LibGuides: Finding and Using Images: Finding Digital Images

Introduction

This page offers a selection of digital resources which students and faculty can use to browse for images, including materials such as historical and modern artwork, photographs, digitized primary sources, etc.

Please see the box below for links and brief descriptions for each resource. You will find a combination of UMSL's subscription databases; digitized library, museum, and gallery collections; newspapers; and more.

For questions about searching a specific database or locating a specific type of material, please contact the library! We would be happy to assist you.

Where to Look for Online Images

This list is a short selection of sites which offer digital collections from prominent libraries, museums, and galleries. For a longer list of options which offer digital artwork in the public domain or under a CC0 license, please visit our Free Use Images page.

British Library: Images Online
Thousands of searchable images, including those from significant historical collections. Images are free to download and reuse but must be credited to the British Library Board.

Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
The Library of Congress Digital Collections is a repository of digital images, historic newspapers, early audio recordings, manuscripts, motion pictures and books, as well as "born digital" materials, such as selected Web sites. View the Rights page of each collection to find reuse guidelines.
The National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge, includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Jukebox content will increase regularly.

Cleveland Museum of Art Online Collection
Searchable online database of digitized artwork from the Cleveland Art Museum. Images are under a CC0 license.

Europeana Collections This link opens in a new window
Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitized items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for. Also included are thematic collections on art, fashion, music, natural history, photography and World War I with related galleries, blogs and exhibitions.
Internet Archive: Images This link opens in a new window
The Internet Archive's Images collection contains digital images uploaded by Archive users which range from maps to astronomical imagery to photographs of artwork. Many of these images are available to be downloaded.
Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Collection Online This link opens in a new window
The Collection Online, the primary digital collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Images have a CC0 license.
Included are over 400,000 records with photographs and basic descriptions. The collection can be searched or browsed by Artist/Maker/Culture, Object Type/Material, Geographic Location, Date/Era, and Museum Department.Collections include: Ancient Near Eastern Art, Photographs, Drawings & Prints, Decorative Arts, Sculpture, Arms & Armor, Book Arts, Textiles, Islamic Art, Greek & Roman Art, Modern & Contemporary Art, Asian Art, Medieval Art, Costumes, European Paintings, American Paintings & Sculpture, Egyptian Art, Arts of Africa, Oceania & the Americas, and Musical Instruments.
National Gallery of Art Images This link opens in a new window
NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art (U.S.). More than 51,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.
New York Public Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
New materials are added daily. The collection features prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
Smithsonian Open Access This link opens in a new window
Explore and reuse millions of digital items from the Smithsonian’s collections. Also includes datasets, 3D tools, a learning lab (for curricula & lesson plans), and developer tools.
Yale Digital Commons This link opens in a new window
More than 250,000 images from Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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JSTOR contains articles and books, usually at least 3-5 years old, from scholarly sources. They also have some primary resource collections. For more recent material, use Discover@UMSL or other individual databases.
Journal Collections
Arts & Sciences I – XV
Life Sciences
Business IV
Hebrew Journals
Ireland
Public Health
Lives of Literature

Reports & Research
Security Studies
Sustainability

Primary Sources
19th Century British Pamphlets (Bristol Selected Pamphlets, Cowen Tracts, Earl Grey Pamphlets Collection, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection, Hume Tracts, Knowsley Pamphlet Collection, LSE Selected Pamphlets, Manchester Selected Pamphlets, Wilson Anti-Slavery Collection)
World Heritage Sites: Africa (Reference)
Struggle for Freedom: Southern Africa (Reference)
Global Plants (Reference)
MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new window
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This multidisciplinary database provides full text for thousands of general reference publications, reference books, and primary source documents, as well as more than half a million images, including photos, maps and flags.
This resource is provided to UMSL via MOREnet, the Missouri Research and Education Network.
Open Artstor This link opens in a new window
Access to selected images from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa, the Science Museum Group, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Wellcome Collection.

UMSL Digital Library
Digital collections from UMSL Libraries including books, periodicals, other archival materials, and more from the St. Louis Mercantile Library, Thomas Jefferson Library, University Archives, and institutional repository.

Missouri Digital Heritage This link opens in a new window
Through the Missouri Digital Heritage Initiative, the Missouri State Archives, the Missouri State Library, and the State Historical Society of Missouri, are working with institutions across the state to digitize their records. Included are historic newspapers, documents, art, photographs, maps and other materials.
State Historical Society of Missouri Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Primarily focused on Missouri history, biography, and genealogy, the reference collection includes books, oral histories, pamphlets, manuscript collections, maps, newspapers on microfilm, and official state publications. Only some of the material is available online.

Finding and Using Images

Introduction

Where to Look for Online Images

See also: