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Artstor

An expansive collection of visual materials to inspire research

Artstor on JSTOR lets you access millions of curated, cross-disciplinary, rights-cleared images and multimedia from around the world–all discoverable alongside JSTOR’s journals, books, and other primary sources.

Get Artstor on JSTOR
Ancient Greek terracotta kylix (drinking cup) painted in black and red with large stylized eyes and a central band depicting human figures in motion, bordered by geometric patterns.

2M+

Rights-cleared images and multimedia*

300+

Curated collections across disciplines

825K+

Open access items from museums, libraries, and archives

Abstract artwork resembling a colorful biological cell, with a blue circular center surrounded by green, yellow, and pink organic shapes outlined in gold.

Artstor on JSTOR offers seamless workflows to help:

  • Students build critical visual literacy skills 
  • Researchers engage with diverse avenues of content 
  • Educators boost the depth and quality of lesson plans
  • Users find connections between images and extensive scholarly content

Trustworthy, rights-cleared, and scholarly

Enhance learning

All content is free to use in classrooms, handouts, presentations, student assignments, and other noncommercial scholarly activities.

Carved jade figure of a saddled horse with intricate details, red gemstone inlays, and decorative gold accents.
Reference authoritative metadata

Artstor media contains contributor-supplied metadata to provide depth and accuracy beyond what’s offered by commercial search engines.

Handheld stereoscope viewer with wooden frame and leather hood, holding a black-and-white stereoscopic photograph.
Make innovative connections

Each collection is carefully curated from reliable sources, and integrated alongside JSTOR’s full-text and media content to provide meaningful historical, critical, and cultural context.

Two painted wooden panels depicting an angel and the Virgin Mary in white robes against a deep red background, symbolizing the Annunciation.

Wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and expansive

Artstor on JSTOR supports and enriches study across disciplines, time periods and global contexts. Highlights include:

Have content to contribute? Let us know

Enhanced features for interacting with content

Get closer

Examine images side-by-side or zoom in to explore them in detail.

Pair of ornate opera glasses with gold metal casing, red enamel, and hand-painted floral decorations on white panels.

Make deeper connections

Expand your search options to include all content types across media, or focus on just one.

Decorative ceramic plate painted with two figures in profile kissing, framed by gold and blue patterns and motifs.

Save with ease

Use your JSTOR Workspace to save and organize text and images by project, subject, and much more.

Detail of a textile with colorful, interlocking cube patterns bordered by blue floral and scroll designs.

Accurately cite sources

Make notes and download citations on media to accurately recall where each originated from.

Ornate dressing table and matching chair in dark wood and silver, featuring elaborate floral metalwork and an oval mirror.

Create better presentations

Embed text and annotations into your presentations for a more robust experience.

Illustration of a large capital letter “A” designed within geometric shapes including circles and squares, accompanied by Italian text explaining its proportions and construction, from a Renaissance treatise on design.

Diverse, expansive, and growing

Valuable collections are continually added, and we actively evaluate new content based on community feedback, including:

Community voices

Photograph of Sara Nair James

Such a rich bank of articles and now images! I always go to JSTOR first.

Sara Nair James, Professor Emerita of Art History, Independent Scholar, and Author
Mary Baldwin University

Photograph of Gina Dabrowski

I love that [Artstor and JSTOR] merged. I like to make lecture categories.

Gina Dabrowski, Art Faculty and Artist
North Hennepin Community College

Photograph of Chelsea Page

The new platform is user friendly and intuitive to learn. Simplifying collections into one central location is a benefit to users who can now search academic, primary, and image resources in one platform. The new platform specifically addresses the needs of research and academic audiences with wider breadth to go beyond the normal scope of database searching. The new Artstor experience on JSTOR remains a resource for anyone interested in exploring art collections across boundaries.

Chelsea Page, Digital Asset Manager
Center for Creative Leadership

Both databases are classics worth owning. My library simply could not get by without JSTOR and Artstor.

