stays connected until you log off.
- UCLA Online Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
VPN on Mac with Natalie
"I chose VPN for my mac because I need to be able to access the full text of articles on different browsers." - Natalie, Environmental Science
VPN on Windows with Michael
"I chose VPN because I like the security it provides and the control it gives me as a user to manually enable or disable it when I'm browsing online." - Michael, Public Affairs
VPN on Chromebook with Nadia
"I chose VPN because it is really simple to use!" - Nadia, Public Affairs
Proxy on Mac with Kate
"I chose Proxy because I prefer logging in through a web browser without having to download any software on my computer." - Kate, Ethnic Studies
The Top Six
Here are six of the most comprehensive and interdisciplinary resources for finding images. These are great places to start! When you're ready for a deep dive, you can explore dozens more resources in the discipline-specific boxes below.
- AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window AP Newsroom (formerly AP Images) contains millions of photographs dating from 1826 to present day from the Associated Press. Includes thousands of graphics, audio files dating from the 1920s, and news stories and headlines from 1997 to the present.
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- ARTstor This link opens in a new window High-resolution Images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences. Includes a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. Images are contributed by museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists, and estates, from a variety of sources including the Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts. UC campuses contribute additional images including: the Archivision Library, Saskia Art & Architecture images, the Visual Resources Collections from UCB, UCSB, UCI, UCLA, UCR, and the UCSC Library Instructional Collection. Now hosted on the JSTOR platform.
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- Calisphere Over one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more from the collections digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.
- UCLA Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new window Rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more.
- Wikimedia Commons Public domain and freely-licensed images, sound, and video. Note the ability to browse by classification (topics, locations, media type, and more!) in addition to keyword searching.
Arts and Humanities Image Resources
Looking for images on a topic in the Arts & Humanities?
Explore the tabs in this box to discover resources for finding images in Arts & Humanities disciplines, which include: performing arts, visual arts, art history, history, languages, literature, and philosophy.
Open Web image collections are available for anyone to explore, though the images you find may still be subject to copyright and other use guidelines. Always check licenses and terms of use before incorporating images into your academic and creative work. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
- 360º Tours 360º panoramic views and virtual tours of selected European and Middle Eastern cities and Ancient Near Eastern archaeological sites.
- ACOR Photo Archive (American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan) An online archive of historical images from across the Middle East, and a representative record of Jordan’s archeological and social history spanning from 1955 to the early 2000s.
- Albert Hoxie Slide Collection Online Database Owned by the UCLA Department of History. The Albert Hoxie Slide Collection consists of over 160,000 slides taken by Albert Hoxie of art and architecture from all periods and from around the world, but focusing mainly on Western Civilization. The 160,000 slides are a result of Albert Hoxie’s annual photography trips around the world.
- Art Institute of Chicago Includes over 44,000 open access digital images of artworks in the museum’s wide-ranging collections.
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- Art Resource Art Resource is the clearing house for the rights of major European an American museums, archives and collections.
- Artstor Public Collections A growing collection of high-resolution images from libraries, archives, and museums around the world. Public Collections images in Artstor are made publicly accessible free of charge however, content may be protected by copyright or other restrictions.
- Artsy Education An online platform for discovering, learning about, and collecting contemporary art. Includes the ability to download over 25,000 open-access images from leading art fairs, galleries, museums, and art institutions.
- Art UK (Arts Council England) The ambition behind Art UK is to show as much of the UK’s national art collection as possible.
- Asia Art Archive A growing digital archive of primary source material collected by individual practitioners and researchers in cities across Asia.
- Asian Art Museum Online Collection The Asian Art Museum (in San Francisco)'s online collection database includes over 3000 South and Southeast Asian objects, with information and images.
- Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur About 2 million art and architecture images from 13 European countries provided by the Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
- Black History & Culture (Getty Images) Provides free, non-commercial access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK from the 19th century to present day.
- Bridgeman Images With images from over 8,000 collections and more than 29,000 artists, Bridgeman Images represents international museums, galleries and artists by providing a central source of fine art for image users.
- The British Library Flickr Commons Photostream Images scanned from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books in the British Library. Includes a fashion & costume image set.
- British Library Online Gallery This online gallery contains over 30,000 images from the British Library's collection. You can view online exhibits, search images, and create an account to save images in your own personal gallery and assign tags.
- Cooper Hewitt Collection Thirty centuries of historic and contemporary design.
