Art History

Back to Subject Pathfinders

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

CSM Library maintains a circulating collection of books in art history in the general call number area of N5300. Here are some specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias that you may find useful for your research in art history.
 
The Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists REF N33.L353
The Dictionary of Art REF N31.D5
The Dictionary of Symbols in Western Art REF N7740.C29
Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists REF N6536.C8
Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary REF N6536.D38
World Artists, 1950-1980: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary REF N6489.M37
A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques REF N33.M36
Dictionary of American Art REF N6505.B34
Dictionary of the Decorative Arts REF NK30.F54
Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art REF N6750.H3
The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts REF N72.H64 Q44
Encyclopedia of American Folk Art REF NK805.E6
Schirmer Encyclopedia of Art REF N31.L3
The Artist's Illustrated Encyclopedia: Techniques, Materials, and Terms REF N8510.M48

Print Magazines and Journals

American Artist
Art in America
ArtForum International
ArtNews
Check for online availability

Browse online art history journals

library Online Databases

Arts & Humanities Through the Eras
An encyclopedia of milestones and movements in literature, music, religion, and the arts from specific periods.

ARTstor
A digital library of art images and descriptive information for students and instructors.

Expanded Academic ASAP (Journal Articles)
A multidisciplinary database covering a wide range of topics and publications. Includes popular magazines and scholarly journals.

InfoTrac OneFile
A one-stop source for popular, scholarly, and trade publications in all formats: newspaper, magazine, journal, and newsletter, etc.

SIRS: Renaissance
[on-campus login] [off-campus login]
Reference and periodical articles on the arts and humanities, organized by topic and selected by educators.

eLibrary
[on-campus login] [off-campus login]
Articles from over 200 newspapers (including NY Times, S.F. Chronicle, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal), magazine articles, TV and radio transcripts, and images.

Biography Resource Center
Biographical reference, magazine, and journal articles.

internet Resources

Art History Resources on the Web
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
A comprehensive collection of sites covering world art from prehistoric times to the present. Includes links to museums & galleries, research guides, image resources, and online journals.

Art Images for College Teaching
http://arthist.cla.umn.edu/aict
Royalty-free images made available for the educational community.

The Art Newspaper
http://www.theartnewspaper.com
An online newspaper covering the latest from the international art world.

ArtCyclopedia: The Guide to Great Art on the Internet
http://www.artcyclopedia.com
Over 8,500 artists listed, 2,300 art sites indexed, and access to 180,000 works of art.

Artnet
http://www.artnet.com
Provides news, lists of artists, directories of galleries and museums, auction prices, and a range of resources for researching individual artists.

AskArt: American Artists on the Internet
http://www.askart.com/AskART/index.aspx
Provides access to auction records, image galleries, artists' bibliographies, and information on museum holdings and dealers. Produced by a team of art dealers, historians, and archivists.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information Systems
http://sirismm.si.edu/siris/saam.htm
Specialized art databases containing bibliographic records and selective images from the Smithsonian Institution.

Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm
A chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, with an emphasis on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Provides theme-specific searches as well as general browsing.

Web Gallery of Art
http://www.wga.hu/index.html
A virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Reproductions, commentaries and biographies of artists are available.

Women Artists
http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/women/womenart.html
An online dictionary of women artists from the Middle Ages to contemporary times.

Web Search Engines

Librarian’s Internet Index
A guide to trustworthy Web sites, hand-selected by librarians.

Infomine
A guide to scholarly information sources online.