Research and Course Guides: Historic Preservation Research Guide: Images & Maps

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
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[at]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.

Map Collections & Geodata Links

Fire Insurance Maps Online (FIMo) This link opens in a new window
Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is a research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.

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.
Clemson Libraries Geological Survey Maps
USGS Map Locator
David Rumsey Map Collection
Over 46,000 historical maps and images online, with a focus on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa also represented. New MapRank search tool enables geographical searching of the collection by map location and coverage, in a Google Map window.
Digital Maps Collections from Library of Congress
Historic Charleston Foundation: Interactive Maps
South Caroliniana Library Map Collection

Visual Resource Blogs

Arch Daily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide
Architecture Videos
Why Do Old Places Matter?
Blog series, Preservation Leadership Forum
ArchNet: Islamic Architecture Community

SAHARA - Society of Architectural Historians

**Subscribe to SAHARA's YouTube Channel!**

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 photgraphers 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.

Open-Access Image Collections

"Open access" availability does not mean that the images in these collections are in the public domain--rather, it refers to their 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.

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
Historic American Buildings Survey Collection
Library of Congress
Historic American Landscapes Survey Collection
Library of Congress
Historic American Engineering Record Collection
Library of Congress
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).