- Creative Commons Search Searches several sources of Creative Commons media at once, including Flickr, Google, Yahoo, and Wikimedia Commons.
- Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of America is a portal to the digital collections of America’s libraries, archives, and museums.
- Digital Research Archive for Byzantium (DiFaB) A visual resource database devoted to the cultural legacy of Byzantium. Both historical photographs and newer digital images.
- Dumbarton Oaks Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives Links to: Byzantine Photograph Collections, Moving Image Collections, Garden and Landscape Collections, and more!
- Europeana A digitized multimedia library of the European cultural heritage: digitized books, manuscripts, photos, paintings, maps, audio and film material, newspapers, etc.
- Fabergé Collection (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) VMFA’s extensive Russian decorative arts collection is in large part attributed to one donor, Mrs. Lillian Thomas Pratt, whose collection of more than 400 Russian decorative arts objects all began with a fork.
- Flickr Commons A free public collection of photographs from major photography archives. Contributors include the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and more.
- Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Collections Images of our early printed books, manuscripts, and art related to Shakespeare.
- France-England: Medieval Manuscripts between 700 and 1200 800 medieval manuscripts produced between the 8th and 12th centuries, digitized and cataloged by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library.
- Frick Digital Image Archive The Frick Digital Image Archive provides public access to The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library's digital assets, including research collections of the library, museum images from the Frick Collection, and historical documents, photographs, and movies from the Frick Family archives. Images include artists in their Paris studios circa 1885-1890, and works of art in private collections in the United States and Europe photographed between 1922 and 1967.
- George Eastman House Photography Collection Collection includes more than 400,000 photographs and negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present day. The collection represents over 14,000 photographers including nearly all major figures in the history of photography.
- Getty Research Collections Viewer Selected content from the Getty Research Institute and Institutional Archives
- Getty Research Institute Digital Collections Digital Collections provide free access to a growing number of digitized items from the Research Library, Special Collections, Photo Archive, and Institutional Archives. These materials include photographs, and other documents relating to Los Angeles and Southern California
- A Guide to the Web's Growing Set of Free Image Collections A guide to museums and research institutions that have large, high-quality, free-to-use collection of historically or aesthetically notable images online
- Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center holdings "provide a unique record of the creative process of writers and artists, deepening our understanding of literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts."
- HeritageGateway Information on England's historic sites and buildings, including images of listed buildings.
- Islamic Painted Page A database of Persian, Ottoman, Arab and Mughal paintings, illuminations, decorated Qur'an pages, and book bindings from over 270 collections worldwide.
- J. Willis Sayre Photographs 24,000 photographs of performing arts and artists digitized by the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division and Digital Initiatives unit.
- Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archive KCI's Digital Archive includes a browseable interface to view costumes by time period from the early 18th century to the mid-20th century.
- Library of Congress Digital Collections From the Library of Congress, including many photographs and other visual elements documenting American history.
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Catalog Images on a wide array of topics, many in the public domain.
- LIFE Photo Archive Growing historical photo archive for LIFE magazine, hosted by Google.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Search the Collections An online catalogue of LACMA collections, with images.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Southeast Asian Art An online scholarly catalogue, including images and rich media features such as videos and 360-degree image rotation for select objects.
- Louvre Collections Database Search more than 480,000 works in the Musée du Louvre and Musée National Eugène-Delacroix. Updated on a daily basis, it is the result of the continuous research and documentation efforts carried out by teams of experts from both museums.
- Luna Commons Hundreds of thousands of images made available from reputable sources for educational and public use.
- Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections From the Academy, this series of collections includes personal papers, the Academy Awards collection, photographs, periodicals, sheet music, and more.
- Masterpieces of Indian Art & Architecture An introduction to 2000 years of art on the Indian subcontinent, compiled by Columbia University's Department of Art History and Archaeology.
- Material Objects Archive Images from Yale University's Initiative for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion (MAVCOR).
- Medieval England and France, 700–1200 A curated selection of digitized medieval illuminated manuscripts set in their cultural and historical context and explored in a range of articles.
- The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database A Visual Resource of Historical Sites c. 1100 - c. 1450
- Metropolitan Museum of Art The Collection Online. (Over 400,000 museums objects, over 270,000 with images)
- Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture Search for images by object name, color, style, or design component.
- Museum of Modern Art Collection Includes images for 59,000 works of modern and contemporary art.
- Museum of the City of New York Explore New York’s past through images and objects from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York. Includes Broadway theater production files.
- National Gallery of Art. NGA Images More than 20,000 open access digital images up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.
