UHP 189 -- Visual World
Library Research Guide
Recommended Databases
These databases offer information specific to the art historical perspective. Oxford Art Online is particularly useful with regards to biographical information.
- Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)
Publication Dates Covered: 1975-2007 Free Resource
Provides citations and abstracts from 1975-2007 for articles, art-related books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and exhibition catalogs, focusing on European and American art from late antiquity to the present. This multilingual database encompasses writings on the visual arts including traditional fine arts (ceramics, drawing, painting, prints, sculpture, etc.), architecture and industrial design, and decorative and applied arts (crafts, folk art, graphic arts, etc.). For material published after 2007 see the International Bibliography of Art (IBA) database. - International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
Publication Dates Covered: 2008 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Provides citations and abstracts for articles, art-related books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and exhibition catalogs, focusing on European and American art from late antiquity to the present. This bilingual database encompasses writings on the visual arts including traditional fine arts (ceramics, drawing, painting, prints, sculpture, etc.), architecture and industrial design, and decorative and applied arts (crafts, folk art, graphic arts, etc.). For materials published from 1975 through 2007 see the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) database. - JSTOR
Paid for by K-State Libraries
A full-text collection of journals ranging from history to business to literature to science and mathematics. Coverage begins with the first issue of a title, but the most recent three to five years of each title are usually not available. The full article text is searchable. Images are available for searching as well. - Oxford Art Online
Paid for by K-State Libraries
Formerly Grove Art Online, this is the definitive encyclopedia for the arts and design. This portal to Oxford art reference products includes cross-referenced articles and links to art images in galleries and museums. Articles are scholarly and include bibliographic references. This database contains Grove Art Online (the entire text of The Dictionary of Art), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, and is continually updated.
Information in these databases can help to create context for the work of John Steuart Curry. The historical newspapers, including the New York Times, are considered primary resources.
- America: History & Life
Publication Dates Covered: 1964 - present Simultaneous users: 6 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Indexes and abstracts for approximately 1,800 journals in the field of United States and Canadian history. Full-text coverage for more than 280 journals and more than 80 books. Contains citations and links to book and media reviews. Can search by time period. - Kansas Historical Newspapers Archive, 1841-1981 (America’s Historical Newspapers)Publication Dates Covered: 1841-1981 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Collection of significant historical Kansas newspapers from the time before Kansas was a state, to the recent past. Includes complete, searchable issues. These newspapers are a subset of African-American Newspapers, Series II. - American PeriodicalsPublication Dates Covered: 1740-1940 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. Includes graphic elements and article layouts. - New York Times, Historical
Publication Dates Covered: 1851-2021 Paid for by K-State Libraries
Digitized version of The New York Times since its first issue in 1851. Search the full text of articles to find articles on a wide variety of topics. Full name of the database is ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index.
The Art Full Text database is especially helpful for articles on contemporary art and design. Access is limited to 4 simultaneous users.
- Art Full Text
Publication Dates Covered: Indexing 1982 - present; abstracts 1994 - present; select full text 1997 - present Paid for by the State Library of Kansas
Addresses “art” in the broadest sense including topics relevant to archaeology, architecture, art history, ceramics, fashion design, graphic arts, interior design, landscape architecture, metalsmithing, photography, sculpture, textiles and more. Includes content from international arts journals, periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. - ProQuest Research Library
Publication Dates Covered: 1971 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
This is a good starting point for finding journal articles on almost any topic. Over 150 academic subject areas are covered, and most articles are full-text. Searches can be limited to scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.
Life & Time Magazines
Life and Time magazines are recommended for researching Curry and his contemporaries:
Life Magazine:
- Record in Search It: See the Search It record for print, online, and microfilm (1898-1967) availability.
- Electronic access: 1937 until 1972
Time Magazine:
- Record in Search It: See the Search It record for print, online, and microfilm (1923-) availability.
Recommended Websites
These resources are freely available. In some cases if you access them through the links below, or via the list of K-State Libraries Databases, you will take the Get It button with you as you search. When you do so, you will easily be able to link back to K-State Libraries to check for access via our library holdings or Interlibrary Loan.
- Archives of American Art:(Smithsonian Institution; cannot be used with Get It)
"The Archives today is the world’s pre-eminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America." (Link to Source: About Us) - Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersThis is a searchable collection of millions of pages scanned from U.S. Newspapers published between 1836 and 1922.
- Google Book SearchA growing collection of books Google has received digitally from publishers or scanned from the shelves of one of its library partners. This is an excellent resource for reading books published before 1922, for reading selections of copyrighted books, and for identifying books about a particular subject. It is also extremely handy for tracking down sources for facts and quotations.
- Google News Archive SearchThis is an international collection of content from newspapers, magazines, legal archives, and news archives. If you are looking for primary source material about an event or person from the past two centuries, this is an excellent place to look.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is particularly useful for ferreting out articles on odd and obscure topics, since it indexes the full text for many of the articles listed. Google won’t let us use the Get It button on their screens, so look for the text Get It @ K-State.
