Fine Arts 57 : American Painting 1860-1940
Spring 2004
GENERAL SOURCES | ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES | INDEXES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES | WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES | JOURNAL ARTICLES
General Sources
One of the best places to start research is
in the online Library
Catalog. Connecting from Amherst puts you in the Four-College catalog
(which includes Amherst's holdings); there's a separate segment for UMass.
All books are listed by their AUTHORS, TITLES, and SUBJECTS, and you can
also search by KEYWORD.
For comprehensive retrieval of books about a particular artist,
look up the artist's name (last name first) as both AUTHOR and SUBJECT.
KEYWORD searching is not likely to yield a complete list of
locally-owned books on any particular topic, but it's often a good way
to start; you can type in a common language characterization of your topic,
say "western painters", then, if you browse through the resulting list,
select titles relevant to your research interests, and note which official
subject headings are assigned, you can click on those and do a more thorough
SUBJECT search.
SUBJECT searching, as such, requires that you use the exact
word or phrase libraries have chosen to describe your topic. Official
subject headings relevant for researching the above topic, for instance,
include West (U.S.) in art and Painting, Modern--19th century--West
(U.S.). Most major subject headings have detailed sub-divisions, so
browse through those as well. The five-volume Library of Congress Subject
Headings, near the Reference Desk, is a thesaurus of official library
terminology. Consult it if you're not sure of the official subject vocabulary,
or use the KEYWORD feature interactively, and/or ask for assistance from
a Reference Librarian.
For quick background information, try the
Britannica Online from any computer running Internet Explorer or Netscape
on the Amherst College campus.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries
The Dictionary of Art. New York, Grove's Dictionaries,
1996. 34 volumes.
This basic encyclopedia includes entries on artists (short
biographies), topics, terms, etc. Many articles have brief bibliographies
appended. (Ref N 31 D5 1996) The
Dictionary of Art (click here to connect) is also available online
from any Amherst computer.
The Britannica Encyclopedia of American Art. New
York, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1973.
A one-volume, well-illustrated encyclopedia with concise entries
on artists, topics, etc.; inadequate bibliographical information at back
of book. (Ref xN 6505 B73)
Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters,
Sculptors & Engravers. 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie NY, Apollo, 1987.
Basic biographical information on major and minor figures;
no bibliographies. (Ref N 6536 F5 1986)
Adeline's Art Dictionary. Reprint of 1927 ed.; Ann
Arbor, Edwards, 1953.
A standard dictionary, originally published in French, in
1884, but still reliable for technical definitions. (Ref N 33 A223 1953)
Dictionary of American History. New York, Scribner,
1976; 8 volumes + 2 volume supplement.
The most authoritative and complete encyclopedia of American
history; check here for concise information on people, places, events
of significance. (Ref E 174 A43 1976)
Adeline's Art Dictionary. Reprint of 1927 ed. Ann
Arbor, Edwards, 1953.
A standard, originally published in French, in 1884, but still
reliable for technical definitions. (Ref N 33 A223 1953)
Encyclopedia of American Social History. New York,
Scribner, 1993; 3 volumes.
An excellent collection of essays (with short bibliographies)
on major topics in American social history, including periods, methods
of study, "social identity", subcultures, place, labor, popular
culture, etc. (Ref HN 57 E58 1993)
Indexes, Bibliographies
Arts in America: A Bibliography. Washington D.C.,
Smithsonian Institution, 1979; 4 volumes.
A huge annotated listing of basic books. Sculpture is covered
in volume 1, nineteenth-century painting and graphics in volume 2, and
photography in volume 3; volume 4 is an index. (Ref Z 5961 U5 A77)
Index to Nineteenth Century American Art Periodicals.
Madison CT, Sound View Press, 1999; 2 volumes.
Volume II is an author/subject index to citations in volume
I. (Ref N 6510 S35 1999)
Art Index. New York, H.W. Wilson, 1929--
An author, title, and subject listing of articles in art journals,
available in printed form (Ref Z 5937 A78) and also accessible online,
as Art
Abstracts for articles published after 1984, and as Art
Index Retrospective for the years prior to that. To connect, click
on these links or on 'Indexes and Databases', beneath 'Research' in the
Library Homepage, then select 'Art'.
American
Periodicals Series. Ann Arbor, ProQuest, 2000--
An online index to approximately 1,100 mostly 19th century
American magazines, with links to thousands of digitized full-texts of
the articles in PDF formats.; click on the link above for online access
or on the 'Indexes and Databases' link beneath 'Research' in the Library
Homepage, then select 'General'.
The Reference Collection contains hundreds of other potentially useful subject-specific guides and bibliographies; ask a Reference Librarian for help if you're not finding what you need.
World Wide Web Resources
The Library Homepage provides reasonably direct, organized access to Internet resources like library catalogs in the U.S. and abroad, search engines for finding particular sites, and from the 'Research' link (click on 'Online Resources by Academic Department', then Art or American Studies), to meta-sites, image collections, and other art-related Web resources.
A Few Words about Journal Articles
Printed and computerized indexes and bibliographies
provide citations to journal articles which may or may not be owned by
the Amherst College Library. To find out if and where we have a backfile
of a particular journal, you must look up each journal title (not article
titles or authors) in the
Library Catalog. Be attentive to volume numbers and dates since sometimes
we've started or stopped a subscription in the middle of a run.
Some older volumes of journals may be housed in the Amherst
College Depository, an off-campus storage facility. You can request volumes
from the Depository by filling out a brief form which appears onscreen
when you select 'Request Forms' from the
Library Homepage, then click on 'Depository'; materials will be delivered
to the Circulation Desk in Frost the next weekday.
More and more journals are offering full-texts in electronic
form; those we subscribe to are linked to records in the online Library
Catalog and you can connect via a JOURNAL TITLE search. Also, when using
electronic indexes (like Art Abstracts or America: History and
Life), a button labeled "AC Links" now permits you to search
automatically for electronic versions of articles you find cited; if the
Library does not have access to an electronic version, "AC Links"
will automatically search for a print-format version in the Library Catalog.
Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Michael Kasper