- National Palace Museum Digital Collection Selections from the National Palace Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan
- National Portrait Gallery (London) Over 100,000 portraits from the Gallery’s Collection, including paintings, photographs, drawings, prints and sculptures. Over 53,000 low-resolution images are available free of charge to non-commercial users through a standard ‘Creative Commons’ license and over 87,000 high-resolution images are available free of charge for academic use through the Gallery’s own licenses.
- Olmsted Archives, Frederick Law Olmsted's NHS NPS's Flickr Photostream
- Palmyra, Syria 360º Virtual Tour
- Parker Library on the Web Images of 6th-18th century manuscripts from the historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Subjects represented include music, literature, theology, medieval travelogues and maps, and historical chronicles.
- Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive Features over 100,000 photographs of British paintings, sculpture, architecture and the decorative arts, as well as images of sketchbooks and exhibitions.
- People's Graphic Design Archive The People’s Graphic Design Archive is a crowd-sourced virtual archive that aims to expand, diversify, and preserve graphic design history. It includes finished projects, process, correspondence, oral histories, articles, and other material in the form of images, documents, videos, audio, as well as links to other relevant archives and websites.
- Picturing Places Topographical views, maps and texts from over 500 examples from the British Library’s collections and beyond.
- Project REVEAL (Read and View English & American Literature) The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has adopted an open access policy, removing the requirement for permission and use fees for a significant portion of its online collections believed to be in the public domain.
- Ross Archive of African Images James J. Ross Archive of African Images 1590 - 1920. A database of published images of African art.
- Saul Bass Archive Silkscreen posters, film posters, and more.
- Scala Archives Scala Archives is one of the largest fine art image archives worldwide. Transparencies and high resolution digital files of works of art from all over the world, covering every age and every field of visual arts are available for licensing to all media. Italian art makes up the core of the collection, however the Library contains thousands of works from the rest of Europe, the United States, Russia, the Middle and Far East, and Africa.
- Smithsonian Institution: Open F|S More than 40,000 works being made available for high-resolution download from the Freer and Sackler Galleries Digitized Collections and the Freer Study Collection.
- Smithsonian Libraries Image Gallery Books illustrations, photos, drawings, and other images from across the Libraries.
- Smithsonian Open Access Smithsonian Open Access allows users to download, share, and reuse millions of digital items from the Smithsonian’s collections. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
- Students' Guide to Italian Renaissance Architecture An interactive survey of Italian Renaissance architecture presented within a cultural and historical context.
- Texas Digital Archive: Prints and Photographs Collections composed entirely of photographs and other printed images created or collected by individuals and non-governmental organizations connected to Texas.
- Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections Thomas J. Watson Library is The Met's research library. Digital Collections include: Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications, Rare Materials in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, Auction Catalogs, Cloisters Archives Collection, Costume Institute Collections, Fine Bindings, Japanese Illustrated Books, and Manuscript Collections.
- Time & Life Pictures The collection includes 425,000 digital files of iconic images from the 20th century that have adorned the pages of Time, Life, and other Time Inc. publications.
- Timeline of Art History The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History presents the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection via a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of global art history.
- USC Pacific Asia Museum: Explore the Collections Online catalogue of materials held by the Pacific Asia Museum, with images.
- VADS Thousands of visual arts images, including fashion, design, prints, and sculpture.
- VIRCONA: a Catalog of Native American Artists A web-accessible subset of the Native American entries in the electronic catalog to the collections in the Bunting Visual Resources Library at the University of New Mexico, with more than 1000 thumbnail images artwork.
- Virtual Museum of Images and Sounds A virtual museum created by using the resources of two archives of the American Institute of Indian Studies – the Center for Art and Archaeology and the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology.
- Virtual Textile Project An open access project with images made available for research, inspiration, and other non-commercial uses.
- Web Gallery of Art Provides access to over 29.000 reproductions of European painting and sculpture of the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism periods (1000-1850). The resource also includes picture commentaries, artist biographies, guided tours, and period music.
- Wellcome Images Includes over 100,000 high-quality images from the clinical and biomedical sciences, selected from the UK's leading teaching hospitals and research institutions. Covers disease, surgery, general healthcare, sciences from genetics to neuroscience and historical images from the Wellcome Library collections, Tibetan Buddhist paintings, ancient Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, illuminated Persian books and much more.
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- What was Where A growing collection of historical photographs linked to their locations (on Google Maps).
