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Arts and Humanities Library
There are many ways to find pictures. This guide suggests some good options for digital images (in the first sections) and for pictures on paper or microfiche (at the end.)
Penn State builds or subscribes to several databases of digital images. The images in these databases are generally larger and supplied with better descriptions than the average images found on the web. A separate guide lists these Image Databases.
Several commercial search engines can locate pictures on huge number of web sites.
Some good examples:
These sites can be browsed for links to a variety of online image collections.
Many of the E-Books and E-Journals licensed by the University Libraries contain illustrations. The search systems for several of these resources allow you to limit a search to illustrated material. For example, Art Abstracts (Full Text) indexes full-page illustrations or art from gallery ads and often supplies those images. JSTOR a database of academic e-journals, may be searched by the captions of the illustrations.
Pictures may also be found in paper books and magazines. Photocopying (in color or black-and-white) and larger flat-bed scanners may be found at many University Libraries locations.
In The CAT, on the Advanced Search screen, you can limit your search to illustrated books two different ways:
Type your search terms in the first box. In a box labeled “LC Subject Heading” type “pictorial works.” (This is a standard heading that is used for some books when they are primarily composed of illustrations or photos.)
For a broader search, type your search term(s) in the first box. In another box labeled “Keyword” type “ill or illus.” These are two standard abbreviations (for “illustrations”) that are used in the catalog.
A more precise method, but with several more steps, is to use an index to illustrations. These are special books that list the specific illustrations in other books. Most focus on art work or portraits. Please ask at the Arts and Humanities Library Service Desk for these.
The Penn State Libraries have some large pictorial microfilm sets that contain thousands of pictures. Please ask at the Arts and Humanities Library Service Desk for these.
There are thousands of ways to find pictures. More than can be mentioned here. The most efficient way to explore further may be to ASK.
