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Librarian's Guide to Artstor

Artstor: A Resource for all Disciplines

The Artstor Digital Library contains more than just art images. Collections cover photojournalism, indigenous cultures, architecture, history, religion, literature, and more--making Artstor Digital Library an incredible resource for the Humanities. View the "Artstor Across Disciplines" LibGuide to take a deep dive into Artstor's coverage of 20 different areas of the Humanities.

Logos and descriptions

Use these logos and blurbs to promote Artstor on your E-Resources page and more.

Describing Artstor

"The Artstor Digital Library is an image database of 2 million images from 300 of the world's leading museums, photo archives, scholars, and artists." 

"The Artstor Digital Library is a database of 2 million images for use in the humanities. Comprised of nearly 300 collections from museums, archives, scholars, and artists, the Artstor Digital Library makes available high-qualities images for download, along with tools for exporting images into PowerPoint and creating citations."

Materials for Instructors

Artstor offers many resources instructors may find useful:

1. Curriculum Guides offer selected images for teaching curated by experts in their field. Each guide includes a course syllabus outlining topics and themes, a set of images for each theme, and a description of how the images can be used in that course. Topics include:

  • British Romantic Poetry
  • Colonial Latin America: From First Encounters to Independence
  • Gender in Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature
  • Gothic Literature
  • The Coffeehouse: English Literature and the Culture of the Public Sphere, 1660-1740

Go to Teaching Resources > Curriculum Guides to see more.

2. Surveys cover many topics, including periods, cultures, and themes in art, social studies, and the humanities. These image groups provide 100 suggested images for each area of focus, and are a great place to get started looking for images. Some examples include:

  • Cities and Urban Planning
  • Islamic Art
  • Ancient Art in the Near East and Egypt
  • Modern Art: Europe and the Americas, 1900-1945
  • Narrative in Art
  • History of Medicine and Natural Science
  • Music History

Go to Teaching Resources > Surveys to see more.

3. Case Studies showcase how educators are using Artstor Digital Library images in research and teaching.

  • A Shakespeare Gallery
  • Architectural Solutions to Climate Problems in the Islamic World
  • Burial in Renaissance Florence
  • REPRESENT: Women Artists in the Western Tradition

Go to Teaching Resources > Case Studies to see more.