- White House Art Collection The collection of fine art at the White House has evolved and grown over time. The collection began with mostly presidential portraits, commissioned or purchased by Congress, or donated by presidential descendants. In the era before photography, some presidents invited painters to set up studios in the White House to record significant events and paint their likeness. In the late nineteenth century, a few landscape paintings were acquired for the White House, but not until the John F. Kennedy administration was the first curator hired and protocol developed for maintaining and adding to the collections. Since that time, it has grown exponentially under the guidance of a professional curatorial staff and now includes more than 500 works of art, selected for their historical and cultural significance.
- The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Digital Collections The Wolfsonian's collections comprise approximately 180,000 objects from 1850–1950, documenting modern material culture and illustrating the persuasive power of art and design. An excellent source of propaganda art.
- World Digital Library Makes available images of significant primary materials from cultures and countries around the world. Users can search and browse for images by place, time period, topic, type of item, or the institution that contributed the item.
While some of these resources are image-only databases, many are primarily article databases that include image search features. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
Note that the resources in this list are provided to the UCLA community via paid subscription access. If you are off campus you will need to need to establish a VPN or proxy server connection; see the "Connecting from Off-Campus" box in the left-hand column of this page for more information.
- A&AePortal (Electronic Art and Architecture) This link opens in a new window The Yale Art & Architecture ePortal is an authoritative e-book resource that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design.
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- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window A multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers.
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- AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window AP Newsroom (formerly AP Images) contains millions of photographs dating from 1826 to present day from the Associated Press. Includes thousands of graphics, audio files dating from the 1920s, and news stories and headlines from 1997 to the present.
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- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new window Full-text coverage of more than 600 journals and 220 books on "a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design." It wholly incorporates and significantly expands on the coverage and contents of the Art Full Text and Art Index Retrospective databases. Indexes illustrations. Coverage: late 1920s-present.
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- ARTbibliographies Modern This link opens in a new window Abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art from the late 19th century onwards. Coverage includes performance art and installation works, photography, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artists' books, theatre arts, conservation, crafts, ceramic and glass art, ethnic arts, graphic and museum design, fashion, and calligraphy, as well as traditional media.
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- ARTstor This link opens in a new window High-resolution Images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences. Includes a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. Images are contributed by museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists, and estates, from a variety of sources including the Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts. UC campuses contribute additional images including: the Archivision Library, Saskia Art & Architecture images, the Visual Resources Collections from UCB, UCSB, UCI, UCLA, UCR, and the UCSC Library Instructional Collection. Now hosted on the JSTOR platform.
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- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window Comprehensive listing of journal articles published worldwide on architecture and design, archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation. Indexes publications of professional associations, US state and regional periodicals, and the major serial publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Expanded coverage includes obituary citations. Coverage is from 1934 to the present.
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- Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new window Online portal with access to e-books, reference works, images, and more on world dress and fashion throughout history. UCLA subscribes to this one module of Bloomsbury Fashion Central.
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- Empire Online This link opens in a new window Primary source manuscripts and secondary essays relevant to Empire Studies. The sections cover Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion & Empire; and Race, Class & Colonialism, 1783-1969.
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- International Bibliography of Art (IBA) This link opens in a new window The International Bibliography of Art is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and covers from 2008 to the present. Contains some retrospective coverage, but for comprehensive research before 2008 it is essential to use BHA. Publications covered include at least 500 core journals, with an emphasis on specialist and rare titles that are not covered by other indexes, plus detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings, and exhibition catalogs.
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- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
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- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window An encyclopedia covering artistic traditions worldwide, from prehistory through the present. Provides over 40,000 links to important art and architecture images.
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- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Art History This link opens in a new window Oxford Bibliographies Online: Art History provides annotated bibliographies by topic to important and recent scholarship in art and architectural history. Bibliographies are browsable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
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- UCLA Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new window Rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more.
To search within individual journals:
Searching for image-rich print and ebooks
Print and ebooks are a great resource for finding images. Here is an example of how to find image-rich books using UC Library Search:
1. Enter your search terms in UC Library Search
2. On the initial search results page, locate the "Genre" filter in the left-hand column. Genre terms that typically describe books with images include "Exhibitions," "Exhibition Catalogs," "Pictorial Works," and "Illustrated Works." Select your terms and click "Apply Filters."
3. Your filtered results should now include image-rich items!
For more information on using UC Library Search, including how to access and place requests for books, see this guide.
