Northwestern University Library collects extensive resources on art and architecture, including many primary sources available only on microform. The alphabetical list below is a selection of major microform resources available. Many earlier issues of serials the Library subscribes to are also archived on microform. Materials are housed in the Main Library Periodicals/Newspapers Reading Room as part of a paged, non-circulating collection (exceptions are noted).
Reprints of the introductions and user guides to many of these sets are available in the Art Collection.
Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Collection
Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) was a prominent Victorian portraitist and history painter who became a member of the Royal Academy in 1876 and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1899. He collected photographs of Italy and other locations on the Grand Tour. The artist donated this extensive collection of 5300 photographs, together with some original drawings, tracings, prints and correspondence, to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1915, and it was transferred in 1947 to the University of Birmingham Library. 213 microfiches and a printed guide, published by IDC New York, 1998. Call number: Microfiche 1735
Antikes Traufleisten-Ornament
Originally published in 1909 by Martin Schede. 1 microfilm reel and a 118-page printed guide. Call number: Film 17700
Architectural Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Over 4000 architectural designs from the Department of Prints and Drawings are reproduced here, including drawings by Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Robert Adam and Sir Gilbert Scott, ranging from the late 17 th to the late 19 th century. 23 microfilm reels, published by Micro Methods c. 1970. Call number: Film 17270
Architecture and Early Photography in France/Paris Views, Early Photography
The 11,000 photographs reproduced on these microfiches are taken from the Archives Photographiques of the French Ministry of Culture, Paris , and encompass a range of subjects from the late 19 th century to the late 20th. They include views of Paris , fashion photographs by the father and son photographers Nadar and images by Eugène Atget. The archive documents many monuments, buildings and works of art destroyed in the World Wars, as well as scenes of urban and rural France prior to industrialization. Also included are 2500 photographs of architecture and monuments in Spain and Portugal taken in the early 20 th century by Eugène Lefèvre-Pontalis. 118 microfiches and a printed guide, published by IDC. Call number: Microfiche 1733
Architecture and Monuments in France
This collection, edited by Félix Martin-Sabon, is selected from the historic photograph collections at the Archives Photographiques of the French Ministry of Culture, Paris . It consists of photographs of works of art exhibited in galleries and museums of France, including private and church collections. Includes index. 137 microfiches, published by Mindata, 1983. Call number: Microfiche 1734
Arkhitektura drevnei Armenii (Armenian Architecture)
This collection includes historic photographs of architecture in Armenia and will be useful to scholars of the history of Christianity and the trade routes linking Europe to Asia . It is the predecessor to Georgian Architecture, also in the NU Library collection. 1 microfilm reel, originally published in Erevan by Izd-vo Akademii nauk Armianskoi SSR, 1946. Call number: Film 17700
Art Looting and Nazi Germany : Records of the Fine Arts and Monuments Adviser, Ardelia Hall, 1945-1961
Ardelia Hall served as Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives adviser to the State Department during and after World War II. These records include reports, correspondence, memoranda, and minutes of interdepartmental committees and international conferences relating to the task of recovering and returning looted objects lost in the enormous displacement of art and other cultural property that occurred during WWII. The collection is microfilmed from the holdings of the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Call number: Film 17773, L940.5314 A784
Artists’ Sketchbooks in the British Museum
The Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum holds several hundred artists’ sketchbooks. This selection includes sketchbooks from the 15 th to 19 th centuries, with a focus on British artists from the 18th and 19th centuries, including Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 12 microfilm reels and a 127-page printed guide, published by Norman Ross. Call number: Film 17678, L741.942 A91
Avant-Garde and Architecture, Czechoslovakia 1909-38
International influences combined in Czechoslovakia in the years prior to WWII, and its architects arrived at new forms of architecture, art, and literature. Primary source material for this period has been difficult to find, and this collection, edited by O. Màĉel, Technical University Delft, brings together important periodicals and monographs. Contents: Horizont: Revue souscasné kultury v Cescoslovensku, v. 1-5 (1927-31); ReD, v. 1-3 (1927-31); Sovremennaja Architektura (1926-30); Stavba: mesícník pro stavebni umení (1922-38); Stavitel: mesícník pro architektura, v. 1-16 (1919-38); Styl, v. 1-5 (1909-13) n.s. v. 6-21(1920/21-1938); Zivot : nové umení-konstrukci soudobá intelektuelní aktivita, 1922; Moderní architektura v Ceskoslovensku, K. Teige, 1930; Nejmensí byt, K. Teige, 1932; Práce jaromíra krejcara, K. Teige, 1933; Stavba a básen, K. Teige, 1927. 270 microfiches, published by IDC, Leiden, 1986. Call number: Microfiche 1693