Lura Sanborn, Reference Librarian
St. Paul’s School, Concord, NH

The combination of children’s literature with Artstor images gives teachers the opportunity to form extensions to other topics, to engage students in conversation, to reinforce reading skills, and to forge creative thinking.

Middle School Teacher

[I love] the ability for my professors to create folders of images on Artstor to aid us in our research. And the wide range of articles on any topic. If I’m researching something specific, articles are provided for both that topic, and connections I didn’t realize I could make.

Artstor on JSTOR User


I don’t know where I’d be without JSTOR/Artstor! …I love that I can search transdisciplinarily on JSTOR, as someone who is really trying to integrate other methodologies into my work.

Graduate Student


Artstor is a great resource for finding images and artwork that I used when teaching social studies and English to my middle schoolers! It is great for finding real (not AI or manipulated) images and art that I could trust.

Middle School Teacher

The advanced search is incredibly effective and easy to navigate as an undergraduate student in art history.

Undergraduate Student


The advanced search is incredibly effective and easy to navigate as an undergraduate student in art history.

Undergraduate Student


[I love the] quality images that can be used to guide inspiration and ideation for the work my students do.

Faculty

I love having all of the resources together and having a place to send students for reliable sources and images

Graduate Student


Here’s how educators are using Artstor on JSTOR to enrich their curriculum

A garden gnome with a red hat and blue coat sits among piles of old photographic slides, waving with one hand.
Case study

Charting the course of digital art history: University of California San Diego Library from Artstor to JSTOR

Explore how UC San Diego Library built a transformative 200,000-image digital collection for Artstor, its impact over two decades, and how the Visual Arts Legacy Collection enters a new chapter on JSTOR.

A pair of Nike sneakers in white with bright red, blue, and yellow suede panels, shown from the front.
Resource

Artstor promotional toolkit

Let’s get off on the right foot! Boost awareness of Artstor on JSTOR’s rich content and powerful tools with these ready-to-use resources. From eye-catching social […]

Detail of a portrait of a young girl standing confidently in a white ruffled dress decorated with colorful flowers, set against a bright pink patterned background. Painted in an expressive, textured style by Gustav Klimt.
Resource

Slow art: Analyzing art in an image-saturated age

Help students slow down and truly see art in an image-saturated age. Adapted from art historian Carson Smith’s classroom project, this resource guides students in creating their own mock museum exhibitions using JSTOR and Artstor. Through “slow looking,” collaborative research, and curatorial storytelling, students practice visual analysis, connect art to cultural context, and rediscover the joy of attentive seeing.

Art Nouveau illustration of a woman with long dark braids, hoop earrings, and a headscarf, holding a circular stringed instrument against a patterned background.
Blog

Teaching slow looking: Guiding students to engage deeply with art

Learn how a slow-looking project helps students engage deeply with artworks, build visual analysis skills, and create collaborative exhibitions using JSTOR and Artstor resources.

A portrait of a woman wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a sheer white shawl, holding a basket of grapes, set against a soft gray-blue background.
Blog

Now available on JSTOR: Highlights from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an encyclopedic museum with collections from across the globe. The images contributed to Artstor from the museum’s over 42,000 works of art reflect the diversity of the collections and 5,000 years of human culture.

Red, white, yellow, and blue Nike sneakers worn by Big Boi of Outkast, 2005-2006. The shoes feature a bold color-blocking design with a yellow Nike swoosh on the sides. They are part of the National Museum of African American History and Culture collection.
Resource

Bring the world to your classroom: Using Artstor on JSTOR for engaging virtual field trips

Discover how to create virtual field trips with Artstor on JSTOR to bring the world into your classroom. Explore ways to foster equity, visual literacy, and engagement—no travel required. Includes a ready-to-use sample lesson plan.