Using print indexes for finding images in books
There are several print indexes that can help locate reproductions of images in books and periodicals for many disciplines. You can locate indexes by searching " pictures -- indexes " as a subject term in the library catalog. Here are some indexes specific to Arts & Humanities disciplines:
- A.L.A. portrait index; index to portraits contained in printed books and periodicals
* N7620 .A51 1960 v.1-3 Arts Library Reference
- Illustration index
N7525 .V27i 1980 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1984-1993 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1998 Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room - Index to art reproductions in books.
Arts Library Reference, YRL Reference Reading Room
- Index to Italian architecture : a guide to key monuments and reproduction sources
NA111 .T4 1992 Arts Library Reference
- Index to reproductions of American paintings appearing in more than 400 books mostly published since 1960
* ND205 .S654i Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection
ND45 .M75in sup.1 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection - Index to reproductions of European paintings; a guide to pictures in more than three hundred books
ND45 .M75i Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection
- World architecture index : a guide to illustrations
NA202 .T4 1991 Arts Library Reference, YRL Reference Reading Room
- World painting index
ND45 .H299w v.1-2, + sup. v.1-2; Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection; ND45 .H299w 1995 sup.2 v.1-2 Arts Library Reference
Archival collections, whether digital or physical, are often great resources for finding images.
Here are some digital archival collections specific to arts and humanities research. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
- Animation Materials in Library Special Collections Includes a section for "Images"
- Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution The Archives today is the world’s pre-eminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.
- Getty Research Institute: Special Collections The special collections consist of rare and unique materials from the 15th century to the present: nearly 50,000 rare books, more than 27,000 single prints and drawings in albums and collections, 800 collections of rare photographs, and more than 12,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archives, as well as optical devices and 20th-century multiples and videos. These diverse resources have been acquired for their research value to art historians and scholars in related fields.
- The Museum of Modern Art Archives The Museum of Modern Art Archives is an internationally recognized research center for modern and contemporary art. The Archives collects, preserves, and makes accessible nearly 90 years’ worth of the Museum’s historical records, 40 years’ worth of MoMA PS1 records, and other primary source documents concerning art and cultural history in the 20th and 21st centuries, including private archives and papers of artists, galleries, dealers, art historians, critics, and others.
- UCLA University History in Library Special Collections This research guide will lead you to all sorts of material, both textual and visual, about the history of UCLA.
To locate physical archival collections, try exploring these resources:
- ArchiveGrid Searches finding aids for historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.
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Here is a list of other UCLA Library Research Guides in the Arts & Humanities (and Area Studies) with sections on Finding Images.
- Ancient Near East and Egypt
- Anthropology
- Architecture and Urban Design
- Art and Art History
- Contemporary Art and Artists
- Contemporary Russian Culture
- Design Media Arts
- East Asian Studies
- Fashion and Costume
- Film and Television
- United States History
- Jewish Studies
- Los Angeles and Southern California Architecture
- Mesoamerican and Pre-Columbian Art
- Middle Eastern Studies
- Music Scores and Sheet Music
- Pacific Islands Studies
- Religion
- Slavic And East European Studies
- South Asian Studies
- Southeast Asian Studies
- Theater
Social Sciences Image Resources
Looking for images on a topic in the Social Sciences?
Explore the tabs in this box to discover resources for finding images in Social Sciences disciplines, which include: anthropology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology.
Open Web image collections are available for anyone to explore, though the images you find may still be subject to copyright and other use guidelines. Always check licenses and terms of use before incorporating images into your academic and creative work. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
- ACOR Photo Archive (American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan) An online archive of historical images from across the Middle East, and a representative record of Jordan’s archeological and social history spanning from 1955 to the early 2000s.
- Ad*Access Images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
- AdViews: A Digital Archive of Vintage Television Commercials The AdViews digital collection provides access to thousands of historic commercials created for clients or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency or its predecessor during the 1950s - 1980s, allowing students and researchers access to a wide range of vintage brand advertising from the first four decades of mainstream commercial television.
- Black History & Culture (Getty Images) Provides free, non-commercial access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK from the 19th century to present day.
- The British Library Flickr Commons Photostream Images scanned from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books in the British Library. Includes a fashion & costume image set.
- British Library Online Gallery This online gallery contains over 30,000 images from the British Library's collection. You can view online exhibits, search images, and create an account to save images in your own personal gallery and assign tags.
