ARTH 1412: Art & Architecture of Latin America

This guide contains resources for your class sessions being held in Special Collections. 

For additional Art History resources, check out the Art & Art History Subject Guide or contact the subject librarian for art/art history, Lacey Brooks-Canales. 

Special Collections & Archives has a wide variety of resource types for studying art history. Below is a list of the formats we talked about in class, as well as links to the specific items that we looked at: 

Architectural Photographs - Photographs of architecture document buildings and structures at a moment in time, and are valuable sources when structures are damaged or destroyed by natural disasters, global conflicts, or other causes. 

Archival Records & Documentation- Sometimes also called "papers" or "manuscripts," archival records are the documentation of an artists' works. They may include things like sketches, contracts, notebooks, letters, journals, etc. 

Artists' Books - Artists' books are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. 

Catalogues Raisonnés - Catalogues raisonnés are like inventories of all of the works by a particular artist. 

Comics - Art done for a popular audience, such as comics, provides a unique lens into the political or social conditions that are being addressed. 

Ephemera - Ephemera refers to memorabilia that was created with the expectation that it would have only a short-term usefulness, such as posters, tickets, handbills, flyers, stickers, etc. 

Exhibit Catalogs - Exhibit catalogs document museum and gallery exhibits, usually listing the pieces included and often including images and information about the works. 

Facsimiles - Facsimiles are high quality reproductions of documents or artworks that usually replicate the exact dimensions of the original. They are a useful tool for scholars to be able to study a document or item that they are unable to travel to see. 

Fine Art Books - Art books are often expensive to purchase, and are kept in Special Collections because of their high replacement value. These books often have high quality reproductions of art work, and may document the works of an artist, a time period, a museum's holdings, etc. 

Illustrated books - Fiction, non-fiction, and children's books often feature illustrations, sometimes by particularly notable artists. 

Magazines and Periodicals - Periodicals and magazines, usually softbound and sent through the mail, were a way to keep up to date on happenings in the art world. 

Oral Histories - Oral histories are structured interviews recorded to learn more about someone's personal experiences. 

Photography Portfolios - Collections of photographs, typically printed by the artist in a limited edition. 

Prints - Collections of loose prints--lithographs, engravings, woodcuts, or other formats--are usually kept in Special Collections for security purposes. 

Writing about Art - How people write about art tells us not only about the art itself, but also about its reception and the time period in which they were writing. 

Zines - Zines are self-published, non-commercial publications. They are frequently handmade in small batches.