Brewer Bookplates in Artstor

William P. Barrett, The Library of George Frederick Ernest Albert Prince of Wales, 1904 (UD Library, William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection)

William P. Barrett, The Library of George Frederick Ernest Albert Prince of Wales, 1904, University of Delaware Library, Newark

The University of Delaware Library’s own William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection is the subject of a recent post in the Artstor Blog. The story highlights the Library’s collection of well over 12,000 bookplates dating from the 18th through 20th centuries, all of which can be viewed in Artstor.

The Brewer bookplates represent just one of many image collections from the UD Library that are available in Artstor. And even for non-Artstor subscribers, the Library’s collections are made freely available to anyone through the open-access Shared Shelf Commons.

Art Museums in the News

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait in a Cap, Open-Mouthed, 1630, Morgan Library and Museum, New York

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait in a Cap, Open-Mouthed, 1630, Morgan Library and Museum, New York

Here are a few recent stories of interest from the museum world:

Images from the Museum of New Zealand

John Gully, Milford Sound, 1883, watercolor, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

John Gully, Milford Sound, 1883, watercolor, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington has made over 30,000 images of works from its collection available for free download. Over 14,000 of these are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license that requires attribution and prohibits any commercial use or the making of derivatives. The remaining 17,000 images have no known copyright restrictions, and are available for any use.

Te Papa is New Zealand’s national museum, and its collections include art as well as history, natural history, and Maori and Pacific cultures. You can read more about this image initiative on Te Papa’s blog, or begin exploring the Collections Online.

LACMA’s New Collections Website

Iranian (Safavid), Ardabil Carpet (detail), 1539-1540, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Iranian (Safavid), Ardabil Carpet (detail), 1539-1540 (Photo © Los Angeles County Museum of Art, www.lacma.org)

Two years ago, I reported that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) had launched its Image Library, which allowed users to download images of works from its collection for any purpose. Now LACMA is expanding this service through its new collections website, which vastly increases the number of images available for download from 2,000 to 20,000. And like before, the Museum places no restrictions on your use of these images, so you are free to do whatever you want with them.