Subject Guides: History of Art: Resources

Primary source texts

19th Century British Pamphlets (JSTOR) This link opens in a new window
This collection over 20,000 19th Century British Pamphlets provides online access to some of the most significant collections of this type of material held in UK research libraries, and gives a valuable an insight into the key political, social, technological and environmental issues of the time. The digitisation process is ongoing and new collections and pamphlets are still being added.

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19th Century UK Periodicals, Part 1: Women's, Children's, Humour, and Leisure This link opens in a new window
Formerly 19th Century UK Periodicals Series 1: New Readerships
Provides access to facsimile editions of almost 100 periodicals from the 19th century focusing on women, sports and leisure, children, and humour and satire. The collection is mainly based on the repositories of the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

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American National Biography This link opens in a new window
The major biographical work on the people whose lives have shaped and influenced American history and culture. It contains over 18,000 profiles of men and women of all eras, from the famous and infamous to important but lesser-known figures, and is updated quarterly. Entries are cross-referenced and there are links to the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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Early English Books Online [EEBO] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).

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Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is the most ambitious single digitisation project ever undertaken which offers wide access not only to a century of the nation's intellectual heritage, but also works from earlier periods which were valued and printed or reprinted during the eighteenth century.

A library of over 180,000 eighteenth-century printed books, with more than 33 million scanned facsimile pages. Each title has a full citation record from the English Short Title Catalogue and is fully searchable - including full-text and illustrations multi-disciplinary. A research resource for all disciplines.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue [NSTC] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The NSTC site was discontinued on 30th June 2023. Access is now via C19: The Nineteenth Century Index.
Aims to index all printed works published in Britain, its colonies and the United States of America, all printed works in English wherever published, and all translations from English, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the First World War. It brings together as one cross-searchable database NSTC Series I (1801-1815), Series II (1816-1870) and Series III (1871-1919), first published by Avero Publications between 1983 and 2002 in print and on two CD-ROMs.

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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Medieval Studies This link opens in a new window
An up-to-date and authoritative guide to the literature across a wide range of topics in medieval studies. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

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Oxford Bibliographies Online: Renaissance and Reformation This link opens in a new window
An up-to-date and authoritative guide to the literature across a wide range of topics in the study of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Sources covered include journal articles, reference works, monographs and book chapters.

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.

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Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
A fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of over 100 dictionaries, companions, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

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Parker Library on the Web This link opens in a new window
The Parker Library on the Web is an interactive, web-based workspace designed to support use and study of the manuscripts in the historic Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It gives access to almost 200,000 manuscript page images, page images of secondary sources, manuscript descriptions, and extensive bibliographic data. Bibliographic records are linked to page images wherever possible. The manuscripts date from the 6th to 16th centuries and include works on various subjects such as theology, music, history, travel, alchemy and politics.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. There is an emphasis on visual sources and rare printed material including rare books, periodicals, playbills and handbills, posters, prints, scrapbooks, photographs, programmes, pamphlets, ephemera (e.g. ticket stubs, postcards, newspaper cuttings), and songbooks.

The University has access to:
- Spiritualism, Sensation & Magic
- Circuses, Sideshows & Freaks
- Music Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment

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Search for books and journals on YorSearch

Journals

All journal titles are listed on YorSearch, and can be found by searching the journal title.

If you don't have a specific title in mind, you can browse journals in your subject area on Browzine. Journals are organised by field of research, such as:

Browse all Art and Design

Browse all History

Art History

Film and Media Studies

Fine Arts

Websites

17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A digitised version of the newspapers, news-books, pamphlets, ephemera, and other early forms of newspapers from the Reverend Charles Burney Collection held at the British Library. The collection includes almost 1 million pages from around 1,270 titles and while the majority of these originate from London, there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the colonies.

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British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes: Parts I & II (1800-1900); Part III (1741-1950); Part IV (1732-1950); Part V (1746-1950); Part VI (Ireland, 1797-1950).

Also known as: 19th Century British Newspapers
A major collection of almost 6.4 million facsimile pages from more than 240 national, regional, and local newspapers published between the 1700's and 1950. The collection includes both daily and weekly publications with titles from established country or university towns, the industrial towns of the Midlands and the North, and from Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Newspapers associated with particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule have also been included along with penny papers aimed at a working class and clerical readership.

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American Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A collection of full text archives of American newspapers with page and article facsimile images. The University has access to: Atlanta Constitution; Atlanta Daily World; Chicago Defender; Chicago Tribune; New York Times; New York Tribune; Washington Post.

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Early American Newspapers, Series I-V, 1690-1922 (America's Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Early American Newspapers gives access to the full text of over 1200 newspaper titles from across the United States published between 1690 and 1922.
Nexis This link opens in a new window
Personalisation is available via the link above.

Alternative link without personalisation if you have problems with the link above (please clear the cookies and cache in your browser): Nexis.
Nexis is a major source of global news and business information. It provides full-text access to over 34,000 publications, with more than 12,000 news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals. Updated daily; back issues archive varies by title.

Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

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Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
The complete facsimile archive of the Illustrated London News, the worlds first fully illustrated weekly newspaper published between 1842 and 2003. The archive includes over 260,000 pages of text and more than 1.5 million full colour images.

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Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for an account the first time that you access Box of Broadcasts.

Please note that you may only access and use Box of Broadcasts in the United Kingdom..
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on demand TV and radio service for education. Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and access an extensive archive of programmes already available. Users can also create clips from programmes and compile playlists.

Please note that you may only access and use BoB in the United Kingdom.

For help with this resource, take a look at the BoB FAQs.

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BFI Player This link opens in a new window
11,000 free to view archive films from the BFI, national and regional archives including shorts, features, and 120 years of Britain on film.

