AASL Core Reference List: Visual Resources

Free access to images and articles on "architecture and construction, digital media, architectural products, and building culture"; access to more than 10,000 higher-resolution images from the "complete online archive" available with subscription.

"Archivision Research Library is currently comprised of 72,000 professional, high quality images covering architecture, urban design, archaeological sites, landscapes, gardens, and works of art in public places. The Library is intended for scholarship and teaching in architecture and art history but also has broad appeal across disciplines."

Images of architecture, parks, public art, and sustainable design "for educators."

Thousands of architectural images from over 15 countries taken over the past 30 years. Note: "...you may find many of our images on ARTstor, however the total image collection lives on in Scholar's Resource and can be licensed in perpetuity."

"Society of Architectural Historians Architecture Resources Archive is a digital image archive developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with ARTstor. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, SAHARA contains more than 47,000 images of architecture and landscapes contributed by SAH members—architects, scholars, photographers, graduate students, preservationists, and others who share an interest in the built environment."

"...Delivers detailed property and land-use records...and more than 660,000 large-scale maps...that depict the grid of everyday life in more than 12,000 U.S. towns and cities," with coverage from 1867-1970. Available by subscription from Proquest.

Note: libraries and local collections may have the original, print maps and some have digitized these and made them available online.

Provides institutional image hosting and offers for sale images from other vendors such as Archivision, Hartill Art Associates, Canyonlights Photography, and Saskia.

"...Consists of approximately 13,000 19th and early 20th century photographs of architecture, decorative arts, and sculpture." White (1832-1918) was the first president of Cornell University, which hosts this collection.

Blog-format publication featuring articles on contemporary architecture.
Often includes building plans for featured projects.

Islamic architecture image library of historic and contemporary buildings and sites and general views. Offered by MIT School of Architecture and Planning and University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, in cooperation with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Search "American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920," "Nineteenth-Century Periodicals, 1815-1900," and "Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929" collections individually or simultaneously.

"...A collection of digitized images of buildings and cities drawn from across time and throughout the world...It has grown steadily...with contributions from a wide range of scholars, and contains images ranging from New York to Central Asia, from African villages, to the Parc de la Villette, and conceptual sketches and models of Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project. These have all been scanned from original slides or drawn from documents in the public domain...freely available...for use in the classroom, student study, or for individual research purposes."

Note: consult individual images for copyright information.

"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 landscape design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes..."

"...Range of information on the buildings and designers of California, Oregon and Washington. Building records are tied to those of their creators (when known) and include historical and geographical information and images."

A project supported by the William Penn Foundation. "...Provides authoritative information on three centuries of Philadelphia buildings and designers, incorporating data and images from the collections of more than 25 Philadelphia-area repositories."

Public access image database featuring world architecture of all periods, interior design, landscape, topography, planning, construction and the decorative arts. Browse or use the simple, advanced search (architect or building), or subject search.

"All images...copyright of the Royal Institute of British Architects, but low resolution copies may be downloaded free of charge for personal use or teaching purposes. Higher resolution files suitable for most types of publication or prints for private use may be ordered through this site."

1000 buildings documented with images, text, and references.

Over 50,000 art and architecture images. Users may search or browse the collection in 950 portfolios. Portfolio subjects include American, European, Asian, Islamic, and Russian architecture, applied arts, and cityscapes and city life.