History of Art and Design

This guide will help you access the rich resources of the New York Public Library (NYPL), Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), and Queens Public Library (QPL) systems by breaking down the process of signing up for library cards and highlighting the collections and services available at each system.

With over one million volumes, an extensive digital collection, and online resources, Thomas J. Watson Library is one of the world's most comprehensive art libraries. Explore Watson Library and the Met’s specialized collections.

The Museum of Modern Art Library is a comprehensive collection devoted to modern and contemporary art. The noncirculating collection documents painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, architecture, design, performance, video, film, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present (from 1830 for photography). The Library’s holdings include approximately 300,000 books and exhibition catalogs, over 1,000 periodical titles, and over 40,000 files of ephemera about individual artists and groups.

The Smithsonian Art and Design Libraries include: 

• American Art and Portrait Gallery Library
  The AA/PG Library is the leading destination for study in American art and portraiture, and includes strong holdings in American and European art, American history and biography, and American crafts.
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library
  The major resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present.
• National Museum of Asian Art Library
  With more than one hundred thousand volumes, the National Museum of Asian Art Library is one of the finest repositories of Asian art resources in the United States.
• Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art
  The major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa with more than 50,000 volumes.

The Frances Mulhall Achilles Library at the Whitney Museum of American Art is a comprehensive research collection in the field of twentieth-century and contemporary American art. 

Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Can't find a resource and want to know the closest library that has it? Check WorldCat!