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Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides an insight into theatre from production to performance through access to streaming video. The material in Digital Theatre Plus includes:

- Productions (high-definition films of leading British theatre productions).
- Behind-the-scenes documentaries and interviews with professional theatre makers.
- Study guides written by practitioners and academics.
- Teaching support demonstrating practical techniques.
- Curated collections of filmed performance from around the world.

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Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Victorian Popular Culture contains a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930. There is an emphasis on visual sources and rare printed material including rare books, periodicals, playbills and handbills, posters, prints, scrapbooks, photographs, programmes, pamphlets, ephemera (e.g. ticket stubs, postcards, newspaper cuttings), and songbooks.

The University has access to:
- Spiritualism, Sensation & Magic
- Circuses, Sideshows & Freaks
- Music Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment

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British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Includes: Parts I & II (1800-1900); Part III (1741-1950); Part IV (1732-1950); Part V (1746-1950); Part VI (Ireland, 1797-1950).

Also known as: 19th Century British Newspapers
A major collection of almost 6.4 million facsimile pages from more than 240 national, regional, and local newspapers published between the 1700's and 1950. The collection includes both daily and weekly publications with titles from established country or university towns, the industrial towns of the Midlands and the North, and from Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Newspapers associated with particular political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism, and Home Rule have also been included along with penny papers aimed at a working class and clerical readership.

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Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
The complete facsimile archive of the Illustrated London News, the worlds first fully illustrated weekly newspaper published between 1842 and 2003. The archive includes over 260,000 pages of text and more than 1.5 million full colour images.

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Victorian Studies Devoted to the study of British culture of the Victorian period, this quarterly journal includes interdisciplinary articles on comparative literature, social and political history, and the histories of education, philosophy, fine arts, economics, law, and science and includes an extensive book review section in each issue.
Victorian literature and culture High quality original work concerned with all areas of Victorian literature and culture, including music and the fine arts.

Audiovisual collections
Map resources
Rare Books Collection
Theses and Dissertations
York Digital Library
Our Digital Library provides access to a diverse range of digitised collections which can support a variety of subjects. Our collections are constantly expanding, so keep checking back to see what’s new.

Use the following links to search Library collections outside the University of York. Remember that you can use the Library's Interlending service to get items that we don't have in stock at York, or you can catch our free minibus to the British Library Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa. You can visit and sometimes borrow from other libraries using the SCONUL Access scheme.

The British Library
Search the British Library's main catalogue to identify items from a collection of 57 million.
Library Hub Discover
Search over 70 UK and Irish academic, national and specialist library catalogues.
Institute of Historical Research
The catalogue and guide to collections of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London School of Advanced Study.
WorldCat
Search WorldCat and search the collections of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.

Databases

To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use online databases. These are collections of resources that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time.

ARTbibliographies Modern (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
ARTbibliographies Modern provides abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews covering all forms of modern and contemporary art. The database contains over 400,000 records with more than 13,000 new entries added each year. Full coverage begins in 1974 when the first print volume was digitised, but entries date back to the late 1960s.

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Artforum Archive,1962-2020 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This archive gives access to the full text of Artforum (later Artforum International) from 1962 to 2020. Artforum is the leading magazine for coverage of international contemporary art reporting on art in all media through features, reviews, and interviews relating to artists, exhibitions, publications, and other art world events / trends.

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Bibliography of British and Irish History (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
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Previously known as the Royal Historical Society Bibliography this is a comprehensive guide to historical writing about the history of Britain, Ireland, and the British overseas from 55BC to the present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
Bibliography of the History of Art / Répertoire de la litterature de l'art This link opens in a new window
Bibliography of the History of Art / Répertoire de la litterature de l'art from the J. Paul Getty Trust covers international literature on the history of art in Europe and the New World. The database surveys the visual arts and material culture from late antiquity to the present. Included are both the fine arts (architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing and prints) and decorative and applied arts (popular art, folk art). BHA / RILA indexes and abstracts over 1,200 journals, as well as books, conference proceedings, essays, exhibition catalogues, selected art dealers' catalogues, doctoral dissertations and microform publications. Abstracts are in either French or English and the thesaurus for data from 1990 is in both languages.
British Periodicals Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has perpetual access to Collections I and II. There is temporary access to Collections III and IV until 30th June 2024. If you would like us to keep access to these collections contact your Faculty Librarian.
British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of almost 500 periodicals published between the 1680s and the 2000s and covers a wide range of subjects from across the arts, sciences and social sciences.

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International Medieval Bibliography Online (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
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This is an interdisciplinary bibliography of the Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 400-1500.

The publication years covered by this resource are from 1967 onwards.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
ITER This link opens in a new window
A gateway to electronic resources for the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (400-1700). Its content includes:

- Iter Bibliography covering research in this period.
- International Directory of Scholars
- The Medici Archive Project
- Aestimatio which provides a critical assessment of scientific manuscripts and books from antiquity to the early modern period.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
For alumni access please the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
A digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the first issues (many of which date from the 1800s). See JSTOR's online help guide for further information.

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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
A major online archive that makes the backfiles of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the page image of a growing number of digitized periodicals that are already indexed in the Periodicals Contents Index (PCI).

The University has access to Collections 1, 2 and 8 plus a selection of 130 titles purchased by JISC drawn from other collections.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE, founded by Johns Hopkins University Press, is a database of over 380 full text scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from over 70 (mainly university press) publishers.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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COVE: The Central Online Victorian Educator
A scholar-driven open-access platform that publishes peer-reviewed Victorian material and supports students with a number of online tools

History of Art

Resources

Finding Resources

Primary source texts

Primary source texts

Journals

Journals

Websites

Databases

Databases