Collection Development Policy: History of Art and Architecture
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Norine Duncan

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The undergraduate concentration introduces students to the history of art, architecture, and visual culture as a humanistic discipline. They receive essential training in perceptual, historical, and critical analysis that allows them to pursue career opportunities in art and architectural history as well as a range of other professions. The concentration allows students to explore a broad variety of courses in Western and Non-Western art and architecture, over a wide range of time periods. Students are additionally encouraged to pursue in-depth studies of a particular area or issue through seminar courses. These more advanced courses are designed to give concentrators an awareness of the critical strategies available for interpretation of historical and cultural phenomena, and to foster research skills. Highly qualified and motivated students pursuing a concentration in Art History may seek admission to the Integrated Program in Art History, which leads to successive awards of the Bachelor's degree and the Master's degree.

    The Architectural Studies concentration within the Department of History of Art and Architecture blends a variety of disciplines toward the study of buildings and the built environment. The concentration prepares students for the continued study of architecture and the history of architecture in graduate school as well as careers in related areas such as urban studies.

    The doctoral program prepares graduate students for specialized research in one of the fields regularly taught on the graduate level by the department. The faculty represents a broad spectrum of the discipline's methodologies and specialties. The latter fall within the history of art and architecture of Europe, the United States, Latin America, and East Asia. Before applying for Ph.D. candidacy, students must complete course work in at least three periods or areas of the history of art from among the following: ancient, medieval, early modern, modern, East Asian, or other areas of non-Western art.



  • Overview of the Collection
    Brown's library holdings include approximately 87,000 titles classed "N" in the Library of Congress system, and approximately 2,500 classed "TR" (Photography). Nearly 20% of the collection is located at the John Hay Library (Special Collections), due to its age, value, scarcity, and/or condition.

    Subscriptions to 191 print journals and 22 electronic journals support research in the discipline of Art History. Among the subscriptions to electronic databases, The Grove Dictionary of Art Online is the only significant full-text resource. Several online indexes to the literature of art history are crucial to research: Art Abstracts, Art Index Retrospective, Bibliography of the History of Art, and Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals. These databases and others may be accessed from the Electronic Resources by Subject page for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology.

    The Art Slide Library has holdings of approximately 295,000 slides, 39,000 photographs and reproductions, and 10,000 microfiche of image archives. Slide production in-house is carried out on a weekly schedule to accommodate faculty and student needs for supplementing the collection holdings for lectures and reports. Electronic catalog records exist for part of the collection, and these are searchable through the web interface known as Anita and on site in the IRIS database. Luna Insight software provides access to a local image database as well as other collections available free, through exchange, or by subscription. Chief among the latter is AMICO, from the Art Museum Image Consortium.

    The microfiche collection includes most of the Marburger Index of Art and Architecture in Germany. Photographs by Clarence Ward and James Austin provide rich documentation of Medieval architecture in France, Italy, and England, including sculptural decoration. Many slide and photo sets, including the Taipei Archive, have been acquired from the Asian Art Photographic Distribution project of the University of Michigan.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    Materials are acquired to support undergraduate and graduate instruction and research through the Ph.D., as well as research by faculty members. Most domestic imprints and some foreign are obtained through the Yankee Approval Plan. During 2004, Yankee will begin to supply English-language exhibition catalogs, previously obtained from Worldwide Books. Foreign publications are firm ordered from a variety of vendors, chief among them Casalini, Erasmus, Harrassowitz, and Touzot. Faculty play an active role in selection by marking slips and catalogs. Areas in which current collecting is greater than in the past, but in which holdings are still in need of increase to reach Research level, include Medieval archaeology, Spanish and Latin American art and architecture, Islamic art and architecture, and Chinese art and archaeology. Contemporary art is a new area of emphasis. Retrospective purchases continue to fill gaps in the collection of resources published prior to the late 1960s, when the graduate program began. Older imprints are purchased from Ars Libri, F.A. Bernett, and other antiquarian dealers. Art book purchasing is supported by many endowments, some of them restricted.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English editions preferred. However, many of the scholarly resources needed for research are collected in languages other than English, especially German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese.
    • Chronological Span: Late Antiquity to present.
    • Imprint Date: Current and retrospective.
    • Geographical Range: Emphasis on Europe, the United States, East Asia, and to a lesser extent, Latin America.
    • Types of Material Included: Serials, monographs, exhibition catalogs, microforms, CD-ROMs, electronic resources, facsimiles, photographs, slides, digital images. Auction catalogs and videos/DVDs are collected selectively.
    • Excluded: Practical books, textbooks (except major general titles).


