Research Guides: Architecture Research Guide: Find Images

Brainstorming Search Terms

Start by search general keywords. Based on your search results, you can find other useful terms. These search terms may be synonyms or a narrower focus of your original topic. This approach works for both the library catalog and research databases.

Mind Mapping Tools

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MindMeister

Image Databases

Artstor
Collection of images from major museums, universities, archives, and notable personal collections covering art, architecture, history, and archeology. Create personal or shared folders of images and create presentations. Available only for educational and scholarly uses. Images may NOT be placed on publicly accessible websites.
UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff need to register for a personal account using their UNC Charlotte emails for complete access to images and features and for off-campus access; this registration must happen while on campus.
For help with ARTstor, visit the ARTstor YouTube channel for tutorials, or use their subject guides with keyword suggestions, search tips, and collection content.
JSTOR
Provides access to academic journals and books covering a wide range of disciplines; it also includes some limited primary source collections.

VRC Visual Resources Collection
The VRC is a UNC Charlotte resource with holdings of over 70,000 digital images and 86,000 analog images. College of Arts and Architecture Students can request access from Jenna Duncan, jduncan@uncc.edu

Websites

British Library on Flickr
The British Library’s collections on Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images. The release of these collections into the public domain represent the Library's desire to improve knowledge of and about them, to enable novel and unexpected ways of using them, and to begin working with researchers to explore and interpret large scale digital collections.
Getty Open Content Images
selected digitized materials from the Research Institute's collection that are free to view and download. Materials include over 2.5 million digital images of rare and public domain books, photographs, prints, manuscripts, sketchbooks, and archives.
Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Since 2000, documentation from the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) has been added to the holdings. The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types.
New York Public Library: Wallach Division Art & Architecture Collection
Contains published works on fine art, decorative arts, architecture and design history in general. The scope of the Collection is international, covering the arts from prehistory through the contemporary period. The holdings are remarkably rich for scholarship as a result of the original bequests from the Astor and Lenox collections, and other generous gifts. The Collection is particularly strong in the decorative arts; included among its early holdings is an antiquarian-based collection of portfolio and plate-books; the history of painting and drawing; and in Western European and American architectural history.
RIBApix
Visual archive of over 95,000 digital images brought to you from the magnificent collections of the British Architectural Library
VADS (Visual Arts Data Service)
Collection of over 140,000 images from over 300 art and design collections across the UK, which are freely available for non-commercial use in education. The images cover the broad range of the visual arts including applied arts, architecture, design, fashion, fine art, and media. VADS is a service of the Library at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA).
Visual Collections from Cartography Associates
Over 300,000 images of maps, fine arts, architecture and photography from renowned private and public collections

Specialized Topics

Ad*Access
Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.
Archnet
International online community for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, conservationists and scholars with a focus on Muslim cultures and civilizations
Asian Historical Architecture
Photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage containing over 14,800 photos of 753 sites in twenty countries, with background information and virtual tours.
The Athenian Agora
Excavations in the Athenian Agora are conducted by the American School of Classical Studies.
Casselman Archive of Islamic and Mudejar Architecture in Spain
A digitized collection of over four thousand slides with images of historic architecture in Spain with a focus on the Mudejar style, from the University of Wisconsin.
The City Project (Flickr)
for Los Angeles based City Project
Frank Lloyd Wright Trust Digital Image Collection
Images include historic photographs, restoration documentation and current photography of the Trust’s sites, as well as historic images of Frank Lloyd Wright, his family, and both historic and contemporary images of selected buildings designed by Wright’s Oak Park Studio.

Find Plans

You can find plans, elevations, and drawings in Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals.

Click on "advanced search" (found under the search box on the main page).
Put the name of your museum in the search box. (It can be helpful to put the name in quotes.)
Scroll part way down the page, and on the right you will see "physical description."
Under "physical description" select "plans."
Click "search" to run your query.

You can also find similar images in the image database Artstor. Options are listed below.

Browse images by classification for Architecture & City Planning. Then, limit your results by geography, date, etc.
Use the advanced search feature and limit your search to Architecture & City Planning as the classification. Then, you can limit your results further by geography, date, etc.

You can also find these images in in books and articles that feature your project

Artstor
A collection of images from major museums. ARTSTOR images cover art, architecture and archeology. Useful for personal or shared uses, and creating and delivering presentations. ARTSTOR is available solely for educational and scholarly uses that are noncommercial in nature. Images may NOT be placed on publicly accessible websites. UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff can register for an account which allows off-campus access; this registration must happen while on campus.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
Index to journals for architecture and related topics.
JSTOR
Provides access to academic journals and books covering a wide range of disciplines; it also includes some limited primary source collections.

NC Resources

Built Heritage of North Carolina
The Built Heritage of North Carolina provides access to documentation on hundreds of buildings and structures in North Carolina dating from the 1700s to the early 1900s.
Documenting the American South
Primary source materials relating to Southern history.

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A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes: First-Person Narratives of the American South; Library of Southern Literature; North American Slave Narratives; The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; The Church in the Southern Black Community.

Sanborn Maps (Digital)(1867-1970) for North Carolina
Sanborn Maps are large scale plans of a city or a town, drawn to a scale of 50 feet to an inch. These historical maps from 1867–1970 list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made.

Reverse Image Search

Google Reverse Image Search
See directions at support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808

Tineye Reverse Image Search
How to use TinEye at tineye.com/how

Related Guides

Open Access Images & Videos
This guide lists collections with images in the public domain and are available for re-use. Some collections may still have restrictions so check for any limitations in use.
Visual Literacy
Visual Literacy is the ability to find, understand, and evaluate images. It also includes the ability to understand the creation process for the purpose of not only evaluating but making images. This guide helps walk you through this evaluation process.