Art and Architecture

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Facts and Background Information
Selected print and electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Books
Locate items in the library catalog and other libraries.
Articles
Use indexes to search for articles in journals, proceedings, etc.
Primary Sources
Websites
Recommended academic, professional, and learned societies sites, and more.
Contact a Librarian

Below are a few major, frequently used sources for the study of Art and Architecture. See also the research guides to Classics and General Humanities.

Please consult with a reference librarian for directions to many more sources in your topic. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized users statement).

Facts and Background Information     [back to top]

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Grove Dictionary of Art
Contains 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts, with many full-color images, covering prehistory to the present.

Dictionary of Art
34 volumes. [PRINT. Tisch Reference N31 .D5 1996]
Print edition of the above title.

Encyclopedia of World Art
16 volumes. [PRINT. Tisch Reference N31 .E53]

Encyclopedia of Architecture, Design, Engineering & Construction
[PRINT. Tisch Reference NA202.T4 1991]

Biographical Sources

Contemporary Artists. 2nd ed.
[PRINT. Tisch Reference N6490. C6567 1983]

International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture
[PRINT. Tisch Reference NA40 .I48 1993]

Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects
4 volumes. [PRINT. Tisch Reference NA40 .M25 1982]

Directories

American Art Directory
[PRINT. Tisch Reference N9 .A31]

International Directory of Arts
[PRINT. Tisch Reference N50 .I6]

Official Museum Directory
[PRINT. Tisch Reference AM10 .A2 O4]

Find Books     [back to top]

These databases use Library of Congress subject headings:

Library Catalog How To Use

Boston Library Consortium Catalogs How To Use

Worldcat How To Use
Catalog records from thousands of North American libraries.

For more on how to find books, see Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF).

Find Articles     [back to top]

Art Abstracts 1984- How To Use
Art, architecture, and related topics. Indexes over 250 English-language arts publications from 1984. Earlier years, from 1929 forward, are at Tisch Reference Indexes [HUM] Z5937 .A78].

ARTBibliographies Modern 1974- How To Use
Abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Institute for Scientific Information, 1974- How To Use
Provides author, subject and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the arts and humanities. Coverage from 1974. Part of Web of Science.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals 1977- How To Use
The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals indexes more than 1,000 periodicals published worldwide on archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation, as well as architecture.

BHA: Bibliography of the History of Art = Bibliographie d'Histoire de l'Art. Getty Art History Information Program, 1973- How To Use
Covering European and American art from late antiquity to the present, the Bibliography of the History of Art indexes and abstracts art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer's catalogs, and articles from more than 2,500 periodicals. The Bibliography of the History of Art includes and extends the coverage of its two predecessor art indexes: RAA (Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie) from 1973 to 1989 and RILA (International Repertory of the Literature of Art) from 1975 to 1989.

Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI). 1970-
Scholarship on Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States: citations to articles, book reviews, documents, literary works, and other material in more than 500 international social science and humanities journals, published from 1970 to the present. Many citations are linked to full-text.

International Medieval Bibliography. Brepols, 1967-
An international index to medieval topics (400-1500) in literature, language, history, archaeology, art, music, theater, Arabic and Islamic studies, and religion and philosophy. IMB covers 4,500 journals and over 5,000 miscellany volumes in 30 languages.

RILA: Repertoire Internationale de la Litterature de l'Art. College Art Association of America, 1965-1990.
[PRINT. Tisch Reference Indexes [HUM] Z5937 .R16]

Electronic journals

Periodicals are listed in the library catalog. Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in electronic format contain a hyperlink to the source; searches in the web-based catalog enable one to follow these links directly. A complete list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals.

Many humanities/social sciences journals held in digital format are parts of Project Muse or JSTOR. Although these databases include search engines for the journals they contain, the indexes listed above are the most comprehensive and authoritative sources for the literature of the discipline, and frequently link directly to our electronic journals.

For more on how to find articles, see Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF).

Primary Sources     [back to top]

ArchivesUSA How To Use
Information about primary source materials from U.S. manuscript repositories, with detailed indexes of manuscript and other special collections.

Artifact
A database of images used in teaching by the Tufts Art History Department.

ARTstor
ARTstor is an image database of architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, and archaeological and anthropological objects - with associated catalog data - from many major collections. Users are able to register themselves via the tools in the ARTstor Library. Faculty who want the higher level of access that allows them to create folders to share Image Groups with students or colleagues need to upgrade their user accounts by selecting "Instructor Privileges Manager" from the "Tools" toolbar menu. When registering for Instructor Privileges, users will be prompted to obtain the required authorization code and password from their local ARTstor administrator. Faculty should call the reference desk at 617-627-3460 to obtain the code and password.

Websites     [back to top]

Tufts Department of Art History
Slide collection and the Artifact database of images for class study.

ArtServe
Art & Architecture mainly from the Mediterranean Basin and Japan.

ArtSource

Chorus
A resource for academic and educational computing in the arts and humanities.

Getty Research Institute
Includes searchable databases.

National Gallery of Art: The Collection
Virtual tours through selected works in 44 of the Gallery's collections, including painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper; also includes a searchable index of data on over 100,000 objects.

Voice of the Shuttle: Art and Art History Page
Including Photography, Architecture and Archaeology.

WWW Virtual Library Museums Page

For more on how to find and evaluate websites, see How to Evaluate Web Sources.

Contact a Librarian     [back to top]

Christopher Barbour. Contact for questions about library collections.
Chao Chen . Contact for reference questions and instruction requests.


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