Bauhaus Lecture Notes, 1930-33, J.J. van der Linden
J. J. van der Linden’s notes illuminate the teaching methods of the Bauhaus during Mies van der Rohe’s directorship. His professors included Albers, Arndt, Engemann, Kandinsky, Rudelt and Scheper. 14 microfiches, published by IDC, Leiden , 1990. Call number: Microfiche 1573, also ART L707.11431 B346Zb
La Bibliothèque Vaticane et ses Annexes
Le Musée chrétien, la salle des tableaux du moyen âge, les chambres Borgia, etc., par le chanoine X. Barbier de Montault Published by Librairie de J. Spithoever, 1867. Call number: Film 17260
A Brief Survey of Modern Painting
Alfred H. Barr, Jr. 24 p. 26 cm Published by the Museum of Modern Art, c. 1934. Call number: Film 17998, also ART 759.05 B268b
College Architecture in America and its Part in the Development of the Campus
Charles Z. Klauder and Herbert C. Wise, 1929. 1 microfilm reel and a printed guide. Call number: Film 17920
Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration
Published 1897-1932, library has v.1-37, v.39-44, v.49-70. Call number: Microfiche 1370, also in Art serials L 705 D486
Doesburg, Theo van
Theo van Doesburg Archive
This archive includes van Doesburg’s diaries, manuscripts, correspondence, publications, and lectures, as well as photographs of the artist and his family and documentation of works of art. Published by Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst/ Netherlands Office for Fine Arts, Donation Van Moorsel, The Hague. 441 microfiches and printed 151-page guide. Call number: Microfiche 1581, L709.492 D653Zn
Dudok Collection of Architectural Plans and Drawings of the City of Hilversum
Willem Marinus Dudok was the director of public works and a leading architect in Hilversum , the Netherlands . His legacy includes low-cost social housing, schools, and the town hall. This collection includes approximately 9,000 plans and architectural drawings made by Dudok and his associates over his 40-year career and is a valuable resource for scholars studying 20th-century architecture and urban development. 18 reels with printed guide, published by Norman Ross. Call number: Film 17243, L720.9492 D851Zd
Early English Books
(selected titles on Art and Architecture from the series)
The Art of Painting According to the Theory and Practise of the best Italian, French, and Germane masters: Treating of the antiquity of painting. The reputation it always had. The characters of several masters. Proportion. Action and passion. The effects of light. Perspective. Draught. Colouring. Ordonnance. Far more compleat and compendious then hath yet been publisht by any, antient or modern. The second edition. By M.S. gent. London : printed by M.B. for the author, Marshall Smith, and are to be sold by R. Bently, in Russel-street, Covent-Garden, and J. Hancock, in Castle Ally by the Royal-Exchange. 1693. Call number: Film 1A reel 2078:18, also available as internet resource
The First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio
Translated from Palladio’s Quattro libri dell'architettura and from Pierre Le Muet’s Divers traictez d'architecture pour l'art de bien bastir. “Also rules and demonstrations, with several designs for the framing of any manner of roofs either above pitch or under pitch, whether square or bevel, never published before. With designes of floors of variety of small pieces of wood, lately made in the pallace of the Queen Mother, at Sommerset-House; a curiosity never practiced in England before.” Includes engraved illustrations. Originally published in London c.1668. Call number: Film 1A reel 2051:31
History of art in Phrygia , Lydia , Caria , and Lycia
From the French of Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez
1 microfilm reel, from book originally published by London, Chapman and Hall, Ltd., New York , A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1892. Call number: Film 18020
The history of painting, sculpture, architecture, graving, and of those who have excell'd in them: in three books : containing their rise, progress, decay, and revival : with an account of the most considerable productions of the best artists in all ages, and how to distinguish the true and regular performances from those that are otherwise; by P. Monier. Originally published in London for T. Bennet, D. Midwinter and T. Leigh, and R. Knaplock, 1699. Call number: Film 1A reel 75:7, also available as internet resource
The mirror of architecture: or The ground-rules of the art of building, exactly laid down by Vincent Scamozzi, master-builder of Venice . Whereby the principal points of architecture are easily and plainly demonstrated for the benefit of all lovers and ingenious practitioners in the said art . With the description and use of a joynt-rule, fitted with lines for the ready finding the lengths and angles of rafters, and hips, and collar-beams, in any square or bevelling roof at any pitch; and the ready drawing the architrave, frieze, and cornice in any order. With other useful conclusions by the said rule. By John Brown. The fourth edition. Whereunto is added a compendium of the art of building. Giving a brief account of the names, natures, and rates of all the materials, belonging to the erection of an edifice: and what quantity of each sort will be needful for the building of any house. Originally published London : printed for Richard Mount, at the Postern on Tower-Hill, 1700. Call number: Film 1A reel 2153:3, also available as internet resource
