Research and Course Guides: Architecture: Find Images

Key Image Resources at Clemson

Artstor Digital Library (Artstor is part of JSTOR; current platform will sunset on 8/1/24) This link opens in a new window
Our premier image resource - contains over 1,000,000 digital images of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and visual culture spanning many time periods and cultures. Select, view, present, download, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. CU Libraries subscription. See links at right for help using ARTstor. Uses cookies and pop-ups. For help with ARTstor or to request instructor-level access, contact Kathy Edwards, kathye@clemson.edu
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Includes Grove Art Online, with over 5,000 searchable and embedded art images, maps, and line drawings. Also provides over 40,000 editorially selected image links to museums and galleries around the world. Follow image links in articles, or use the Image Search option in Advanced Search mode.

Visual Resource Blogs

Arch Daily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide
Archidose/A Daily Dose of Architecture
Archinect: Connecting architects
ArchNet: Islamic Architecture Community
CLOG on Facebook
New York-based architecture journal plus

Open-Access Image Collections

**"Open access" availability does not mean that the images in these collections are in the public domain. The phrase refers to image accessibility for research and educational purposes. For copyright and use restrictions, locate and read the image use policy for each collection.**

Aga Khan Visual Archive
Architecture, urbanism, and the built environment in the Islamic world. Images available for research and educational use only; an MIT licensed collection.

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) This link opens in a new window
Free access (for educational purposes) to the study collection of art historian Allen T. Kohl. Emphasis on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance European art and architecture.

Architecture, Urban Planning, and Visual Arts (MIT Rotch Library)
American stuff, for the most part. Search by city, architect, building type, etc. For research and educational uses only. Images licensed to MIT users only.

Archnet This link opens in a new window
Focused on Muslim cultures and civilizations, with images of historical monuments, contemporary architecture, and general views. Search, or browse by country, building type, style, usage, decade of construction, or site name.
Art & Archaeology Artifact Browser This link opens in a new window
Part of the Perseus Digital Library of materials on the Greco-Roman world, the Browser documents 424 ancient buildings and 179 sites, in addition to objects.

Built in America (Library of Congress)
Measured drawings and photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering Record, and Historic American Landscapes Survey. Search, or browse by subject or place name.
CATENA - Digital Archive of Historic Gardens + Landscape
Landscape history resource, with a focus on the villa. Sponsored by the Bard Graduate Center, NYC.
Cities and Buildings Database (University of Washington)
Multi-disciplinary collection of over 10,000 digitized images of buildings and cities drawn from across time and throughout the world, freely available to anyone with access to the Web for use in the classroom, student study, or for individual research purposes.Search for buildings by country, city, style, title, architect, date of construction, and other fields.
Cities Around the World (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries)
Over 6,100 photographic images of more than 450 ancient and modern cities worldwide, taken between 1942 and 1994. From the slide collections of the American Geographical Society Library.
Emporis Images - Emporis.com
A commercial photo archive, especially useful for searching for building type examples. Other parameters include location, building name, style, facade material, and colors. ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHTED. Use strictly for reference.
Great Buildings Collection Online
RIBApix - British Architectural Library (Royal Institute of British Architects)
Public access image database featuring world architecture of all periods, interior design, landscape, topography, planning, construction and the decorative arts. Browse, simple or advanced search (architect or building), and subject search. Download low-resolution images for personal use or teaching purposes Images are copyrighted by the BAL/RIBA - "the world's most extensive visual archive devoted to architecture" (see their Terms and Conditions).
Wikimedia Commons
freely-usable media files; you can contribute
Openverse
An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio, available for free use.
SAH Archipedia
Digital library of Buildings of the United States, by the Society of Architectural Historians

SAHARA - Society of Architectural Historians

SAHARA is a community-built digital image archive of buildings and landscapes, developed as a collaboration between the Society of Architectural Historians and ARTstor and funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

ARTstor subscribers have access to a peer-reviewed core collection of images and QTVR panoramas contributed by scholars and independent photographers and historians.
Individual SAH members may contribute their personal digital photographs and panoramas, view the contributions of other members, or download images from the core teaching and research archive.

Map Collections

ArcGIS World Topo Map, by ESRI
Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 - South Carolina
Includes most of the fire insurance maps of South Carolina produced by the Sanborn Map Company from the mid-1880s to around 1950. Black and white digital images produced from microform of the Sanborn maps in the Library of Congress collection. Searchable by city and date. CU users only.
1755 Nolli map of Rome -- Harvard Geospatial Library
An interactive raster image of the 1755 engraved map, superimposed over the present-day city. Downloadable images.
The Nolli Map of Rome Interactive Website
An online project hosted by the University of Oregon. Interactive map + essays on the maps history and context. Requires Flash.
Online Topographic Map Collections, Perry-Castaneda Library
Excellent map resource from the University of Texas at Austin Libraries.
USGS Map Locator
CAD Mapper
Free CAD files of 240+ major world cities
Topozone
Free USGS topo maps of the entire U.S., interactive but not downloadable. (Avoid ad links.)
Clemson Libraries map collection

ARTstor Help

Register for an ARTstor Account
An "ARTstor in 3 Minutes" YouTube video (2:52)
Export to PowerPoint
Walkthrough of exporting images to PowerPoint (4:45)
Making an Image Group
Explores user options for organizing images within the ARTstor Digital Library (7:26)
System Requirements
Support

Architecture: Find Images