Digital Library: Art and Design

Art & Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries' Collections

Search the database of over 150,000 files on artists, art collectives, galleries, and museums held in our Art and Design and History and Culture libraries.

Artists' Books

Works of art, like paintings or sculpture, in book form - artists’ books exist at the intersections of printmaking, photography, poetry, visual arts, and graphic design.

Hirshhorn Museum Library Audio Archive

Index and samples from event recordings and artist interviews dating back to the founding of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1969.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web

Curated by Libraries staff, this guide to online exhibitions from libraries, archives, and manuscript collections around the world is one of a kind.

Modern African Art: A Basic Reading List

An annotated bibliography that dispels the notion that nothing has been published on contemporary African art. Updated regularly.

Monographs on African Artists: An Annotated Bibliography

A bibliography that separates the polished gems from the stones - a list of substantive monographs and exhibition catalogs on 20th-21st century African artists.

Seed and Nursery Catalogs

Colorful collection of catalogs that document the history of the seed and agricultural implement business as well as ornamental and edible plants in the U. S.

Shedding Light on New York

This massive archive of photographs show the variety of lighting fixtures E. F. Caldwell & Co. produced for wealthy clients like Carnegie, Morgan, and Astor.