English Houses & Gardens in the 17th and 18th Centuries
A series of bird's-eye views reproduced from contemporary engravings by Johannes Kip, Thomas Badeslade, John Harris and others, with descriptive notes by Mervyn Macartney. Originally published in London by B.T. Batsford, 1908. Call number: Film 17700
Exhibition Catalogs of the Hermitage from the Library of the State Hermitage Museum , St. Petersburg
This archive includes a comprehensive collection of exhibition catalogs published by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg , from its first public exhibition in 1917 until 1972. Exhibitions included objects from the museum’s own holdings as well as objects borrowed from other institutions, and each was accompanied by some kind of printed catalog. The catalogs are mostly written in Russian and have been generally unavailable outside the Soviet Union . The Hermitage opened in 1852 and now houses more than three million objects, including works from ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Persian, Central Asian, Spanish, and Byzantine cultures, as well as French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, Scythian gold, and Old Master paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. 397 microfiches, published by Norman Ross. Call number: Microfiche 1583
Exhibition of the Columbianum or American Academy of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and established at Philadelphia, 1795.
From the Early American Imprints series.
Call number: Microfiche 16608, item 47388
Film Catalog: A List of Holdings in the Museum of Modern Art
Edited by Jon Gartenberg with Lee Amazonas et al.
1 microfilm reel, published in Boston by G.K. Hall, 1985. Call number: Film 13003
Freeman, Edward Augustus
Sketches from the Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice
Edward Augustus Freeman was an English historian who lived from 1823-1892 and is best known for his book History of the Norman Conquest (1867-76) and his sketches of architecture, generally done at a location and later traced in ink. This publication includes The Lombard Austria, Trieste to Spalato, Spalato and its Neighbors, Spalato to Cattaro, and Venice in the Footsteps of the Normans. Originally published in London by Macmillan and Company, 1881. Call number: Film 15184
Georgian Architecture
This extensive photo-archive was edited by Gundolf Bruchhaus, University of Technology, Aachen, in cooperation with the Institute of Georgian Art History, Academy of Sciences of Georgia, Tbilisi. 47,000 photographs facilitate the study of early and late medieval Christian architecture in the area south of the Caucasus Mountains , now Georgia , which was the crossroads of major trade routes between Asia and Europe . Includes information on the geography and cultural history of Georgia , a history of the archive project, and a bibliography. 480 microfiches and a 53-page printed guide, published by IDC Publishers, Leiden. Call number: Microfiche 1731 v.1-4, L 720.94758 G352
Griffin , Walter Burley
Walter Burley Griffin, Drawings
Loaned by Northwestern University, Dept. of Art to the Burnham Library of Architecture, Chicago Art Institute. 1 microfilm reel, published by University of Chicago , 1970. Call number: Film 5251 uncat
Gropius, Walter
Internationale Architektur, Walter Gropius
Part of the Bauhausbücher series. Originally published in Munich by Langen, c.1925. One microfilm reel. Call number: Film 13794, also in Special Collections, 20th Cent Ger Serial B346 no.1
Grosse Künstlerlexika vom 16. bis frühen 19. Jahrhundert
Great Encyclopedias of Artists from the 16th to Early 19th Century, edited by Ulrich Schütte, reproduces over 100 rare early publications in European art history over approximately 54,000 pages. This edition provides primary-source period texts on painters, sculptors, architects, silversmiths, woodworkers, and engravers. Contents: part 1, Italy (172 fiches), part 2, Germany and the Netherlands (69 fiches), part 3, France , Spain , England and Ireland (76 fiches), supplement, Bohemia , Moravia and Switzerland (25 fiches). 342 fiches, published by K.G. Saur, Munich, 2002. Call number: 703 G878, Microfiche 98 (This title is housed in both Periodicals and Main Reference)
History of Modern Russian and Ukrainian Art
Includes rare periodicals documenting Ukrainian art and culture in the 1920s. Painting, sculpture, graphic arts, book illustration, theatre, porcelain, costume and clothing design, architecture, physical culture, and performance. Rare publications including reference works, memoirs, and books about artists such as Altman, Boichuk, Chagall, Ermilov, Golovin, Narbut, Ostoumova-Lebedeva, Pamov and others. Call number: Titles are separately catalogued—keyword search “Russian and Ukrainian and art and microform” for listings.
