Name of repository
Harvard University Art Museums
Address
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Contact
Telephone
617-495-9400
Fax
Email
Description of the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums is one of the leading arts institutions
in the United States and the world. It is distinguished by the range
and depth of its collections and its groundbreaking exhibitions and
original research. For more than a century it has been the nation’s
premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars, and
it is renowned for its seminal and ongoing role in the development
of the discipline of art history in this country.
The three Harvard University Art Museums—the Fogg Art Museum, the
Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum—are all
outstanding institutions in their respective fields. The Fogg also houses
the Straus Center for Conservation, a leader in the research and development
of scientific and technology-based analysis of art. The 230,000 objects
cared for by the Art Museums range in date from ancient times to the
present, and come from Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle
East, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Each Museum has an active
program of special exhibitions that promotes new scholarship in its respective
areas of focus.
As an integral component of the Harvard University community, the Art
Museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension
both to their specific areas of study and to their lives at and after
Harvard. The Art Museums welcome members of the public to experience
its collections and special exhibitions, as well as to enjoy its lectures,
symposia, and other programs. http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu
Description of the Digital Imaging and Visual Resources Department
The mission of the Digital Imaging and Visual Resources Department of
the Harvard University Art Museums is to capture, maintain and provide
high-quality images of artwork in the collections, and historical visual
material relating to our institution. The department negotiates and
monitors licensing agreements for publication of our images in all
print and electronic media. As of April, 2004, the department has contributed
over 28,681 digital images to the Harvard Digital Repository and maintains
approximately 50,000 negatives, transparencies and glass plate negatives
in the archives. With its emphasis on creating digital assets, the
archives continues to grow in great numbers. The department is opened
to qualified researchers by appointment only.
What's in VIA?
Currently, there are approximately 85,000 VIA “work” records
reflecting original objects of art in the permanent collections of the
Harvard University Art Museums. About 18,000 digital images illustrate
these objects. As art object cataloguing occurs and the visual documentation
of the collection proceeds, HUAM will continue to contribute additional
records to VIA.
How we use VIA
Each Harvard University Art Museums "work" record in VIA represents
an original art object in the Art Museums care. Object descriptive information
such as artist, maker, title, date, medium, etc., is catalogued within
the Art Museums’ internal collections information management system
and periodically uploaded to VIA for general dissemination. Unlike some
of the other repositories that contribute to VIA, and because of the
nature of the museums’ collecting rationale, the museums generally
do not publish cataloguing records for objects such as photographs which
depict places, events, or things as if they are surrogate images of the
site, rather, the cataloguing tends to focus on the object as an artistic
work.
Permissions
The digital copy of any HUAM image found in VIA is for personal use only,
and may not be sold, loaned, copied or published without the express
permission of the Visual Resources Department, Harvard University Art
Museums.
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/copyright
Reproduction
To obtain rights for any use, in any media, of any image from the Art
Museums, please contact the Visual Resources Department, Harvard University
Art Museums.
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/vr
Copyright
The President and Fellows of Harvard College make no representation that
they are the owner of the copyright; any researcher wishing to make
such use of the image must therefore assume all responsibility for
clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of Title 17 of
the United States Code
