Art and Art History : Artists
collection of e-resources useful for art historical research
Librarian Profile
Online Databases for Artist Biographical Research
- Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyBritish nationals
- AskArtThe library has no license for this database, but some useful information is available publicly.
- Ancestry Library Editiononly available from campus library workstations
- American Architects and Buildingsfree registration is required to search
General Biographical Research Guide
Online artist projects or artist websites
Look for online scholarly research projects devoted to individual artists. Look for websites maintained directly by contemporary artists. Look for sites maintained by artists' estates. Carefully evaluate the sites' authority.
Biographical information in books
Search the library catalog for publications by or about your artist. Combine the artist name with terms such as:
- autobiography
- biography
- correspondence
- diaries
- interviews
- letters
- obituaries
- personal narratives
- self portraits
- sources and documents
If the number of research publications supports this degree of detail, standardized subject terms also include the following:
- childhood and youth
- education
- family
- friends and associates
- homes and haunts
- political activities
- political and social views
- quotations
- relations with authors
- relations with women
- religion
- travel
Name Authority File
The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) allows searches for personal names that worldwide libraries may have used for subject or author entries.