Klee, Paul
Paul Klee: Articles by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., James Johnson Sweeney [and] Julia and Lyonel Feininger. Published by the Museum of Modern Art , c.1941. 12 p. illus. (incl. port.) 20 pl. on 10 l. 26 cm. Call number: Film 17701
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts from the Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London was founded in 1707 for the discussion and study of antiquity and history. Selections from the Society’s library are reproduced in microfilm for this collection. Part 1: Literary manuscripts (reels 1-6). Part 2: Manuscripts relating to history and art history (reels 7-11). Text in Latin and English. 11 microfilm reels and two printed guides, published by Research Publications c.1989. Call number:Film 15181, 016.091 M489 pts.1-2
Monumentos de Portugal
This collection includes a series of photographs and drawings of historic monuments in Portugal , most bearing the credit “Fotografías de Alvão & c.a, capa de Amoroso Lopes, desenhos de Manoel Abella y Fernández.” Text in Portuguese, French, and English. Nos.1, 9: Correia, Vergílio, 1888-1944. Batalha; estudo historicó-artístico-arqueológico do mosteiro da Batalha. No.2: Thomar; noticia histórico-archeológica e artística do monumento de Christo e das egrejas de Santa María dos Olivais, de Santa Iria e de S. Joao. Vieira Guimarães, José. No.3: Pôrto, Noticia histórico-archeológica e artistica da cathedral e das egrejas de Cedofeita e S. Francisco. Passos, Carlos de, 1890-1958. No.4: Alcobaça; estudo historicó-archeológico e artístico da Real abbadía de Santa María de Alcobaça. Korrodi, Ernesto. No.5: Santarem; estudo historicó-archeológico e artistico das egrejas de Santa María de Marvilla, Nossa Senhora de Graça, S. João de Alporão, S. Francisco, Ermida de N.S.a do Monte e fonte das figueiras Brito, Francisco Nogueira de, 1883-1946. No.6: Leiria; breve estudo crítico das suas origens e noticia histórica, archeológica e artística, das ruinas do seu castello, da cathedral, do Santuário da S.a da Encarnação e da egreja de S. Pedro Saraiva, José. No.8: Sé de Lisboa; estudo historicó-arqueológico e artistico Sequeira, Matos. Originally published by Pôrto, Litografía Nacional, 1929-31 Call number: Film 17998
Morris, William
William Morris Collection
This collection includes manuscripts, designs, and papers from several important archives of material relating to William Morris, the English designer, writer and activist. Part 1: William Morris literary manuscripts in the British Library, London (reels 1-9 and guide). Part 2: The literary manuscripts of William Morris from the Huntington Library, San Marino, California (reels 10-16 and guide). Part 3: Archives of the Socialist League, 1884-1891, from the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (37 reels and guide). Part 4: Art , book design, and literary papers from Kelmscott Manor; the Society of Antiquaries, London ; and the British Library Department of Printed Books (5 reels and guide). 58 microfilm reels and printed guide, published by Harvester Press, 1985. Call number: Film 18497, 821.8 M87Z
Mural Painting in America
The Scammon lectures, delivered before the ArtInstitute of Chicago, March, 1912, and since greatly enlarged, by Edwin Howland Blashfield; with numerous reproductions of representative works. Originally published by Scribner’s, 1913. Call number: Film 17028
OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit Reports, 1945-46
From the United States National Archives and Records Administration. Call number: Film 17344
Pugin, A.W.N.