- Cuban Map Collection (University of Miami Libraries) Public domain maps from the colonial period to 1923, including general maps of the island, provincial maps, city and town maps, tourist maps, and other specialized map formats in a variety of scales, colors and artistic styles.
- Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of America is a portal to the digital collections of America’s libraries, archives, and museums.
- Europeana Provides links to over 6 million digital items from major libraries, archives, and museums around Europe. Users can sign up for a My Europeana account to save searches and bookmark records.
- The Gender Spectrum Collection: Stock Photos Beyond the Binary "The Gender Spectrum Collection is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives."
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- IMLS Digital Collections and Content Provides descriptions and links to digital cultural heritage collections and exhibits from libraries, museums, and archives that have received grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Users can search for descriptions of items and collections by subject, place, and object (images).
- Library of Congress Digital Collections From the Library of Congress, including many photographs and other visual elements documenting American history.
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Catalog Images on a wide array of topics. You may order high-quality prints from the Library of Congress (see site for details). Many of the photos (but not all) are in the public domain.
- LIFE Photo Archive Includes images from LIFE's archive from the 1750s to today, many which were never published and are now available for the first time. Add "source:life" to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive. For example: computer source:life
- Luna Commons Hundreds of thousands of images made available from reputable sources for educational and public use.
- Museum of the City of New York Explore New York’s past through images and objects from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York. Includes Broadway theater production files.
- National Geographic Photograph Collection Users can browse through National Geographic's "Photo of the Day" or search by photographer to find images on animals, landscapes, nature, travel, science and space, people and culture, etc.
- New York Public Library Digital Collections NYPL's Digital Gallery is an image database where users can search and browse thousands of digitized images from the holdings of The New York Public Library. More than 180,000 images from this collection are now in the public domain!
- NYPL - Culture and Society Digital Collections from New York Public Library's relating to costume, country life, customs, dress, family life, fashion, social history, sports, traditions.
- Photogrammar Photogrammar is a digital humanities project featuring an interactive map that plots about 90,000 photographs from the the U.S. Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information photo archive, which documented American life during the Great Depression
- Posen Digital Library Makes available online the artworks and cultural artifacts illustrated in the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.
- Time & Life Pictures The collection includes 425,000 digital files of iconic images from the 20th century that have adorned the pages of Time, Life, and other Time Inc. publications.
- U.S. Air Force Photo Archive Public domain photographs fmthe U.S. Air Force of aircraft, history, memorials, natural disasters, operations, people, and remembering 9/11.
- U.S. Government Photos and Images A directory of U.S. government agency sites that offer images and graphics. Some of these images are available for use in the public domain.
- U.S. Navy Selected Images More than 19,000 public domain images held by the Naval Historical Center’s Photographic Section. See details on the site for higher resolution images.
- UCLA Library Digital Collections Rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more. Legacy site with additional content also available.
- UC Shared Images: LUNA Imaging Collections Digital image collections provided by The University of California Image Service; includes collections of images of architecture, fashion, gardens and landscapes, historical maps, posters and more.
- What was Where A growing collection of historical photographs linked to their locations (on Google Maps).
- The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Digital Collections The Wolfsonian's collections comprise approximately 180,000 objects from 1850–1950, documenting modern material culture and illustrating the persuasive power of art and design. An excellent source of propaganda art.
- World Digital Library Makes available images of significant primary materials from cultures and countries around the world. Users can search and browse for images by place, time period, topic, type of item, or the institution that contributed the item.
- World War II Photos A sampling of public domain World War II photographs held by the National Archives and Records Administration.
While some of these resources are image-only databases, many are primarily article databases that include image search features. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
Note that the resources in this list are provided to the UCLA community via paid subscription access. If you are off campus you will need to need to establish a VPN or proxy server connection; see the "Connecting from Off-Campus" box in the left-hand column of this page for more information.
- Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new window
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- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new window
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- Social Science Research Network (SSRN) eLibrary This link opens in a new window
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To search within individual journals:
Searching for image-rich print and ebooks
Print and ebooks are a great resource for finding images. Here is an example of how to find image-rich books using UC Library Search:
1. Enter your search terms in UC Library Search
2. On the initial search results page, locate the "Genre" filter in the left-hand column. Genre terms that typically describe books with images include "Exhibitions," "Exhibition Catalogs," "Pictorial Works," and "Illustrated Works." Select your terms and click "Apply Filters."
3. Your filtered results should now include image-rich items!
For more information on using UC Library Search, including how to access and place requests for books, see this guide.
