America's Distinguished Artists
a national registry of historic artists
(above: Frank Weston Benson, Portrait of Gertrude Russell, 1915, oil on canvas, 54.2 x 42 inches, Christie's. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Reviewing existing listings
Besides recommending new listings, we welcome volunteers to review existing listings. Volunteers should check with us before choosing a portion of the alphabetical index to work on to make sure no one else is working on the same portion of the catalogue.
First step
We recommend, as the first step in the review of existing listings for a letter of the alphabet, that the volunteer open three browser windows. The first browser window shows the America's Distinguished Artists page under study. The second window is for Resource Library advanced search. The third window is for Google's search page set for 30 results per page.
Second step
Artist names on a page for a chosen letter of the alphabet are then checked.
If there is a link to a Resource Library page for an artist, the volunteer reviews the artist entry as follows:
Third step
The use of an online link checker for single pages can be useful after a page is manually checked to make sure that no disabled links were missed.
Fourth step
The volunteer reviews the information retrieved by the online search for each artist to determine the best Web page (URL) for recommendation to TFAO and then sends recommendations including URLs by email to TFAO at
Using search engines
When using a search engine to locate non-Resource Library pages, TFAO recommends putting the word "artist" after the artist's name in the search box to help narrow down the search results. There is no need to review more than 30 search results for an artist.
Google searches commonly display pages from several auction sites
and poster sites on the first page of search results. When this occurs it
is necessary to view search results beyond these listings. Auction site,
poster site and gallery site pages with prices for art objects on the same
pages as biographies are not used since the information is likely to be
temporary or restricted to subscribers. Search results leading to art.com,
artcyclopedia.com, Arcadja.com, Invaluable.com, artinfo.com, ArtNet.com,
artprice.com, AskArt.com, findartinfo.com, jstor.org, liveauctioneers.com,
MutualArt.com, wwar.com, and poster sites are not used. All links to artist
biographies must contain 100% free information. TFAO avoids Web pages that
require a fee to view complete biographies.
Judgment by volunteers
Recognition to volunteers
TFAO greatly appreciates the efforts made by volunteers to improve the America's Distinguished Artists catalogue. TFAO will acknowledge volunteers who contribute new listings on the appropriate page.
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
Return to America's Distinguished Artists site guide
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.
*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:
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