Architectural and Design History, Part One, The Drawings and Manuscripts of A.W.N. Pugin, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
This collection consists of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s sketchbooks and manuscripts, including Pugin’s autobiography and diaries. Pugin (English, 1812-1852), an architect, designer, and writer, is best known today for the interiors of the Houses of Parliament in London . His illustrated treatises were crucial to the Gothic Revival movement of the nineteenth century. The microfilm archive is accompanied by Alexandra Wedgwood’s catalog A.W.N. Pugin and the Pugin Family. 9 microfilm reels and printed guide, published by Primary Source Microfilm, 1989. Call number: Film 17912, 720.924 P978Zar, also ART L 720.924 P978w
Rietveld, Gerrit
Gerrit Rietveld Archive
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964) was a leading architect and designer of De Stijl. In 1924, he built a house for the interior designer Truus Schröder-Schräder, with whom he often collaborated. The Rietveld Schröder House is the only building to fully incorporate De Stijl architectural concepts, and Rietveld both established an architectural practice out of the house and lived in it after the death of his wife. The Rietveld Schröder Archive consists of Truus Schröder’s collection of approximately 1,900 drawings, 2,250 photographs, 1,800 letters, and 330 texts by and about Rietveld. The archive has been housed at the Centraal Museum Utrecht since 1987, and with the museum’s collection forms the largest collection of Rietveld materials in the world. 280 microfiches and a printed guide, published by IDC Publishers, Leiden , and the Centraal Museum Utrecht. Call number: Microfiche 1732, L720.9492 R563Zce
Renaissance Commonplace Books from the Huntington Library
Commonplace books reveal the intellectual framework and the circulation of ideas during the English Renaissance, when manuscript books were prevalent and printed books were still rare. Writers organized poems, speeches, proverbs, prayers, and notes on everyday life into commonplace books as a way of managing the rapidly expanding range of textual information available to them. 4 microfilm reels and a 19-page printed guide, published by Adam Matthew Publications, 1994. Call number: Film 18496, 808.88 R393
Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings Collection, Specialist Catalogues
The microfilm collection includes reproductions, many in color, of the drawings described in the 21-volume set of RIBA published catalogues (Art L720.28 S619c). Microfilms are labeled with the following information on each frame: name of architect, bracket number for reference to published catalogue, drawing number (indicating position in the original Collection), and reduction ratio. Each color microfilm has a grayscale and color control chart. Architects and collections include: A. Colen Campbell, Jacques Gentilhatre, Inigo Jones, John Webb, Alfred Stevens, Antonio Visentini, C.F.A. Voysey, Pugin family, Wyatt family, J.B. Papworth, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Scott Family, Palladio drawings, Adam drawings, Smythson collection.
Ruskin, John
John Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts Movement
This archive includes 3,700 items produced by or relating to John Ruskin (English, 1819-1900), the writer, critic, theorist, painter, and collector. His early writings, eloquent in their enthusiasm for the medieval Gothic style and the painting of J.M.W. Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, influenced contemporary views of painting and architecture. His later, more controversial writings discussed the relation between art and politics and addressed what he saw as the mechanistic materialism of his age. The collection includes letters and manuscripts relating to the Rossettis, Oliver Madox Brown, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, making it a valuable resource for scholars of late 19th- and early 20th-century art and literature in England. 28 microfilm reels and a printed guide. Call number: Film 17910 and 834.8 R95Zjo
John Ruskin, The Two Paths : being lectures on art , and its application to decoration and manufacture, delivered in 1858-9. I. The deteriorative power of conventional art over nations. II. The unity of art . III. Modern manufacture and design. IV. The influence of imagination in architecture. V. The work of iron, in nature, art, and policy. Originally published in 1870. Call number: Film 13837, also ART 704 R95t.2
Works of John Ruskin
Edited by Sir Edward Tyas Cook and Alexander Dundas Ogilvy Wedderburn. Originally published in London, 1903-12. 10 microfilm reels. Call number: Film 14056, also available as electronic resource.
Une Ville et son Église Bombardées
Vouziers, France, WWI. Call number: Film 14935
Women Artists in the Victoria and Albert Museum
This catalogue includes photographs of oil paintings, portrait miniatures, watercolors, and drawings (excluding designs for decorative arts, prints, and photographs) in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V & A has collected work by women since its founding in 1852. 20 microfiches and a 37-page printed guide, published by Emmett. Call number: Microfiche 1448, 750.82074 V6455w
WPA Artwork in Non-Federal Repositories
Published by the U.S. General Services Administration, Public Buildings Service, Historic Buildings and the Arts Center of Expertise, Fine Arts Program, 1999. Call number: GS 6.2: W 89 (This title is housed in Government Publications.) |
