Visual Culture - Searching beyond the basics

Use this resource to search for journal articles, e-books and images.  All visual arts subjects are included.  Links to the full text are provided, where available.

Helps you to find out what articles have been published in journals related to these subjects. Often you can link to the full text of the article too.

Includes archival full text access to magazines including Architects' Journal (1929 - 2005), Architectural Review (1896 - 2005), Art Monthly (1976 - 2005), British Journal of Photography (1860 - 2005) and Eye: International Review of Graphic Design (1990 - 2005).

This database enables you to find out what articles have been published in journals between 1929 and 1984

An academic journal archive containing thousands of articles on a wide range of subjects. You will need to search other databases to find the most recent years.

An academic journal archive containing thousands of articles on a wide range of subjects.

A complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included. You can find images by garment type, designer and brand names.

One of the fashion industry's most influential journals, coverage is from the first issue in 1910 to material from within the last twelve months. Every page, article, advertisement and cover has been included and is fully searchable.

Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s.

Full text of regional and national UK and international newspapers from the 1980s onwards. Useful for reviews and public opinions.

Access facsimile articles (including photos) from the Daily Express and Daily Mirror from the early 1900s onwards. Useful if you want the tabloid view on topical issues.

Full articles, including images, from the Daily Express (1900-) and the Daily Mirror (1903-).

Search and read a wide range of national and regional newspapers from 1741-1950.

Use with care as this tabloid is known for its strong views but it can help with some assignments and certain dissertation topics. Search for stories or use the browse feature to flick through the paper on particular days, including special editions published in connection with Queen Victoria, George V, Elizabeth II's coronation and Winston Churchill. Use Nexis if you want to go beyond 2004.

Search for stories in this popular tabloid or use the browse feature to flick through the paper on particular days. Use Nexis if you want to go beyond 2004.

Access stories and photos from The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003). Use Nexis if you want to search up to the current day.

The world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper containing useful background for Victorian topics in particular.

The world’s first illustrated weekly newspaper.

Search over 200 years of articles. Articles are full facsimiles of what was published on the day and you can view the article in its original page location if you want.

Full articles including images from the Times Newspaper

Access facsimile articles (including photos) from the Daily Express and Daily Mirror from the early 1900s onwards. Useful if you want the tabloid view on topical issues.

Full articles, including images, from the Daily Express (1900-) and the Daily Mirror (1903-).

Explore 20 collections of documents, including minutes of meetings and conferences, press releases, fliers, brochures, press clippings, US government memoranda and reports, private correspondence, surveys and photos.

Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement encompasses an international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.

This resource covers the fascinating subject of feminism over the long nineteenth century (1776–1928). It contains an extensive range of primary and secondary resources, including photographs and illustrations.

An online archive of printed material covering aspects of everyday life in Britain in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. You will find posters and handbills for theatrical and non-theatrical entertainments, broadsides relating to murders and executions, book and journal prospectuses, popular topographical prints, and a wealth of different kinds of printed advertising material.

Access a range of primary and secondary sources covering London from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. As well as documents, you will find interactive maps, illustrations and photographs to really bring the streets to life.

A key source about daily life in the 20th century. You can look at topic collections (1938-65) on juvenile delinquency, holidays, leisure, industry etc., or view diary entries (1939-51) and day surveys. File reports (1937-1972) cover subjects such as propaganda, morale, popular culture, shopping, sex, fashion and much more.

Digital archive chronicling the history of disability arts in the UK. It includes 3,500 images, oral history film interviews, educational resources and animations and articles.

Explore documents, fanzines, photos and newsreel footage to help understand these key decades when consumer culture and pop music took off and protest movements were big news.

An essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries containing everything from full-text books, to posters and performance tickets.

Detailed aerial imagery.

The AJ Buildings Library showcases thousands of architectural projects and includes full project data, architectural photographs and drawings (plans, elevation, section). There is also a large number of working details. Drawings can be downloaded and printed out to their original scale. NB Vector pdfs and CAD files are not available for download and all copyrighted images are protected. 

A database of more than 2 million images related to visual arts and culture. You can create, save and share groups of images and make presentations too.

Culture Grid provides access to UK arts, culture and heritage collections. You can also access European collections through Europeana. Results draw on image, audio and video artefacts.

eLexicons include Fashion, Typography, Graphic Design, Graphic Art, Illustration, and Lettering. It includes over 2,500 biographical entries of key designers in these areas and provides examples of their work. You can easily see who has influenced whom, who is working within particular movements, with particular typefaces and so on. Watch this short video to get you started.

Use this online local heritage resource to search and explore digitised local studies collections from across Hampshire, including Southampton and Portsmouth.

Global Plants is a community-contributed database used by students and researchers. Global Plants lets herbaria share their plant type specimens, experts determine and update plant names, and students discover and learn about plants in context

Global Plants is a beautifully illustrated resource of archival and modern plant type specimens. If you are interested in botanical illustration visit this resource.

Online access to Metropolitan Museum of Art's collections. All images have been made available without copyright restriction.

Includes access to over 100,000 images from a range of collections including the Design Council Archive, Imperial War Museum, London College of Fashion, National Fine Art Collection and Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection.

Search millions of objects in the V&A collections.

Explore more than 50,000 artworks and photographs ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and science.

This collection provides a key resource for the historical study of British and international art, and aspects of British documentary film-making.

This fantastic resource has captured UK terrestrial TV and radio programmes from 1998 onwards for anyone in UK universities to watch for free. You can create playlists and clips to embed in presentations, as well as putting in requests for recording. Look out for all the useful documentaries. (Not available to anyone outside the UK.)

This resource, from Learning on Screen includes a Moving Image Gateway to 2,000 websites relating to moving image and sound materials, News on Screen resource for the study of newsreels and cinemagazines, Archives and Footage from screen heritage, including film production and television and video equipment, and International Database of Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio.

A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.