Research Guides: Theology & Religious Studies: Image Databases

Image Collections

Google Arts & Culture
The Google Cultural Institute platform is open to non-profit institutions, museums, galleries, and archives with copyright-free or copyright-cleared content that they would like to share.
Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative (CDRI)
The Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative of Atla and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) collections provide access to digital images of woodcuts, photographs, slides, papyri, coins, maps, postcards, manuscripts, lithographs, sermons, shape-note tune books, and various forms of Christian art, architecture, and iconography. Its coverage focus includes ancient Near East; missions; world religion; and more.
HOLLIS Images
HOLLIS Images is the Harvard Library's dedicated image catalog. It includes content from archives, museums, libraries, and other collections throughout Harvard University. Access to the catalog is open to the general public.
more...less...
Includes collections from
Harvard Divinity School - has images from more than 30 years of travel to archeological sites and museums in the Mediterranean area.
Harvard Art Museums - includes items from Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia that range in date from ancient times to the present.
Judaica Division, Widener Library- has images documenting Jewish life over the past hundred years throughout the world and particularly in the Land of Israel.
Harvard Fine Arts Library Special Collections - holds photographs, lantern slides, postcards, and rubbings documenting art and architecture, with significant numbers of historic photographs of Asia and the Middle East.
and more.
Web Gallery of Art
The Web Gallery of Art is a searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 12th to mid-19th centuries. The site includes a database of fine arts museums, churches and a glossary of art terms.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress American Memory Collection
more...less...
The Library of Congress American Memory Collection is one of the most extensive collections of photographs. Historical documents of all kinds are searchable/browsable here, including maps, manuscripts, sound recording and books. To limit your search to only those collections with photographs, select the Browse tab at the top of the page under Browse Collections Containing, choose Photos, Prints. You can then search these specific collections for keywords. To browse images in your results, choose the Gallery View.
History Matters - Documentary Photography Online George Mason University
more...less...
This list links out to online collections of all sorts of images relating to U.S. History. Browse through the collections and read about what they have to offer.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
The New York Public Library offers a collection of searchable historical photographs online. Browse through their image collections, or search for a keyword.
The Met: Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections
Includes Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History and Open Access Artworks, more than 375,000 hi-res images of public-domain works from the collection
British Museum Collections
Get closer to the British Museum's collection and immerse yourself in two million years of history, across six continents. It allows access to almost four and a half million objects in more than two million records.
The "Digital Dunhuang" project
A UNESCO World Heritage site, also known as the Mogao Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, the 492 cells and cave sanctuaries in Mogao are famous for their statues and wall paintings, spanning 1,000 years of Buddhist art.
WorldImages Kiosk
WorldImages provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project database and contains approximately 100,000 images in all areas of visual imagery from around the world.
Kheel Center Labor Photos -- Cornell University
more...less...
Cornell University's Kheel Center offers a collection of labor photos that feature images of labor conflicts, such as strikes and demonstrations, as well as labor leaders and labor meetings. Over 350,000 images are included, and the images are searchable with acceptance of an online agreement to use the photos legally.
Free Speech Movement Digital Archive – University of California, Berkeley
more...less...
Free Speech Movement Digital Archive from University of California at Berkeley offers searchers a portal into several rich collections of photographs. Try going to Finding Aids and browsing through those collections - and make sure to look for the keyword 'Photograph' in the collection title. Some of these collections are made up of personal papers and government documents
Calisphere
Discover over two million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
The collections in Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout California.

Press Collections

Life Magazine Online Archive
America's premier photography magazine, you can search Life's online collection at the top right-hand side of the page.
Associated Press Images
AP Images is a large collection of historical and contemporary news and lifestyle photos. Some content is restricted but can be searched by keyword, though not printed.
Magnum Photos
An extensive collection of online photographs produced by the photography cooperative Magnum Photos. In Advanced Search limit by year and image type and search for your topic.
Time Magazine - Photo
The latest storied from Time Photo.
You can also search all of Time Magazine for your topic with the search bar at the top of the page.
New York Times Multimedia
more...less...
Browse through media colections, or search for multimedia at the right hand side of the page. Collections are available from 2000.