Finding Images
A selection of resources available to find photographs online at Harvard and beyond.
Images at Harvard
Harvard has a number of photographs available online in our digital catalogs. Harvard's digital catalogs are accessible to the general public, but some images may be restricted and require login.
- Harvard Digital CollectionsHarvard Digital Collections provides free, public access to more than 6 million objects digitized from our collections - from ancient art to modern manuscripts and audio visual materials.
- HOLLIS ImagesHOLLIS 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.
- Harvard Art Museums CollectionSearch the Harvard Art Museums extensive collection of photographs and other works of art.
Other online image collections
These are a selection of resources with digital image collections available to the Harvard community or freely available on the web. Resources include image databases and museums known to have extensive photography collections.
- AP ImagesAssociated Press archive of over photographs from 1844 to the present, audio files of radio broadcasts, text of wire stories, and info-graphics. Good resource for photojournalism.
- ArtstorArtstor is a nonprofit digital library of more than 2.5 million images representing the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences. In addition, many images from the Fine Arts Library Visual Collections and from the Visual Collections of the Frances Loeb Library are available in Artstor’s Harvard Study Collections.
- Center for Creative PhotographyDelve into the photography and archives of North America’s most important modern photographers.
- Europeana Collections: PhotographyDiscover inspiring images and the history of photography through the collections of European cultural heritage institutions.
- Flickr: The CommonsImages made available through Flickr's partnership with cultural institutions.
- Frick Digital CollectionsThe Photoarchive is a study collection of more than one million photographic reproductions of works of art by fourth to mid-twentieth century artists trained in the Western tradition.
- George Eastman Museum: Photography CollectionsThe photography collection at the George Eastman Museum, among the oldest and best in the world, comprises more than 400,000 photographic objects dating from the introduction of the medium in 1839 through to the present day. It encompasses works made in all major photographic processes, from daguerreotype to digital, for a wide range of purposes, from amateur pursuit to artistic enterprise, from scientific inquiry to documentary record. The collection includes work by more than eight thousand photographers, and it continues to expand.
- Getty Search GatewayThe Getty Search Gateway allows users to search across several of the Getty repositories, including collections databases, library catalogs, collection inventories, and archival finding aids. It is listed here for the vast collection digital images included.
- Harry Ransom CenterFounded on the acquisition of the internationally renowned Gernsheim Collection in 1963, the Ransom Center's photography collection has grown to more than five million prints and negatives, ranging from the earliest photographic trials to the latest contemporary works. The collection's encyclopedic scope makes it one of the world's premier sources for the study of photography and its history.
- Historic New EnglandExplore the objects, photographs, and documents that reveal four centuries of life in New England.
- International Center for Photography“[The] permanent collection contains more than 200,000 prints and related materials that range from the earliest forms of photography to contemporary work.”
- J. Paul Getty Museum: Photograph CollectionThe collection is particularly rich in works dating from the time of photography’s invention in England and France in the late 1830s and early 1840s. International in scope, it encompasses substantial holdings by some of the most significant masters of the twentieth century active in Europe, the United States, South America, Asia, and Africa.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online CatalogThe Prints and Photographs Online Catalog provides public access to catalog records and over 1.2 million digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and other units of the Library of Congress. The collections include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials related to the history of the United States and the lives of the American people.
- Metropolitan Museum of ArtExplore the art and artifact collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art through browsing or searching. Find recent acquisitions, new installations, and more.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: PhotographyThe Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was one of the earliest museums in the country to collect photography.
- NYPL: Prints & Photographs Online CatalogPrints and photographs online catalog of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs.
- PHAROS: The International Consortium of Photo ArchivesPHAROS is an international consortium of fourteen European and North American art historical photo archives committed to creating a digital research platform allowing for comprehensive consolidated access to photo archive images and their associated scholarly documentation.
- Victoria and Albert Museum: PhotographyThe V&A began acquiring photographs in 1852, and its collection is now one of the largest and most important in the world.