Visual Materials as Primary Sources

Visual materials cover the whole range of non-verbal and non-auditory materials, everything from Original Art, Prints, Photographs to Films. The term visual materials encompasses a wide range of forms: photographs, cinema and video films, videotapes, paintings, drawings, prints, designs, three-dimensional art such as sculpture and architecture. Some can be categorized as fine art, others as documentary record. Some such materials are unique documents, while others are reproducible to a limited or unlimited extent. Examples of the latter include illustrations in books and magazines.

Original Art - Single paintings, drawings, watercolors, graphic art, sculpture, architectural drawings and plans, and prints forms for original art. Museums, art galleries, and libraries are the main easily accessible sources; if their holdings are not fully on display, catalogs are generally readily available. Examples include:

• Bobst Library Gallery, located on the 1st floor of Bobst

• Grey Art Gallery, located: New York University, 100 Washington Square East

• ARTstor

• CAMIO

• Museum of Modern Art

• Metropolitan Museum of Art

Prints - Art works reproduced in multiple copies; these include graphic art, etchings, engravings, lithographs, woodcuts, mezzotints, posters, trade cards, artists' prints, computer-generated graphics, and book illustration. Book illustration in general is an important informational source, not to be overlooked. Examples include:

• EEBO Early English Books Online

• New York Public Library Digital Collections

• Library of Congress American Memory

• ARTstor

• CAMIO

Photographs - Photographs are a more recent technology than art. Photographs have a considerable evidential value which makes them a particularly productive resource. Even poor photographs can have value as a unique record. Like all other forms of visual resources, they convey information about vanished worlds, demolished buildings, forgotten customs and ways of life. Examples include:

• New York Public Library Digital Collections

• Library of Congress American Memory

Films - The moving image is even newer than photography. There is a rich world of footage of documentary films and newsreels, some of which has unfortunately been lost forever. At its best, this medium allows the closest of all approaches to the past. Examples include:

• Television News Archive

• Library of Congress American Memory