  • Areas of Distinction
    Areas of greatest strength are Greek and Roman art and architecture, Medieval art and architecture (especially French), Renaissance and Baroque art (especially Italian), American and European architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, European art of the 19th and 20th centuries, and American art since 1945.

  • Special Collections
    Holdings in Special Collections of interest to History of Art and Architecture include prints, illustrated books, early and fine printing, bindings, medieval manuscripts, art and design periodicals, and contemporary artists' books. Collections include:
    • The Starred Book Collection (the Library's general rare book collection), the Annmary Brown Memorial, the Dated Book Collection, the History of Science Collection, and the Lownes Science Collection
      These collections include thousands of American, British, and European printed works from the 15th century to the present day with examples of printing, binding, papermaking, and illustration techniques, including woodcuts, engravings, lithography, watercolors, illuminated manuscripts, and many other forms. Of particular interest are the extensive collections of botanicals, herbals, and works on natural history, of which the Library's copy of the Audubon Birds of America (1827-38) is the best known exemplar.
    • Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
      Contains approximately 12,000 printed books, 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios, (containing thousands of prints and drawings), and over 13,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colors. The original emphasis or focus of the collection was the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to the present. However, the collection also now contains a vast amount of material on military and naval history, military and naval arts, tactics and drill, wars, campaigns, ceremonies, biography, portraiture and caricature.
    • The Bullard Collection
      Constitutes one of the largest collections of caricatures of Napoleon in the United States, and represents the work of English, French, German Russian, and Spanish artists; almost all the cartoons are hostile to their subject. The Bullard Collection complements similar holdings in the Anne S. K. Brown Collection, and is rivalled only by collections in the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale. The William Henry Hoffman Napoleon Collection also includes Napoleonic caricatures. The collections of Napoleonic Satires have been digitized in a joint effort of the Library's Digital Scholarship Group and students and faculty in the History of Art and Architecture.
    • Robert and Margaret Ames Collection of Illustrated Books
      Contains materials on the history of illustration, particularly nineteenth century books illustrated with woodcuts, wood or steel engravings or by lithography and on the literature of travel and exploration. See: Web Exhibit .
    • Dard Hunter Collection
      Contains most of the works printed or written by papermaker, printer and paper historian, Dard Hunter, as well as works by his associates in the Roycroft shop of East Aurora, New York. Ongoing additions to the collection concentrate on the revival and continuation of hand papermaking in the 20th century.
    • Koopman Collection of Literature and the Book Arts
      English and American literature from the 17th to the early 20th century. Intended as a laboratory collection for the study of the art and history of the book, it includes the production of many late 19th century private presses, books issued in parts, and literary relics.
    • Gorham Archives
      Archival records (approximately 1,000 linear feet, dating from 1831 to 1986) of the company founded in 1831 by silversmith Jabez Gorham of Providence, Rhode Island. At various times the company was the largest manufacturer of silver products, producer and distributor of ecclesiastical goods, and art bronze foundry in the United States. The collection features many thousands of drawings and photographs of Gorham products, reflecting American taste from Victorian times to the present. In addition, the Cramer Silver Collection is an extensive reference library, providing support for collections in the decorative arts, particularly the Gorham Archive.
    • Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays
      Includes contemporary artists' books and fine printing, collections of historic American bindings and illustrated books, concrete and visual poetry, and a large collection of early American printing. The Broadside Collection includes many similar works, with a particular emphasis on early American works with woodcut illustrations and historic printer's devices.
    • Sheet Music Collection
      Includes extensive holdings of mid-19th century sheet music with lithographic covers, including many color lithographs. Modern illustrated works include music with covers by Picasso and Covarrubias, among others.
    • Other art-related collections include:


  • Related Collections
    The Library of the Rhode Island School of Design collects certain subject areas in greater depth than does Brown, such as contemporary art, applied arts and crafts, and architectural practice. RISD and Brown consult to avoid duplicating purchase of expensive items that can be shared.

    Providence Public Library's holdings in art focus upon Architecture, Design and Decoration, Biography, Costume, and Photography. The Nickerson Collection includes circulating and reference books on architectural history dating from the 17th to the 20th century, with special strength in nineteenth century American architecture.

    Circulating titles from Roger Williams University's Architecture Library may be borrowed through InRhode.

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources