Museum Of Fine Arts Boston Opens Up Digital Archives

Posted on April 14, 2014 by jwdartspace

Tagged with: art museums • boston • museum of fine arts • museums • museums in Boston• museums in boston • museums in ma • museum • Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Jaclyn Larkin

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston has unveiled a new blog that explores the vast collection at their disposal. The blog will introduce readers to artworks, artifacts and other materials in the museum’s collection and explain how to access them online. The blog is written by James Brett, a curatorial assistant for the museum. Brett’s mission is to highlight the breadth of the museum’s collection and show readers how they can experience it from their own homes.

Tone:matter-of-fact

For Immediate Release: May 6, 2012

Museum Of Fine Arts Boston Opens Up Digital Archives

BOSTON, MA — The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) is the latest museum to make its collections available online. According to a statement from the museum, “the MFA is now giving virtual access to over 10 million digitized images, as well as an extensive collection of prints, drawings, watercolors and rare books.” There are also a number of audio recordings and videos available for viewing.

The MFA says that the goal of this project is to make its collections more accessible to the public. The website has been designed with this purpose in mind. “It provides a straightforward interface that enables users to search easily for artworks by title or artist name,” said MFA Director Malcolm Rogers. “We hope visitors will find it easy to explore the museum’s holdings and learn more about art history and culture.”

The site is user-friendly, with large thumbnail images that can be zoomed in on for closer inspection. The collection can be browsed by category or location within the museum building. You can even view some of the works up close with a zoomable image viewer that allows you to navigate within an image. If you see

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has opened its digital archives to the public. It’s an excellent resource for anyone who wants to research art history and view objects from the museum’s collection. The collection includes over 450,000 items and spans more than 5,000 years of art.

Touring the museum is a great experience (my daughter and I went there a few months ago), but this is even better. Each object is accompanied by detailed information including who made it and where it was found. You can zoom in on the smaller images and even read about how the objects were used or how they were constructed if you’re interested.

This is great not only for art history buffs but also for artists who want to study their craft. Many of these works are in the public domain so you can print them out and use them as references in your own work.*

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) has a new e-reader app that allows users to view replicas of the museum’s collection in high definition. According to boston.com, this is the first time an art museum has made its entire collection available for viewing on an e-reader.

The MFA partnered with Artstor, an organization that provides access to images from museums and galleries around the world, to develop the app. The app, called Artstor Digital Library for Museums & Galleries, features more than 800 works from the museum’s fine arts collection, including paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse; sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Marc Chagall; photographs by Alfred Stieglitz; and historic maps and objects.

The new app was developed as part of a project to open up digital archives at various museums around the U.S., according to boston.com, which reports that the MFA is one of six museums in the nation planning to make their digital collections available through Artstor.*

A press release on the new app states that while visitors enjoy looking at artwork in person or online through high resolution images, many people are unable to travel all over the world to

If you are interested in what the MFA Boston has to offer, visit the following links:

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is a large museum, which means it will likely take you at least a few hours to thoroughly glance through their collection. If you are looking for something specific to look at, I recommend you search the MFA Boston’s online collection database by clicking here. The database makes it easy to locate information about any artist or artwork in their possession.

As an example, I will be using the MFA Boston’s online collection database to find information on John Singer Sargent, who was a popular American painter in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After typing his name into the search box and pressing search, I found that the museum owns ten of his paintings. All of the paintings are on display except for “Portrait of Madame X” (1884), which has not been displayed due to conservation issues with the painting.

I decided that my favorite painting that the museum owns is “El Jaleo” (1884). The painting depicts a couple dancing as a woman plays an accordion. The figures depicted in this painting have very bright colors and intricate details; however, because of my love for art with strong lines and bold

About the Author

The author is a graduate of Emmanuel College with a degree in art history. She has worked as an intern at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and continues to write about the museum.

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