LibGuides: Art: Reference Resources

Reference resources available online

Reference sources will provide valuable background information on your topic. These resources can be very helpful in the early stages of contemplating your research paper. They will provide information that may help you to further refine your topic and provide a basis for your expanded research

Reference sources usually include:

An overview or summary of the subject
Basic facts, background and contextual information
The major questions historians have explored in relation to a subject
A bibliography of additional sources

Below are a few excellent resources accessible from the the Cheng Library webpage. [Restricted to WPUNJ users.]

Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window
Grove Art Online is a full-text portal to high-quality art reference sources, including the Grove Dictionary of Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd edition), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. The database also includes links to art image sources including ARTstor, Bridgeman Education, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society, and numerous international art galleries and artists.
Credo Reference's Academic Core This link opens in a new window
The Credo Reference database is a portal to over 1,300 full-text reference titles from over 120 major publishers. Easy to search and browse, the Credo platform provides access to text, images, maps, statistics, and graphic concept maps to illustrate connections among and between topics. The titles, which range across subjects in art, biography, business, geography, history language, law, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, the social sciences, and technology, are fully integrated through the Credo search platform, and the Credo database also provides numerous points for accessing other Cheng Library resources. Credo is a most useful starting point for general research on almost any topic.

Cranes, Japanese, Late Edo Period

Cranes (six-panel screen, detail) Japanese, Late Edo Period (1615-1868). [Image courtesy of ARTstor.]

Reference books in the Library's print collection

Below are listed just a few of the books in the Cheng Library's reference collection.

The American Art Book by Phaidon Press Editors; Jan Arrigo; Stephen Galatti; Jenifer Borum; Barbara Galatti
Call Number: Reference N6505 .A57 1999
Art of India by Encyclopaedia Britannica Publishers
Call Number: N8530 .H37 2005
A Cultural History of Animals by Brigitte Resl (Editor); Linda Kalof (Editor)
Call Number: QL85 .C85 2007 Vol. 1-6
ISBN: 9781845204969
Dictionary of Symbols in Western Art by Sarah Carr-Gomm
Call Number: N6490 .C5317 2009
Encyclopedia of American Folk Art by Gerard C. Wertkin (Editor)
Call Number: N6505 .B87 2009
The Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Art by Jane Turner (Editor)
Call Number: Reference N5300 .A14 2007
The Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance and Mannerist Art by Jane Turner (Editor)
Call Number: N7480 .A79 2009
The Oxford Dictionary of Art
Call Number: Reference N6370 .Z57 2008
The Oxford Companion to Western art
Call Number: Reference N33 .O923 2001
Benezit Dictionary of Artists by Editions Grund (Editor)
Call Number: N40 .D5213 2006 Vols. 1-14
Publication Date: 2006
The first English-language edition of Emmanuel Bénézit's dictionary of artists and based on the 14-volume French edition. It includes both biographies of artists and copies of their signatures or "marks." It has been revised and updated from the French edition.