Shared collections

Art Images for College Teaching

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) is a personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl. AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access, free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large.

≈ 2,900

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

American Sheet Music of the early Twentieth Century

This project includes around 50 selected examples (dating from 1899 - early 1920s) of sheet music covers from the Gertrude Goodrich Battles Collection, owned by my wife, Katherine Battles Kohl. Before radio broadcasting and sound motion picture tie-ins changed the way songs were promoted in the late 1920s, the music industry was focused on the sale of sheet music for individuals to play—and display—on their parlor pianos. Music publishers lavished great care and expense in the design of unique and eye-catching covers such as these, which are not only wonderful examples of what constituted cutting-edge graphic design a century ago, but which also provide valuable insights into American social history. I can imagine these being of interest to anyone teaching the history of graphic design, illustration, and typography; also costume history, American popular culture -- and even topics such as the use of humor by a dominant culture to shape popular stereotypes of racial and ethnic identities. Allan Kohl

≈ 65

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War

Nearly twenty years after the close of the Civil War, two editors of the monthly periodical Century Magazine, Clarence Clough Buel and Robert Underwood Johnson, proposed a series of articles on the War, to be written by some of the fratricidal conflict’s surviving participants, Northerners and Southerners alike. Beginning in 1884, this series, called “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,” proved to be so popular that Century’s publishers decided to anthologize it, along with additional articles, memoirs, and reminiscences. Issued serially in 1887-1888, the massive four-volume set quickly became accepted as the comprehensive (and surprisingly unbiased) account of the War. The nearly 3000 pages of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War featured more than a thousand maps, engraved portraits, spot designs, and other original artwork created by some of America’s top illustrators. These included familiar names such as A. R. Waud and Winslow Homer, men who had been highly regarded as field correspondent sketch artists during the actual conflict. But Century also commissioned new illustrations from the outstanding military subject specialists of its own day, artists such as J. O. Davidson, H. A. Ogden, and Isaac Walton Taber. This project contains a selection of over one hundred of the best examples from among these illustrations, including both battle scenes and camp life, along with details of weapons and uniforms. Allan Kohl

≈ 100

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

English Architecture

The James Collection of English Architecture (c.1100-1800 CE) was photographed by Sara Nair James, professor of Renaissance Art at Mary Baldwin College, Virginia. The archive includes cathedrals and parish churches from the Norman Romanesque period; ecclesiastical buildings in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles; Medieval secular architecture including castles, marketplaces and town halls; Perpendicular Gothic collegiate buildings; Tudor, Elizabethan, Baroque and Neoclassical country houses and churches. This photographic survey was funded in part by the Yum and Ross Arnold Fund and the Jesse Ball DuPont Grant to the Master's of Arts in Literature Program at Mary Baldwin College.

≈ 650

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

Historic Illustrations of Art & Architecture

The historic illustrations included in this project were originally published during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many originally appeared in publications that predated the widespread use of photography for art documentation. These engravings, line drawings, and plans reflect both the technological and aesthetic standards of their time. By their very nature, they often represent subjective interpretations of the monuments and works depicted, and as such they offer fascinating insights into the cultural values of art and architectural history during the formative years of these disciplines. While these illustrations are often beautiful examples of the draftsman’s or engraver’s skill, by their very nature they also represent subjective interpretations of the monuments and works depicted. Anyone wishing to use these images for teaching and research purposes should bear this in mind. Moreover, some of these illustrations may no longer reflect current scholarship due to ongoing research and critical reassessment of individual sites and works since their original publication. Therefore, the use of these images for pedagogical purposes should be complemented as necessary by comparison with updated plans, drawings, and photographs of the subject works and sites. Allan Kohl

≈ 300

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

Historic Posters (1880 – 1918)

In the late nineteenth century, lithographers began to use mass-produced zinc plates rather than stones in their printing process. This innovation allowed them to prepare multiple plates, each with a different color ink, and to print these with close registration on the same sheet of paper. Posters in a range of colors and variety of sizes could now be produced quickly, at modest cost. Skilled illustrators and graphic designers – such as Alphonse Mucha, Jules Cheret, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -- quickly began to exploit this new technology; the “Golden Age of the Poster” (1880s through the First World War) was the spectacular result.

This collection of over one hundred and sixty digital images of historic posters from this period was originally compiled to support the teaching of Design History and Graphic Design courses at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Many of the artists who designed posters during this period were already well-known in other media, such as painting and architecture. Their creative success helped to bridge the gap between “high art” and popular visual culture, and to introduce even those who never visited museums or galleries to examples of innovative design. Today, these striking posters are highly regarded as being among the most distinctive examples of fin-de-siecle styles such as Art Nouveau and the Vienna Secession.

All of these works are in the public domain under United States Copyright Law.

Allan Kohl

≈ 166

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

John Tenniel and the American Civil War: Political Cartoons from Punch, 1860-1865

John Tenniel is best known as the original illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Before teaming up with Lewis Carroll, he was the chief cartoonist for the British periodical Punch, a weekly journal of political and social satire, and is regarded as one of the pioneers in developing the genre of the political cartoon as we know it today. Each issue of Punch featured a “principal cartoon,” printed full page on a single side of the paper for highest quality reproduction under the standards of the time.

Between 1860-1865 Tenniel produced some 56 cartoons commenting on the conflict in America from a sometimes very biased British perspective. These would be of potential interest to anyone dealing with topics such as the history of diplomacy and international relations during the Civil War, the development of the political cartoon as a genre, or the relationship of popular illustration to high art. Because Tenniel maintained high standards of draftsmanship, and as Punch appealed to an erudite upper class readership, these cartoons offer fascinating insights into the social life of Victorian England, and also provide useful resources for costume and design history. Allan Kohl

≈ 50

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

Madison Art Collection

The collection is quite varied, ranging from the late Neolithic Period (3,000 BCE) to contemporary art. Areas where it has strengths include the ancient Near East, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, West Africa, and Russian religious art. It also contains a large number of paintings by the 19th and 20th century American landscape artists, Walter and Eliot Clark. Further the Madison Art Collection is an official repository of arts and crafts objects created in the 1930s under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), including quilts, prints, and paintings.

≈ 1,000

James Madison University

Andreas Knab

knab2ar@jmu.edu

Otis Artists' Books Collection

Images from Artists' Books in the collection of the Millard Sheets Library at the Otis College of Art and Design. See the above URL for more information about the collection.

≈ 5,400 (5/7/07)

Otis College of Art and Design

Matthew Ballard

mballard@otis.edu