Library

In addition to providing public access to the research collection on our main stacks, the library makes rare books and archival materials available through museum exhibitions, school tours, and public programs. These materials also are accessible to researchers and the public on request. Requests can be submitted via form, here. We ask for two weeks’ notice to review and prepare requested materials but will accommodate all requests when possible.

Crystal Bridges Library holds collections of antiquarian and artist’s books, as well as artist’s editions and works on paper. Our rare book holdings, developed in consultation with acclaimed bookseller William S. Reese, date from the 17th century to today and tell the story of America through the lenses of art, history, literature, earth and social sciences, medicine, and more. The library also holds Reese’s personal collection of 19th century American color plate books, offering a comprehensive survey of book printing technology from the the advent of color plate printing in the United States ca. 1800 through the appearance of chromatic halftone printing in the 1890s.

The museum archives serves as a repository for the historical documents and permanent records of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It is also where we preserve the preliminary drawings, prototypes, and records that document the creative processes behind museum artworks. Additionally, archival research collections offer more in-depth holdings on artists and topics of art historical interest. Highlights include:

The Fly's Eye Dome Collection is an archive of the conception and creation of Buckminster Fuller’s fifty-foot Fly’s Eye Dome compiled by John Warren and the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

The Dr. Francis V. O’Connor Research Collection comprises O’Connor’s artist files and his research and writing on Jackson Pollock, including the 1978 Pollock catalogue raisonné. Additional holdings include research on the Federal Art Project and mural artists, as well as O’Connor’s personal papers.

Gifted by Doris Bry to Crystal Bridges, the Records of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection Gift to Fisk University document Georgia O’Keefe’s 1949 gift to Fisk University of a collection now held in joint ownership by the university and Crystal Bridges.

Until a database of Crystal Bridges' special collections materials comes online in 2027, please contact us at library@crystalbridges.org for more information about archival holdings.

Crystal Bridges' artist files house correspondence, pamphlets, and ephemera by and about American artists from the 18th century through today. The museum also holds historical autograph collections, including several of Jerome Milkman's scrapbooks.

To complement our physical collections, Crystal Bridges subscribes to several art reference databases available for use in the library:

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Crystal Bridges’ JSTOR subscription provides access to nearly 5,000 international journals of the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, including full runs of more than 2,600 journals.

Grove Dictionary of Art is an authority on all aspects of the visual arts that features entries on artists, architects, craftsmen, patrons, movements, locations, and periods, as well as bibliographies for further research and thousands of searchable images.

Benezit Dictionary of Artists is a comprehensive resource of over 170,000 international artists’ biographies, including bibliographies and exhibition and auction records.

Art & Architecture Source is the largest full-text art research database. With strong international coverage, it offers over 450 active art journals and magazines, as well as thousands of indexed art dissertations and art reproductions.