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ARTH 275: Design Research Guide

Bloomsbury Design Library

Bloomsbury Design Library

Scholarly coverage of the history, theory and practice of crafts and design worldwide, from 1500 BCE to the present day, with cross-searchable access to authoritative reference works, e-books, and museum object images. Explore the history and context of influential design schools, people, periods, places, and disciplines. Includes:

  • Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design: global coverage from 1800 to the present by international design scholars and historians from museums and exhibitions, art and design schools, journals and department stores. Covers graphic, textile, furniture, metal, ceramic, fashion, stage and film, and vehicle and product design, and also national histories of design and key design movements.
  • Encyclopedia of East Asian Design: Coverage of arts and crafts, interior, graphic, and design objects for domestic, regional, and global consumption across regional and national histories and geographies.
  • World History of Design: global design from prehistory to the end of the Second World War. Includes: earliest cave art and human tools; examples of visual and material culture from beginnings of civilization, to the Industrial Revolution, to WWII.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

The Concise dictionary of art terms (Oxford, 2nd ed. 2010)

A Dictionary of modern design (2nd ed. 2016)

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd ed. 2014)

The Grove encyclopedia of decorative arts (Oxford, 2006)

The Grove encyclopedia of medieval art and architecture / editor in chief, Colum P. Hourihane.

All aspects of art and architecture from Medieval Western Europe, from the 6th century to the early 16th century, with bibliographies.
International handbooks of museum studies

Multi-volume reference work in four volumes of Theory, Practice, Media and Transformation. Print in library, and e-books online

Oxford Art Online

Also known as Grove Art Online, now incorporated and updated in Oxford Art Online.

Oxford companion to Western art (2001)

Oxford Reference Online - Art and Architecture

Art and architecture component of full-text Oxford University Press dictionaries and subject reference books, including A Dictionary of Modern Design (2nd ed. 2016), Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd ed. 2014), The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. Browse or search for keywords within a subject area or within a specific book.

Thames & Hudson dictionary of design since 1900 (2005 - e-book through HathiTrust link in Omni)

Essential Reference

Artstor (digital image library for educational and scholarly uses. To use ARTstor to its full advantage (both on or off campus), you must first become a "registered user")

Oxford Art Online

A comprehensive encyclopaedia for the history of the visual arts, including bio-bibliographical information and images.

Arts and Crafts table designed by William Morris, wood, 1865 (London, Victoria and Albert Museum); photo credit of Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Art Resource, NY