Visit the Museum Library
The Crystal Bridges Library features more than 50,000 volumes pertaining to American art and art history, plus archives containing personal papers and other artist ephemera, and access to several online resources. The Library provides the highest quality of access to resources and services, as well as commitment to the highest ethical standards for privacy, copyright, intellectual freedom, and preservation of information. The Library is located on the Museum’s third floor and is open during all Museum public hours.
Library Access & Services
Crystal Bridges Library is non-circulating: art reference books and resources are available for use in the Museum Library only. Our catalog can be accessed from any computer via the Internet. Computers are available for Library guests, as well as additional stations for laptop use. Subscription resources and e-journals can be accessed from the Library computers or via wireless Internet within the Museum. Please see guidelines for computer use. The Library’s Special Collections and Archives are available for private viewing by appointment.
Museum librarians are available for class instruction sessions and Library class tours are available for any higher education art or art history course. Please see University of Arkansas Art Resources and Art Libguides for specific course research
Library Blog
Borders and Books: Crystal Bridges Library display illuminates the history of the US-Mexico boundary
Subscription Databases
All Museum guests, students, and community members are welcome to use these databases at the Museum Library. Passwords and access available only from Museum Library computers. University of Arkansas students can access electronic resources using your current UARK login and password. Non-university users can access selected electronic resources from UA Library public computers.
*A licensed online subscription database only accessible from Museum staff & Library computers. The most comprehensive online reference resource for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide. Grove Art Online features artists’ biographies, over 45,000 signed articles, 5,500 images, 40,000 image links, timelines of world art, and MoMA lesson plans.
*A licensed online subscription database only accessible from Museum staff & Library computers. JSTOR is one of the best resources for art publications and includes full-text content of more than 1,300 academic journals, as well as thousands of primary sources in the arts, humanities and other disciplines.
A licensed online subscription database only accessible from Museum staff & Library computers. ProQuest provides access to full-text and PDF searching of archival issues from major newspapers (Washington Post, Wall St Journal, New York Times, LA Times, and Chicago Tribune) as well as a wide range of periodicals relating to the arts and architecture in a unified search platform.
American Art Periodicals
Available in the Crystal Bridges Library Current Periodicals Section American Art PeriodicalsDigital Collections
Crystal Bridges librarians or scholars collaborate to prepare digital exhibitions or other online resources, often based on materials held in the Library’s historical collection. These research-based materials are made available for all as a means of providing insight into the Library’s resources and to increase public access to the materials herein. We will continue to add to these resources as new projects are developed.Explore the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright on Fay Jones’s work as illustrated in the Bachman-Wilson House, a 1953 example of Wright’s Usonian principles soon to be installed on the grounds of Crystal Bridges Museum. The lives of these two notable architects – Arkansas native and award-winning architect Fay Jones (1921-2004) and his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) – intersected for a 10-year time period, beginning in 1949 until Wright’s death in 1959. This digital exhibit documents the development of these two notable architects’ affiliation, and includes nearly 150 photographs ; plus primary source materials such as correspondence; lectures; musings and writings; and other media, including a video interview with Fay Jones’s wife Gus, created by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. This exhibition was created through a collaboration between the Library at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections.
This resource offers interdisciplinary curriculum materials to integrate early American natural history documents and works of art into World History, American History, British Literature, American Literature, and Biology.
By 2014 William Reese Company Teacher Fellow, Anne Greenwood
“Fruit-Full” Arkansas: Apples is collaboration between Crystal Bridges Museum Library and Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries. The selections for this digital include images of apples from fifteen Crystal books of color plates published between 1851 and 1922 and an array of materials from the Special Collections manuscripts and book collections includes folklore class reports, folk customs, poetry, and souvenir booklets of Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas.
By 2014 William Reese Company Teacher Fellow, Anne Greenwood
Archives and Manuscripts
The Artists’ Letters and Manuscripts are the physical property of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The collection is arranged alphabetically by artist, then chronologically by item.
The records are open for research and contain no restricted materials. To schedule a viewing, or to obtain permission to publish, reproduce, or cite these materials, please contact [email protected].
Items in the Artists’ Letters and Manuscripts Collection were largely amassed between 2005 and 2007, however, the Museum continues to add material to the collection. When available, information regarding provenance accompanies the finding-aid entries. There are seven boxes and a finding aid for each box. Artist names are listed under box numbers.
Finding Aids
BOX 1.PDF
BOX 2.PDF
BOX 3.PDF
BOX 4.PDF
BOX 5.PDF
BOX 6.PDF
BOX 7.PDF