Finding Images

Yale offers access to many digital image collections. Some are their own collections and other are available through subscription. There is also a large number of amazing collections freely available on the web. Here's a list of selected collections.

Yale Digital Library Cross-Collection Search

The Beinecke Digital Collections, Arts of the Book Ephemera Collection, Yale University Art Gallery Collections, Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collection and the Visual Resources Digital Collection can be searched simultaneously using the Digital Library Cross-Collection Search. For a complete listing of Library Digital Collections see the Digital Collections page.

Yale Visual Resources Collection

The Visual Resources Collection contains over 100,000 digital images with more added rugularly and supports courses in the history of art, architecture, and American studies. Its collection of digital images is available through the Digital Library and includes a guide to using the collection. or by using the Insight software (click here to download client).  (Students may view any course groups through the Digital Library as well.) For a quick overview of Insight and how to search it, please refer to the Guide to Using Insight.

ARTstor

ARTstor is an image database and presentation tool, which currently contains approximately 500,000 digital images. The image collections in ARTstor cover architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and many other forms of visual materials. All periods and many cultures are represented. Users can create work folders and download and present images using the Offline Image Viewer.

Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) Digital Collection

Selections from YUAG's collection are available online through Yale's Digital Library.

Arts of the Book

Arts of the Book (AOB) hosts the Book Arts Ephemera database, contains both examples of and reference materials about the arts related to the book. Topics such as binding, book history, illustration, calligraphy, graphic design, paper making and decorative papers, typography and more are represented. Contemporary examples of artists' books and fine printing are housed alongside more traditional publications.

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

Unique in their scope and richness, the prints and photographs collections today number more than 13.7 million images with approx. 50% available in the online catalog. These include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 550,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. Some but not all of the images in the NYPL's Digital Gallery are in the public domain.

Pay to Play Collections

The following links are for-profit image collection. While their collections are amazingly diverse please note that certain images in the public domain on these sites can be found for free from other collections like the Library of Congress or National Archives.

Getty Images

Enormous image collection including fine art, documentary, photo journalism, stock, etc.

Corbis

Corbis owns or represents photography and art from more than 1,500 creative sources, including: Ansel Adams, the Bettmann Archive, UPI, the National Gallery, and the State Hermitage Museum, as well as leading celebrity and commercial and editorial photographers. The collection contains over 25 million images with approx. 2.1 million available online.