Databases are a collection of data that have been organized and made searchable. Our library databases contain scholarly and non-scholarly journal articles, films, magazines, primary and secondary sources, and other useful research material. These databases can be found on our Databases and E-Resources page. They can be searched through alphabetically or by subject.
Art, History, and General Research Databases to start with:
Recommended Databases by Dr. Ng
These databases are free online content that contain both primary and secondary sources.
Achemenet - "A website with resources and texts dedicated to Achaemenid Persian history, culture, and art, established by Pierre Briant, the world's leading scholar of the achaemenid period, with participation by international scholars"
The Acropolis Museum: The digital portal to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, this website offers exploration of the collections of artifacts recovered from the Acropolis and ongoing research and archaeology at the site.
The Amarna Project: This website makes available information, research, and some downloadable resources on the history and archaeology of Amarna, Egypt, one of our case studies.
Ancient Egypt Research Associates: Dedicated to the scholarship of Giza and the area around Memphis, led by Dr. Mark Lehner, aeraweb.org provides information about research on the Great Pyramids and their archaeology.
Archaeological Park of Pompeii: The official site of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii run by the Italian Ministry of Culture, this website has guides to the different sites, houses, and districts of Pompeii, and information on ongoing excavations. There is a lot of information here about the history of the site and current work.
Art Institute of Chicago: One of the leading museums in the United States, the Art Institute of Chicago recently published a digital scholarly catalogue of their Roman art collection that can be accessed here.
Artstor - "Artstor is the most extensive image resource for educational and scholarly useWe bring together media from top museums, archives, scholars, and artists, with a specialized suite of tools for teaching and learning with visual materials — all rights-cleared for education and research."
British Museum Collection Online: The online portal to artifacts in the collection of the British Museum. Elsewhere at the BM’s website, you can find different information on many cultures.
Brooklyn Museum: The Brooklyn Museum has one of the strongest collections of ancient Egyptian Art in the United States. Searchable images and other information from their collection's database are on their website.
Capitoline Museums: The Capitoline Museums house many collections of Roman art and history. Search their collections, and read about ongoing excavations and other information.
Classical Art Research Centre and the Beazley Archive: Part of Oxford University, this database houses thousands of images from Greek and Roman art, and is home to the Beazley Archive of Greek vases that can be searched by iconography.
Getty Center: This page, part of the Getty Research Institute, provides research resources on ancient Greek and Roman art, including searches of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections, open access books, and other information.
Lacus Curtius: Into the Roman World - This website contains Roman Gazetteer ("a commented photo album of Roman towns and monuments"), Greek and Latin Source Texts, and secondary works about Greek and Roman Antiquities.
The Louvre Museum curatorial departments: The curatorial departments have selected around 200 major artworks per department for browsing, but you can search the collections for a specific artwork by title, keyword, and/or accession number.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The online portal to artifacts in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the best collections of ancient art in the world. Elsewhere at the Met’s website, you can find different information on many cultures.
Perseus Digital Library - "Since planning began in 1985, the Perseus Digital Library Project has explored what happens when libraries move online. Two decades later, as new forms of publication emerge and millions of books become digital, this question is more pressing than ever. Perseus is a practical experiment in which we explore possibilities and challenges of digital collections in a networked world."
The Oriental Institute: Part of University of Chicago, the Oriental Institute is one of the oldest centers of ancient Near Eastern scholarship in the United States. You can search their collections and access other research materials on Persepolis and Assyria and information at their site.
Smarthistory.org: A trusted online resource on art history, with articles and videos created by art history scholars on different cultures and periods (some have more content than others). References for your own further reading and research are always provided.
Virtual Rome: Based at the University of Reading in the UK, this site provides some digital models of ancient Rome that can be explored using smartphone QR codes.
