Our Free Online Digital Library
tfaoi.org / tfaoi.com
(above: Albertus Del Orient Browere, The Lone Prospector, 1853, oil on canvas, Oakland Museum of California. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Overview
Our Free Online Digital Library is a service of us (TFAO), a nonprofit organization. The library is a highly specialized content repository available to the public without charge. It is mainly devoted to knowledge concerning American representational art.
Our collection includes our publication Resource Library, which contains 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of named authors, plus many thousands of other articles published by it. 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. American art museums are the largest source of Resource Library's content.
The library's collection also includes catalogues, the National Calendar of Exhibitions, plus research reports and studies. We own portions of the contents and publishes other materials with the consent of other copyright holders.
We perform functions for the library that are common with physical libraries including:
Our library's operating model provides a case study for cost-efficient storage and distribution of knowledge and the operation of a digital library. Its low cost of operation provides a template for study by others considering developing digital libraries.
For a count of articles and essays written by hundreds of named authors published online in Resource Library, please click here. For an estimate of the quantity of text and images in the library, please see Content and paper-printed book equivalence.
How to find content on our site using search engines:
Conduct keyword searches within our website and Resource Library, a collection of articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art, using the advanced search feature of these search engines:
Or, before entering keywords in a basic search, enter site:tfaoi.org.
Summary of accomplishments and history
Tens of thousands of individuals,
including students, scholars, teachers and others, view educational and
informative materials every month on our site, which is structured as a
digital library.
Also see:
Indexes and information retrieval
An Evaluative Analysis of TFAO for American Art History Scholarship
Go to
Acquisition and deselection of content
Durability and protection of content
Resource Library an archival publication & errors and omissions
A vision of the future for digital libraries
A vision of the future for TFAO
(above: J. P. Hazeltine, Editor of Resource Library and Founder, Traditional Fine Arts Organization. Photo 2024 by Tracey Hazeltine)
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:
Image legend for multiple artists:
For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists. Following are examples of artworks created by artists referenced in the above article or essay. Artworks and/or photographs shown may not be specific to this article or essay and are likely not cited in it. All images were obtained via Wikimedia Commons, which believes the images to be freely available for presentation here. Another source readers may find helpful is Google Images.
Image legend for a single artist:
For further biographical information on the artist cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists. Following is an example of artwork created by the artist referenced in the above article or essay. The image shown may not be specific to this article or essay and is likely not cited in it. The image was obtained via Wikimedia Commons, which believes the image to be freely available for presentation here. Another source readers may find helpful is Google Images.
TFAO page directional icons are:
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and
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Return to Digital Libraries and Initiatives
Links to sources of information outside of our web site 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 web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.
Clip art courtesy of ClipartPal and Vector.me.
*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:
Copyright 2025 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights reserved.