United States Art History - Methods of research

United States Art History

Art History of Each State within the United States of America

with an emphasis on representational art

(above: Barry Faulkner, Opening of the Cheshire Railroad in Keene New Hampshire on May 16, 1848, Photograph of mural. Keene Public Library. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

Our methods of research

recurring inquiries:

United States Art History was initiated in 2008 by Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Ongoing research for each state includes:

1. Analysis of information provided through operations of Resource Library and updates of America's Distinguished Artists (1)

2. Searching the TFAO Author index plus Catalogues for relevant information

3. Contacting libraries, museums, art history professors, historical societies and independent scholars. Where appropriate, TFAO requests that officials place inquiries to staff and other individuals with a passion for an individual state's art history.

4. Google searches using keyword phrases such as "historical (state name) artists," "historical (state name) painters," "historical (state name) sculptors," "biographies of historic (state name) artists," "gallery specializing in historic (state name) artist" and "early painters of (state name)" for online and paper-printed resources. (1)

5. Google Books and Amazon.com book searches for paper-printed books. Google Books searches are made with the phrases such as "art in [state name]" When a book reference says "Original from..." followed by the name of a university, followed by "Digitized..." it means that Google Books has placed the entire contents of the book into its servers. When the term Full View" appears it means that the entire text of the book may be read free online or be downloaded for future reading. Amazon.com books searches were made with the phrases "[state name] artists" and "[state name] art"

non-recurring inquiries:

1. Review of books identified by TFAO via a Google books search project as having been published by art museums within the state. Please click here to view a list of these museums.

2. Analysis of books listed in Smithsonian American Art Museum REGIONAL ARTIST BIBLIOGRAPHY and OUTDOOR SCULPTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY (Link found expired as of 4/24/09 audit. Source site may contain this content via a revised URL)

3. Analysis of reference books listed in Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. by Gerdts, William H. Three Volumes: The East and the Mid-Atlantic, The South and the Midwest, The Plains States and the West. 1213 pages. Publisher: Abbeville Press (October 15, 1990). ISBN-10: 1558590331. ISBN-13: 978-1558590335. Library Journal says of these books: "...These volumes are not dictionaries, but rather geographically arranged, more selective, narratives. (The author specifically excludes artists chiefly active in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.) There are very brief introductions to regions and illuminating summaries about art institutions and art activities embedded in the various state-by-state essays; coverage varies according to material, from four pages (Nevada) to 120 (northern and southern California). Gerdts provides no overarching conclusions but rather vast amounts of distilled information on even the smallest art centers. The extensive bibliographies, also geographically arranged, will be an aid to further research. Some 900 of the 1000 artists discussed are illustrated." Quoted text is courtesy of Amazon Books. Color emphasis by TFAO. ["The East and the Mid-Atlantic" references have been reviewed by TFAO. The other two volumes will be reviewed at a later date.]

4. TFAO's Educational Progress Award Program, offered for a limited time a way for individuals to enable cash gifts to be provided to selected museums. Information on a related project is here.

Icons and legends

When an image is sourced from Wikimedia Commons, an icon tag is placed on the page containing it. The tags are:

*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:

and

**Tag for some rights reserved:

TFAO page directional icons are:

Return to

and

Go to

Notes:

1. We use two methods for keyword searches.

Method one:

Before entering a state name in a basic Google search, enter site:tfaoi.org. See Indexes and information retrieval for more information.

Method two:

Conduct keyword searches within TFAO's Resource Library and other parts of TFAO's website using the advanced search feature of:

After entering keywords, select tfaoi.org as the sole domain to be searched.

Since TFAO's website contains a through collection of content focusing on American representational art within a single domain, keyword searches within it can produce amazing results.

2. All of our research is provided by volunteers.

Return to United States Art History site guide

*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:

TFAO catalogues:

American Representational Art links to dozens of topics in American Representational Art

Audio Online a catalogue of online streaming audio recordings

Collections of Historic American Art notable private collections

Distinguished Artists a national registry of historic artists

Geographic Tour of American Representational Art History a catalogue of articles and essays that describe the evolution of American art from the inception of the United States to WWII.

Illustrated Audio Online streaming online narrated slide shows

Articles and Essays Online substantive texts published outside of Resource Library

Videos Online a comprehensive catalogue of online full motion videos streamed free to viewers

Videos an authoritative guide to videos in VHS and DVD format

Books general reference books published on paper

Interactive media media in CD-ROM format

Magazines paper-published magazines and journals

About Resource Library

Resource Library is a free online publication of nonprofit Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Since 1997, Resource Library and its predecessor Resource Library Magazine have cumulatively published online 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of identified authors, thousands of other texts not attributable to named authors, plus 24,000+ images, all providing educational and informational content related to American representational art. Texts and related images are provided almost exclusively by nonprofit art museum, gallery and art center sources.

All published materials provide educational and informational content to students, scholars, teachers and others. Most published materials relate to exhibitions. Materials may include whole exhibition gallery guides, brochures or catalogues or texts from them, perviously published magazine or journal articles, wall panels and object labels, audio tour scripts, play scripts, interviews, blogs, checklists and news releases, plus related images.

What you won't find:

User-tracking cookies are not installed on our website. Privacy of users is very important to us. You won't find annoying banners and pop-ups either. Our pages are loaded blazingly fast. Resource Library contains no advertising and is 100% non-commercial. .

(left: JP Hazeltine, founding editor, Resource Library)

Links to sources of information outside our website are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other websites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. We neither recommend or endorses these referenced organizations. Although we include links to other websites, we take no responsibility for the content or information contained on other sites, nor exert any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see our General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.