Graphic Design: Videos and Images

Featured Image Collection

The Southwest Virginia Digital Library is the premier resource for Virginia Tech, Appalachia, and state of Virginia digital image collections. Collection highlights include the Leonard J. Curries Slides and the permanent collection at the Taubman Museum of Art.

Southwest Virginia Digital Library

Leonard J. Currie Slides

Taubman Museum of Art

. Video Resources

The Art & Architecture Library houses a collection of DVDS that are available for checkout. In addition, the University Libraries subscribes to a number of streaming video databases. For a full list of streaming databases click here.

Films on Demand
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An online video database, Films on Demand contains more than 40,000 professionally closed-captioned videos, ranging from short clips to full-length documentaries. You will find streaming videos from Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Cambridge Educational, NBC News, ABC News, PBS, The Ken Burns Collection, BBC, Meridian, the American Museum of Natural History and others.
Kanopy Streaming Videos
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NOTE: As of Spring 2021 Kanopy made changes to links and access, so proxied links to streaming videos on the platform will no longer work. Please update any links to Kanopy videos in Canvas, syllabi, etc, with the new URLs.

The new base URL is https://vt.kanopy.com with specific videos using the following format: https://vt.kanopy.com/video/seadrift

Kanopy provides hundreds of streaming videos in a wide variety of subjects. For videos outside our collection, you'll be presented a form to request they be added.
OnArchitecture
OnArchitecture provides videos on architectural subjects: interviews, buildings, and installations.
PBS Videos
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This curated collection of older streaming videos, originally broadcast on PBS, covers a broad range of disciplines in the sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences, but is particularly strong in American history and American studies. The collection Includes several of Ken Burns' series, American Experience, Scientific American Frontiers, and many others. User access is available through UVA's Avalon Media System after signing in with 2-factor authentication at Virginia Tech.
Pidgeon Digital
Pidgeon Digital provides audiovisual presentations on architecture and design.
Swank Digital Campus
Swank offers over 1000 streaming videos: popular movies, documentaries, and foreign films.

Image Resources

The are many image collections available on through museums, universities, historical societies, etc. These types of collections will usually be higher resolution than images found on Google or Flickr. Remember, regardless of where you find an image, always check the usage permissions and cite the source.

Artstor
Artstor provides high quality images of visual media like paintings, photographs, architecture, sculpture, decorative arts, and other forms of visual culture. It provides tools to create, manage, and present collections of images. Prehistoric times-present.
Artstor's ever-increasing digital library includes more than 1.9 million high-quality images for education and research from a wide variety of contributors around the world. Dozens of collections from a wide variety of cultures across all major time periods have followed, including a collection of 190,000 old master drawings originally photographed at over 100 different repositories, 20 years of contemporary New York City gallery shows, archives of Islamic textiles, the restored Ghiberti "Gates of Paradise," African masks, medieval manuscripts, images of all exhibitions shown at MoMA, and many others.

Artstor facilitates research and education in numerous disciplines, including art and visual studies, architecture, religion, anthropology and archaeology, global studies, fashion and costume, classics, world history, and more. Our library is solely available for teaching, education and scholarship, with all images supported with comprehensive metadata and cleared for educational use.

LOC Architecture, Design & Engineering Drawings
The Architecture, Design, and Engineering category covers about 40,000 drawings (described in more than 3,900 catalog records), spanning 1600 to 1989, with most dating between 1880 and 1940. The designs are primarily for sites and structures in the U.S. (especially Washington, D.C.), as well as Europe and Mexico. American architects and architectural firms created most of the images. Building types range from the United States Capitol and the Library of Congress to private residences and hamburger restaurants.

Flickr
This online photo sharing site contains images contributed by users. Images of people, places, architecture, sculpture, landscapes, animals, events, etc. Not all contributors allow their images to be used.
Flickr Commons
A sub-site of Flickr, the Commons is a collection of images from cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, and more. Many of these images are in the public domain. See the "Using and Citing Images" tab for more info.
American Memory Project
Primary source documents and archives for American history and culture from the Library of Congress. Includes printed text, collections of photographs, and some scanned manuscripts.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs

RIBApix
Images from the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Covers world architecture of all periods as well as interior design, landscape, topography, planning, construction, and decorative arts.

Society of Architecture Historians
Contains over 155,000 images of architecture and landscapes contributed by SAH members—architects, scholars, photographers, graduate students, preservationists, and others who share an interest in the built environment.

Architectural Drawings

The Art & Architecture Library houses a collection of approximately 500 architectural working drawings. Coverage ranges from local campus buildings to national airports, libraries, museums, and residences.

We are currently in the process of digitizing the architectural drawings collection. You can request access to digitized versions of the drawings by emailing Sarah Stanley (sarahstanley@vt.edu). Some digitized drawings are also available on Artstor. Physical drawings do not circulate and must be used in the library between 9am - 5pm Monday through Friday.

The Art & Architecture Drawings Database allows you to search drawing records.
The List of Architectural Drawings provides a complete list of drawings. Use the tabs at the bottom to sort by Structure, Creator, or Location.

Other Resources for Drawings and Plans

Artstor
Artstor provides high quality images of visual media like paintings, photographs, architecture, sculpture, decorative arts, and other forms of visual culture. It provides tools to create, manage, and present collections of images. Prehistoric times-present.
Artstor's ever-increasing digital library includes more than 1.9 million high-quality images for education and research from a wide variety of contributors around the world. Dozens of collections from a wide variety of cultures across all major time periods have followed, including a collection of 190,000 old master drawings originally photographed at over 100 different repositories, 20 years of contemporary New York City gallery shows, archives of Islamic textiles, the restored Ghiberti "Gates of Paradise," African masks, medieval manuscripts, images of all exhibitions shown at MoMA, and many others.

Artstor facilitates research and education in numerous disciplines, including art and visual studies, architecture, religion, anthropology and archaeology, global studies, fashion and costume, classics, world history, and more. Our library is solely available for teaching, education and scholarship, with all images supported with comprehensive metadata and cleared for educational use.
Building Types Online
Building Types Online provides information on buildings and structures around the world. Maps, architectural drawings, photos, and bibliographies are included.
Birkhäuser Building Types Online is a resource for the study and practice of architectural design. It is based on the publisher's high international standing in professional architecture books, on the knowledge of the authors and editors who are leading experts in their fields, as well as on the technical quality of the illustrations. The database offers highly flexible and detailed search and browse access to the contents of the Birkhäuser program on building types. All content was written and selected by internationally renowned authors in architectural design.
HathiTrust
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The HathiTrust Digital Library contains over seven million volumes and over one billion pages of scanned books and other materials. About 20 percent of all content is in the public domain (and accessible to you). You can also browse several public collections. Content is available in several image formats, text, and PDF. 1200s-present.