Cover of Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, a lesbian quarterly magazine. The title appears in red serif font at the top. Below the title, a Black woman in athletic clothing sits on grass, resting her arms on a rugby ball. She wears a striped rugby shirt, dark pants, high socks, and cleats. The photo is sepia-toned. At the bottom, the issue number is labeled “fifteen/sixteen” in red.
Blog

Monthly-wrap up: Spotlighting pride, prison newspapers, and a painter in June

We hope this blog post finds you with a spare moment to explore something new! June’s releases on JSTOR brought together book-length research, community newspapers, […]

Book cover of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity by Monica L. Miller. The cover features a stylishly dressed Black man in a double-breasted suit with a flower boutonnière, sitting on a vintage green couch in a confident, posed manner.
Blog

Monthly wrap-up: Maps, movements, and miniature pills in May

May’s additions to JSTOR opened new ways to engage with visual culture, political history, and everyday life.

Women’s sports teams. 1940. University Archives, University of Pennsylvania.
Blog

Digitally archived primary sources are imperative to higher education

What would your classroom look like if students engaged with knowledge as detectives rather than passive readers? The answers lie in digital primary sources. And education depends on how we use them.

Get started with Artstor on JSTOR

Join the thousands of institutions using JSTOR’s academic image database to power research, teaching, and visual learning. Request a personalized demo or quote today to see how Artstor on JSTOR can enhance access, streamline workflows, and inspire scholarship.

Note: Items marked with * are required.

View image credits from this page
Ancient Greek terracotta kylix (drinking cup) painted in black and red with large stylized eyes and a central band depicting human figures in motion, bordered by geometric patterns.

Nikosthenes. Terracotta Kylix: Eye-Cup (Drinking Cup). ca. 530 BCE. Part of Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

Abstract artwork resembling a colorful biological cell, with a blue circular center surrounded by green, yellow, and pink organic shapes outlined in gold.

Odra Noel. Apoptosis. n.d. Wellcome Collection, Artstor.

Carved jade figure of a saddled horse with intricate details, red gemstone inlays, and decorative gold accents.

Horse Carrying Books. 18th–19th century. Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

Handheld stereoscope viewer with wooden frame and leather hood, holding a black-and-white stereoscopic photograph.

Unknown maker. Hand-Held Stereoscopic Viewer. ca. 1896. Part of Open: Science Museum Group, Artstor.

Two painted wooden panels depicting an angel and the Virgin Mary in white robes against a deep red background, symbolizing the Annunciation.

Master of the Saint Barbara Legend. Abner’s Messenger before David; The Queen of Sheba Bringing Gifts to Solomon; The Annunciation. ca. 1480. Part of Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

Pair of ornate opera glasses with gold metal casing, red enamel, and hand-painted floral decorations on white panels.

French. Opera Glasses. c. 1900. Part of Open: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Artstor.

Decorative ceramic plate painted with two figures in profile kissing, framed by gold and blue patterns and motifs.

Dish with Two Lovers. ca. 1520-50. Part of Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

Detail of a textile with colorful, interlocking cube patterns bordered by blue floral and scroll designs.

Chinese. Woman’s Theatrical Jacket. 19th century. Part of Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

Ornate dressing table and matching chair in dark wood and silver, featuring elaborate floral metalwork and an oval mirror.

Gorham Manufacturing Company. Lady’s Writing Table and Chair. 1903. Part of RISD Museum (Rhode Island School of Design), Artstor.

Illustration of a large capital letter “A” designed within geometric shapes including circles and squares, accompanied by Italian text explaining its proportions and construction, from a Renaissance treatise on design.

Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Luca Pacioli. Divina Proportione. June 1, 1509. Part of Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artstor.

*The number of images available varies by country due to copyright restrictions.

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Bring Artstor on JSTOR to your institution

Give your faculty, students, and researchers access to more than 2 million rights-cleared images and multimedia—integrated with JSTOR’s trusted scholarly content. Discover a unified platform for teaching, research, and visual literacy.

Note: Items marked with * are required.