Research Guides: Art and Art History: Websites

Evaluating Websites

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You need to take steps to evaluate all of the information that you use in your research. Special care must be taken with websites. Keep these factors in mind when you're thinking about using information from a website:

domain name
author
purpose
content/coverage
currency

Learn more about evaluating web sources:

Evaluating Sources

Websites

Art Institute of Chicago: Open Access The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to offer free, unrestricted use of over 50,000 images of works in the collection believed to be in the public domain or to which the museum otherwise waives any copyright it might have.
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture The Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture collects and creates electronic resources for study and research of the decorative arts, with a particular focus on Early America. Included are electronic texts and facsimiles, image databases, and Web resources.
NYPL Digital Gallery Provides access to 900,000+ images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.
Smithsonian Archives of American Art Archives of American Art collects, preserves, and makes available primary sources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States.
Web Gallery of Art The Web Gallery of Art is a searchable database of European fine arts and architecture (3rd-19th centuries), currently containing over 51.400 reproductions. Artist biographies, commentaries, guided tours, period music, catalogue, free postcard and mobile services are provided.
SmartHistory SmartHistory contains essays, videos, and images providing insight and analysis into the world of art and art history
TED Talks: Art
Talks and performances from TED conferences.
Getty Research Portal The Getty Research Portal™ is an online search platform providing global access to digitized art history texts in the public domain. Through this multilingual, multicultural union catalog, scholars can search and download complete digital copies of publications for the study of art, architecture, material culture, and related fields. The Portal is free to all users.
New York Art Resources Consortium Combines resources of three New York City art museums (The Brooklyn Museum, The Frick Collection, and The Museum of Modern Art). Access to catalogs and digital collections.
National Gallery of Art Images Provides access to over 50,000 images of artwork that are available for download, most without use restrictions
MetPublications MetPublications provides the full-text of 372 out-of-print titles from the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1964. It also provides a description and table of contents for most titles, even if full-text is not available.

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