Using print indexes for finding images in books
There are several print indexes that can help locate reproductions of images in books and periodicals for many disciplines. You can locate indexes by searching " pictures -- indexes " as a subject term in the library catalog. Here are some examples:
N7525 .V27i 1980 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1984-1993 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1998 Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
Archival collections, whether digital or physical, are often great resources for finding images.
Here are some digital archival collections specific to Social Sciences research:
To locate physical archival collections, try exploring these resources
- ArchiveGrid Searches finding aids for historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.
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- Online Archive of California Finding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California.
A list of other UCLA Library Research Guides in the Social Sciences & Area Studies with sections on Finding Images.
- Aerial Photographs
- Anthropology
- East Asian Studies
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- United States History
- Jewish Studies
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies
- Maps, Atlases, Aerial Images, and Cartographic Resources
- Middle Eastern Studies
- Pacific Islands Studies
- Religion
- Satellite and Remote Sensing Images
- Slavic And East European Studies
- Sociology
- South Asian Studies
- Southeast Asian Studies
- Urban Planning
- Women and Gender Studies
Sciences Image Resources
Looking for images on a topic in the Sciences?
Explore the tabs in this box to discover resources for finding images in Sciences disciplines, which include: biology, chemistry, earth science, astronomy, physics, computer science, mathematics, engineering, and health sciences.
Open Web image collections are available for anyone to explore, though the images you find may still be subject to copyright and other use guidelines. Always check licenses and terms of use before incorporating images into your academic and creative work. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
- Biodiversity Heritage Library (Flickr site) BHL provides access to over 150,000 illustrations, enabling greater discovery and expanding its audience to the worlds of art and design.
- The British Library Flickr Commons Photostream Images scanned from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books in the British Library. Includes a fashion & costume image set.
- The Cell: an Image Library A database of images, videos, and animations of cells, from a wide diversity of organisms, cell types, and cellular processes.
- Digital Public Library of America The Digital Public Library of America is a portal to the digital collections of America’s libraries, archives, and museums.
- Emilio Segrè Visual Archives More than 30,000 historical digital images, photographs, slides, lithographs, engravings, drawings and other visual materials. Includes portraits and snapshots of modern American physicists, astronomers, geophysicists, and other scientists; photos and illustrations of laboratories, telescopes, accelerators, and other instruments, objects and places. Named in honor of Noble prize winner Emilio Segrè, the Visual Archives is part of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives and the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
- Europeana Provides links to over 6 million digital items from major libraries, archives, and museums around Europe. Users can sign up for a My Europeana account to save searches and bookmark records.
- Flickr Commons The Commons provides access to public photo collections from various participating institutions. Users can search for images by keyword or browse by collection or tag name.
- Government Resources for Science Images The Science Reference Section from the Library of Congress provides a list of government websites that provide access to images relating to various topics in the sciences. Provides links to images relating to: Agriculture Astronomy and Aeronautics Biology Conservation Earth Sciences and Geology Energy Engineering Health Science and Medicine Miscellaneous
- Images of the History of Medicine from the National Library of Medicine Nearly 70,000 images from the NLM History of Medicine Division's historical collections, with the majority of images from the Prints and Photographs Collection. Includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century.
- Mechanical Engineering Image Collection Images from the archives and historic book collection of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Topics from railways to manufacturing, spanning the late 1800's to the late 1900's are included.
- NASA Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth More than 600,000 views of Earth.The photos are in the public domain unless noted.
- NASA Image Gallery Users can search and browse through NASA's image galleries to locate images relating to space, astronomy, aeronautics, and significant images from NASA's history.
- National Geographic Photograph Collection Users can browse through National Geographic's "Photo of the Day" or search by photographer to find images on animals, landscapes, nature, travel, science and space, people and culture, etc.
- National Geophysical Data Center Natural Hazard Images Digital images of geologic hazards. These images are organized by event or hazard type (earthquake, volcano, tsunami, landslide, other geologic hazard), along with description and location. All images are in the public domain and available for free.
- NOAA Photo Library More than 20,000 photos, including weather and space images, images of US shores and coastal seas, and images of marine life, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Most of the photos are in the public domain.
- NSSDA Photo Gallery Popular NASA images, primarily from NASA missions.
- NYPL - Nature and Science Collections from the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery relating to anatomy, animals, astronomy, botany, the environment, fish, flowers, geology, history of science.
- Public Health Image Library Gateway to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's pictures. The content is organized into hierarchical categories of people, places, and science, and is presented as single images, image sets, and multimedia files.
