Artstor: Basic Intro
The Artstor Digital Library is a database of images that provides access to curated images from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research — you are free to use them in classroom instruction and handouts, presentations, student assignments, and other noncommercial educational and scholarly activities.
Unlike results from Google or other search engines, images come with high-quality metadata from the collection catalogers, curators, institutions, and artists themselves.
The images in Artstor extend far beyond the field of art. Studies have shown that incorporating visuals into lectures, papers, and research improves information retention and observational skills, regardless of discipline. (See the Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) here).
For more information about Artstor, visit this online guide created by Artstor.
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowArtstor is a digital library of nearly one million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, along with a set of tools to view, present, and manage the images for research and teaching purposes. Entire collections of images have been contributed by museums, libraries' special collections, scholars, individual photographers and photo archives.
Please note: Users must register an account with Artstor in order to download images.
ARTSTOR: Steps
Besides using JSTOR for articles, you can find images too. You can then download the entire image or a zoomed detail of the image.
- Log in to your Artstor account. (You must be logged in with a registered Artstor account to download content)
- Search for items or open a collection or group
- Click an item thumbnail to launch the Detail page
- Click the Download button
- Select Download Item
- Click to Accept our Terms and Conditions of Use.
- Your file will download into whichever folder you have designated for downloads from your web browser.
*Audio files and video files are not available for download. If you have opened an audio file or a video file with an image as the thumbnail, only the .jpg image/placeholder will download.
For more troubleshooting with Artstor images, see more info here.
Other Digital Libraries
A few selected Digital Libraries where you could find images are highlighted below: