Library & Archives
The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library boasts a noncirculating collection of more than 94,000 items. The collection includes, but is not limited to, monographs, reference books and databases, collection and exhibition catalogs, scholarly periodicals, auction catalogs, and over 10,000 artist vertical files.
We look forward to welcoming researchers to our newly renovated space. Please request an appointment at least two weeks in advance by emailing bmalibrary@artbma.org. We are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with a one-hour break for lunch).
A–Z Databases
Get started with our research guides and annotated A–Z databases, which list more than 300 freely available online art history databases and resources. Visiting researchers may use the following subscription-based electronic databases on site by making an appointment. Please contact bmalibrary@artbma.org to schedule an appointment.
- Art Index Retrospective and Art & Architecture Source
- Artists’ Signatures
- Artkhade
- Artnet
- Artstor
- AskART
- FirstSearch
- JSTOR
- Oxford Art Online
- Prices4Antiques
Archives and Manuscripts Collections
The Archives and Manuscripts Collections contain more than 2.6 million records and include the BMA’s institutional records as well as the personal papers of collectors, former staff members, and individuals with a close connection to the Museum. This rich resource houses a wide variety of primary source material that documents the origins, development, activities, and decisions of the Museum, including its exhibitions, acquisitions, departments, scholarly and educational programs, building, and grounds. Formats include, but are not limited to, letters, diaries, meeting minutes, photographs, sound and moving image recordings, graphic materials, architectural plans, financial documents, and curatorial research notes.
Finding Aids
To learn more about the items held by the BMA Archives, start by reviewing the published finding aids. Finding aids are access tools that provide information about the contents and structure of archival collections to help researchers identify and relevant request materials. Archival materials are organized into series; listings of folders may be included with brief descriptions of their contents. When the significance of the materials warrants more information, detailed folder or item descriptions may also be included.
Digital Collections
The BMA Library & Archives Digital Collections contain digitized materials from institutional records and manuscripts, including photographs, audio recordings, videos, receipts, BMA publications, and correspondence. Highlights include photographs of Etta Cone and Claribel Cone, letters from 19th-century artists to George A. Lucas, recordings of lectures at the BMA, and photographs of the BMA’s earliest exhibitions. We have ongoing digitization projects for archival materials, and new materials are added regularly.
Rights
If you are interested in duplication services for private study and personal use, please fill out the duplication form here and include the relevant archival collection citations, or write to the Museum Archives staff at bmalibrary@art.org. To request permission to publish BMA Archives and Manuscripts Collections materials, please contact the Image Services and Rights Department at rights@bma.org. A credit line must accompany use of our materials.
About the Library
The Museum’s founders had the vision to include a library from the institution’s inception, as documented in the Museum’s Articles of Incorporation (1914):
“The establishing and maintaining in the City of Baltimore of a Museum and Library of Art” and that vision has been sustained to the current day. The mission of the E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library is to maintain and build wide-ranging holdings of published materials to support research into the artworks and constituent programs of the Museum and to provide services that support the research activities of the Museum’s staff and community of students and scholars. In 2024, staff members at the Library added more than 3,000 titles to its holdings. The following collection development policy serves as a planning guide for selection decisions.
Read the Collection Development Policy[
Gifts
The E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library at the Baltimore Museum of Art welcomes gifts of artist monographs, catalogues raisonnés, exhibition catalogs, auction catalogs, collection catalogs, and other research materials. We recognize that it is, in part, through such generosity that the Library is able to add depth to the research materials available to the Museum’s staff and community. Please read through the following guidelines and contact the Library by email at bmalibrary@artbma.org with any questions or to send information regarding your donation proposal.
Gift Policy