Ingalls Library & Museum Archives

Researching the history of the Cleveland Museum of Art collection became easier recently with the addition of two serial publications to the JStor collection.  The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art ran from1914 to 1994, serving as the primary publication for announcements regarding exhibitions, collections, and all things about the Museum.  With JStor’s full text searching, researching museum objects is certainly easier.  Searching within the publication by accession number, dropping the first two digits of the year, reveals numerous relevant articles.  Notable authors, such as Henry Hawley, can be tracked similarly.  As well, caption searching returns images of objects not included in the Ingalls Library Publication Index.  This latter search can be especially helpful with May Show artists, as the objects of First Prize and Special Award winners are often pictured, as in this caption search for Schreckengost.  This information is not available via the Ingalls Library’s May Show database.

While Cleveland Studies in the History of Art picks up in 1995, it is not a typical successor to the Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Rather, this annual publication produced more academic scholarship on the Museum’s collection.  Because the journal spans nine years, through 2000, accession number searches are useful in both two digit and four digit year number searches.  Though a scan of the table of contents would be equally useful.  Caption searching produces color images, suitable for presentation, as in this search for the Museums 14th Century table fountain.

Original copies of both publications will continue to be held in the Ingalls Library reference room.

Newly added to the Library’s electronic resources list is the Dictionary of Art Historians.  This source serves as a starting point for researching major figures in art history, both active and inactive.  As explained in the information page, it is a work in progress.  But for its part, it provides ample background into the academic training and methodology of the entries, for example here is a selection from the the entry on Panofsky, “Though Panofsky is considered the “ur-iconologist,” his methodology was diverse and is difficult to summarize.  Primarily a scholar of medieval and northern Renaissance art, he is most frequently associated with the concept of iconography, matching the subject-matter of works of art to a symbolic syntax of meaning drawn from literature and other art works.”  Each entry includes relevant dates and locations, as well as extensive bibliography where applicable.

ArtStor is a subscription database available by clicking Search Collections and then View Online Resources.  This online repository holds hundreds of thousands of digital from participating organizations, including the Cleveland Museum of Art.  While the basics of how to navigate ArtStor are fairly obvious, there are some nuances to the interface that might prove useful to researchers.  ArtStor has produced a series of videos, available on YouTube, to demonstrate the many features of this highly useful resource.  For updates on ArtStor collections, bookmark the ArtStor blog.

The Patrologia Latina Database represents a complete electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne’s Patrologia Latina (1844-1855 and 1862-1865). The Patrologia Latina covers the works of the Latin Fathers from Tertullian around 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216. In 221 volumes, it covers most major and minor Latin authors, and contains the most influential works of late ancient and early medieval theology, philosophy, history, and literature.

The Patrologia Latina Database contains 221 volumes and represents a complete electronic version of the first edition of Jacques-Paul Migne’s Patrologia Latina (1844-1855 and 1862-1865).

Migne’s Patrologia Latina was originally printed in 217 volumes from 1844 to 1855. There were two series: the series prima, volumes 1-73, (Tertullian to Gregory the Great), 1844 -1849; and the series secunda volumes 74-217, (Gregory the Great to Pope Innocent 3rd), 1849-1855.

This databases is available through the Ingalls Library website, by clicking Search Collections and then View Online Resources.