Finding Images

Members of the Princeton University community are encouraged to take advantage of the images which have been cataloged by Visual Resources staff for decades. The collection can be accessed by logging into Artstor Digital Library using your PU NetID.

Many of the digital images that you can find and access online are not necessarily suitable for classroom projection or academic papers. Because art history classes require the most accurate representation of works of art, the staff of Visual Resources is well versed in finding the best quality images from the most reputable sources. We recommend starting with the resources shared below; please email [email protected] for additional assistance finding images for teaching and research.

University Subscriptions

  • Artstor: Extensive digital library of 2.5+ million images, including the Department of Art and Archaeology Collection.
  • Artstor Images for Academic Publishing: Within Artstor, IAP offers publication-quality images free of charge.
  • Bridgeman Education: Database of 1.2+ million images from museums, galleries, institutions and private collections. 

Museum Collections

  • The British Museum: Open access, with registration, to over one million images published under a Creative Commons license. Larger images are available for publication upon request.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art: Open access to 30,000 images of works in the CMA’s permanent collection.
  • ColBase: Open access to images of objects in the collections in the four national museums of Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Kyushu.
  • E-museum: Open access to high-definition images and descriptions in multiple languages of the National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties owned by the Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, Kyushu National Museum, and the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties aligned under the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage.
  • Europeana: Access to images from over 3,000 European cultural institutions. Information about image use clearly indicated.
  • The Getty: Open access to images of objects in the museum’s extensive collections.
  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog: Open access to a collection that includes over 1.2 million digitized images. Rights assessment for publication is the individual’s responsibility.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art: Open access to over 406,000 high-resolution images, many of which are also in ARTstor. Access upon request to images under copyright or other restrictions.
  • National Palace Museum, Taipei: Open access to 100,000 images in the NPM collection. Users are welcome to download all images on this site for free and unlimited use without application procedures.
  • Smithsonian Image Gallery: Open access to thousands of book illustrations, photos, drawings, and other images from across the Libraries. For publication, users must comply with all terms and restrictions.
  • Yale University Art Gallery: Open access to images of almost 200,000 works in the YUAG permanent collection.

Other Digital Resources

  • Google Arts and Culture: View over 32,000 high-resolution images from international museums. Zoom in on details and virtually tour galleries.
  • Google Images: Filter for free-to-use images and large images. Pay attention to access restrictions.
  • Wikimedia Commons: A collection of over 100 million media files. Pay attention to access restrictions.