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Arts and Humanities Library
This guide describes a number of databases of digital images that Penn State subscribes to or builds. The pictures in these databases are generally larger and supplied with better descriptions than the average digital image found on the web. All may be used for illustrating lectures, presentations, or class papers, but most cannot be reposted openly on the web.
Newspaper Photos (AccuNet/AP Photo Archive)
Hundreds of thousands of news photos provided by the Associated Press, with approximately 800 added daily. Each year, approximately 200 of the best daily photos are retained permanently. Access is Penn State only.
ARTstor (pictures of art, architecture, and visual culture)
Although primarily a collection of art images, this also includes historic (Magnum) news photos. Access is Penn State only.
ARTstor (pictures of art, architecture, and visual culture)
A million images of works of art and other artifacts of visual culture, intended to support teaching, research and learning in visual culture and related fields. Access is Penn State only.
Art History Department Visual Resource Collection
A growing collection of more than 25,000 images documenting the history of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other visual arts from prehistoric times to the present. These images were chosen from Penn State’s Visual Resource Centre's collection of digital images and slides. Access is Penn State only.
Central Pennsylvania Architecture and Landscape Architecture
A growing collection containing over 1,000 images focusing on the buildings and landscape of central Pennsylvania. These pictures have been selected and photographed by experts in the unique architecture and landscapes of our region. Access to all for educational uses.
Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures. Also a growing collection, now more than 26,000 images of historic and contemporary architecture and landscape design. These pictures have been gathered for Penn State users from a variety of sources: licensed professional photography, original photography provided by university faculty, and some copies from books and similar sources. Access is Penn State only.
Oxford Art Online. An illustrated encyclopedia of art and art history. Access is Penn State only.
Index of Christian Art. A specialized database for locating specific themes in medieval art. Images are available for a large portion of the records. Access is Penn State only.
The O'Connor/Yeager Collection.
A collection of printed Pennsylvania town views, portraits, maps, and historical scenes. Through a combination of donation and purchase from the collectors John C. O'Connor and Ralph M. Yeager, this collection of 330 prints came to Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art in 1986. It includes lithographs, engravings, aquatints, photogravures, and woodcuts created by artists of the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. These prints offer a unique glimpse into Pennsylvania's past. Access to all for educational uses.
Digital Map Drawer
An assortment of hundreds of useful maps of Pennsylvania including Sanbourn Fire Insurance Maps, a series of medium scale (15 minute) topographic maps, and a 1861 Digital Atlas of Centre County. Access to all for educational uses.
Pennsylvania German Broadsides and Fraktur Collection
Over 250 images, from Penn State.s Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Special Collections Library drawings on paper made with pen, ink, and watercolor, using fancy penmanship and illustrations such as birds, hearts, flowers, and angels. They were commonly used in the 18th and 19th centuries to document births and baptisms, marriages, and house blessings, among other occasions. The collection also includes broadsides (sheets of paper printed on one side only, such as commentaries on religious texts and political events) and German-language newspapers. Access to all for educational uses.
University Park Campus History Collection.
This collection of primary source materials focuses on the design and planning of the Penn State University Park campus from the 1870s to the 1970s. Many historic photos and building plans are included. Access to all for educational uses.
The T. R. Johns Collection
Hundreds of pictures of life and work in the mining community of Heilwood, Pennsylvania, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Mira Lloyd Dock Forestry Lantern Slides
468 glass lantern slides from the collection of Mira Lloyd Dock (1853-1945), a renowned Pennsylvania environmentalist, botanist, and educator. Tree and other plant specimens and other aspects of forest management throughout the United States and Europe, but with an emphasis on Pennsylvania, are documents in these historic photos. Access to all for educational uses.
Central Pennsylvania Architecture and Landscape Architecture
A growing collection containing over 1,000 images focusing on the buildings and landscape of central Pennsylvania. These pictures have been selected and photographed by experts in the unique architecture and landscapes of our region. Access to all for educational uses.
A number of other online pictorial exhibits of materials from the Penn State University Libraries are posted on the Digitized Collections.
For other ways to find pictures, see the more general guide Picture and Image Resources.
