About this Guide
This guide provides tips and research sources for your course and projects this semester. Please reach out if you have any questions. (See the Getting Help page for details.) No question is too big or too small, so let us know what you need!
Images of the Gibson House Museum. Source: the Gibson House Museum, https://www.thegibsonhouse.org/
Finding Background Sources
Background information on the topic of your group project can help you focus and refine your research. It can provide you with a big picture context within which you can place your own work. It can provide information from reliable sources that provides a framework for readers of the report that your group produces. It can also help you identify keywords for further research of your particular topic.
Some Examples of Background Sources
Art Encyclopedias
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window Grove Art Online is an encyclopedia covering both Western and non-Western art and all aspects of visual culture. Articles include bibliographies and searchable images. As part of Oxford Art Online, keywords also are simultaneously searched in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art.
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window Oxford Art Online is the access point for Grove Art Online, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Oxford Companion to Western Art.
- Oxford Companion to Western Art This link opens in a new window Oxford Companion to Western Art contains entries on artists and their works, styles and movements, art forms and art terms, and more modern methodologies, focused on patronage, taste, theory, and criticism, and the scientific examination of materials and techniques. Artists from classical times to the 20th century are included. Feature articles cover topics from art history and its methods to wall painting.
Subject-related Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance by
Authoritative companion to the Renaissance, covering not only Italy but developments in the arts, sciences, and ideas across Europe.
ISBN: 9781859865446Publication Date: 2005-01-01
The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World by
A readable, fun reference tool that brings Victorian times to life with details on people, books, terms, discoveries, clothing, events, & slang.
ISBN: 9780805026221Publication Date: 1996-04-01
Subject Essays, European Art (from The MET website):
(Search or browse lhrough a list of essays)
Head, African Studies Library
6th floor, Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri, 9am- 5pm