Subject Guides: Art & Art History: Primary Sources

Selected Primary Sources in Digital Collections

Artists’ Books Collection
Unlike an art book, which is a representation of an artist's works and ideas, an artist's book is itself an original work of art. Photographs of selected works from over 100 artists and 300 titles are represented.
Book of Hours
An illuminated 15th-century book of prayer that contains illuminations of four different subjects: the Annunciation, Pentecost, King David and a Burial.
George S. Bolster Photograph Collection
This collection is comprised of photographs covering the early history of the college, including buildings, events and general college life.
Norman M. Fox Collection of Illustrated Books
This collection was originally collected by friends of Norman Fox, Hannah and Charles Adler, who were Saratoga Springs residents. The collection is particularly noted for its Victorian illustrated books.
Anita Pohndorff Yates Collection of Saratogiana
This collection was originally housed by the College's Permanent Art Collection, but was later transferred to the Department of Special Collections. It consists of 19th century prints of Saratoga Springs and its environs.

Selected Primary Sources: Databases

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels
Primary source database focusing on North American and European adult comic books and graphic novels. The collection includes original material from the 1960s to today along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines.

Selected Primary Resources: Websites

CARTA (Collaborative ART Archive)
CARTA is an international cohort of art libraries collaboratively capturing and preserving at-risk web-based art materials. The program preserves and provides public access to web-based art resources preserved in perpetuity by the Internet Archive.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): Arts
Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, and more.
Documents of Latin American and Latino Art
Explore over 9,000 Documents of 20th and 21st⁠-⁠century art in Latin America, the Caribbean, and among US Latino communities.
Europeana
Links 4 million digital items including images such as paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects. Some of these are world famous, others are hidden treasures from Europe's museums and galleries, archives and libraries.
Library of Congress Digital Collections: Arts & Architecture
Digitized photographs, moving pictures, and other resources from the Library of Congress.
NYPL Digital Collection
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections.
Smithsonian Collections Search Center
Search over 18 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 8 million online images.
Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives
Access over 26,000 descriptions of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, films, and works of art.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available on significant primary materials online.

Lucy Scribner Library

Art & Art History: Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources provide firsthand information, direct evidence, or original data on a topic.