Databases - Images


The Art and Architecture web site by the Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) features more than 40'000 images selected from the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery and Conway library collections.


ARTstor is a digital library of images, information about the images, and software tools designed to enhance teaching, learning, and scholarship. ARTstor contains over 1 million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. The images in ARTstor come from a wide range of civilizations, with initial strengths in European, American, and Asian cultures. The collection has been derived from several source collections that are the product of collaborations with libraries, museums, photographic archives, publishers, slide libraries, and individual scholars.


Arbeitsgemeinschaft kunsthistorischer Bildarchive und Fototheken (AKBF) is an online platform of German iconographic archives of art history and image collections. More than six million images can be searched in the collection of: Deutsche Fotothek der SLUB (Dresden), Photothek des Kunstgeschichtlichen Instituts (Florence), Rheinische Bildarchiv der Stadt Köln, Bildarchiv Foto (Marburg), Photothek des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte (Munich), Fototeca della Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte (Rome).


Archnet is a globally-accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world. Archnet’s mission is to provide ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality. Officially launched in 2002 as a partnership between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Archnet has since evolved into the largest open, online architectural library with a focus on Muslim cultures.


Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur contains around two million images of art works and buildings from all Europe. 1.4 million images from various institutions were originally published on microfilm between 1977 and 2000 as "Marburger Index - Inventar der Kunst in Deutschland", while 300'000 additional images were collected in Armenia, Austria, Benelux, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.


Britannica ImageQuest gives access to over 3 million images from 62 leading collections, provided by trusted sources such as The Bridgeman Art Gallery, Getty Images, the Science Photo Library, Ingram Publishing, the National Geographic Society. Images are completed with citation metadata and are all rights-cleared for educational, non-commercial use. Search language: English


Joconde groups around 500'000 records describing French museums items relating to archaeology, art, anthropology, history, science, and technology. Images often complement the description and classification.


OldMapsOnline indexes over 400.000 maps. This is only thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided their online content. The project began as a collaboration between Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland and The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at the University of Portsmouth, UK thanks to funding from JISC.


Prometheus is a digital image archive for art and culture. Prometheus provides a common user interface that allow searching across multiple image archives, databases from art history research institutes, and museums, primarily in Germany. Content includes 61 art history, design, architectural, theological, history and archaeological image databases containing approximately 756,000 images. Create a profile to save and edit images for presentation.


RIBApix provides around 60’000 images from the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects, one of the world’s most extensive visual archive devoted to architecture. RIBApix covers world architecture of all periods together with related subjects such as interior design, landscape, topography, planning, construction and the decorative arts.