- Royal Society Picture Library An online database of digital images of paintings, drawings and prints selected from the collections of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific academy. The database was created to inspire the exploration of science through its visual history.
- Sloan Digital Sky Survey: SDSS Image Gallery Collections of photos and other images associated with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
- U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service Image Gallery High quality digital photographs available from the Agricultural Research Service. Images are copyright-free, public domain, images unless otherwise indicated.
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Digital Library Includes hundreds of images related to fish and wildlife, most in the public domain.
- U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library More than 27,000 public domain photos dating from 1868 through the present.
- UCLA Library Digital Collections Rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more. Legacy site with additional content also available.
- Visible Earth Images and animations of Earth, from NASA, browsable by satellite, country, collection, US state, or GCMD (Global Change Master Directory) topic. Most of these photographs are in the public domain.
- Wellcome Images Includes over 100,000 high-quality images from the clinical and biomedical sciences, selected from the UK's leading teaching hospitals and research institutions. Covers disease, surgery, general healthcare, sciences from genetics to neuroscience and historical images from the Wellcome Library collections, Tibetan Buddhist paintings, ancient Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, illuminated Persian books and much more.
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- World Images Includes over 80,000 images which cover numerous disciplines and topics from the arts to the sciences.
While some of these resources are image-only databases, many are primarily article databases that include image search features.
Note that the resources in this list are provided to the UCLA community via paid subscription access. If you are off campus you will need to need to establish a VPN or proxy server connection; see the "Connecting from Off-Campus" box in the left-hand column of this page for more information.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window A multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers.
- This link opens in a new window
To search within individual journals:
Searching for image-rich print and ebooks
Print and ebooks are a great resource for finding images. Here is an example of how to find image-rich books using UC Library Search:
1. Enter your search terms in UC Library Search
2. On the initial search results page, locate the "Genre" filter in the left-hand column. Genre terms that typically describe books with images include "Exhibitions," "Exhibition Catalogs," "Pictorial Works," and "Illustrated Works." Select your terms and click "Apply Filters."
3. Your filtered results should now include image-rich items!
For more information on using UC Library Search, including how to access and place requests for books, see this guide.
Using print indexes for finding images in books
There are several print indexes that can help locate reproductions of images in books and periodicals for many disciplines. You can locate indexes by searching " pictures -- indexes " as a subject term in the library catalog. Here are some examples:
N7525 .V27i 1980 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1984-1993 Arts Library Reference, Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
N7525 .A66 1998 Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room
Index to illustrations of animals and plants
QH 46.5 C54 1991 YRL Reference Reading Room
Z7998.N67 C635i 1991 Biomed Reference
Z 7998 N67 T37 Powell Library Reference Wall Collection, YRL Reference Reading Room, BioMed Reference
National Geographic index, 1888-1988
G1 .N27 index Powell Library Reference Wall Collection
G1 .N21 index YRL Reference Desk
Archival collections, whether digital or physical, are often great resources for finding images.
Here are some digital archival collections specific to Sciences research. For information about a resource, hover your cursor over or tap the blue "i" icon.
- The Benjamin and Gladys Thomas Air Photo Archives, 1918-1971 Two of the finest and most extensive oblique photograph collections of California are housed in the The Benjamin and Gladys Thomas Air Photo Archives at the UCLA Department of Geography. Because the photographs are oblique (photos taken at an angle instead of straight down) they provide a very descriptive view allowing easier determination of how property was used over the years.
- Library Special Collections for Medicine and the Sciences (Biomedical Library) The Biomedical Library’s History and Special Collections includes graphic materials such as AIDS posters, patent medical cards, baby books, prints, portraits, and artifacts related to medicine, the sciences, and engineering.
- Los Angeles Natural History Museum, Seaver Center for Western History Research There are approximately 275 individual photograph collections in the Seaver Center. All together, the photographic holdings amount to more than 300,000 images recorded on different photographic media. Their website has an index of all the holdings in their photograph collection.
- Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences Include links to "Images on the Web," "Digital Projects," and more.
- ArchiveGrid Searches finding aids for historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.
- This link opens in a new window
- Online Archive of California Finding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California.
- WorldCat Worldwide catalog of books, periodicals, sound recordings, visual materials, and maps held in thousands of libraries. Use Interlibrary Loan Service at UCLA Library to request sources in WorldCat libraries (or any non-UCLA Library).
A list of other UCLA Library Research Guides that include sections with information about locating scientific images.