American art articles and essays from Resource Library Magazine; February, 2001

See TFAO's Museums Explained to learn about the "inner workings" of art museums and the functions of staff members. In the exhibitions section find out how to get the most out of a museum visit. See definitions for a glossary of museum-related words used in articles. Also see notes about our 2011 editing project.

To help you plan visits to institutions exhibiting American art when traveling see Sources of Articles Indexed by State within the United States.

Permissions from sources

When Resource Library published over time more than one article concerning an institution, there was created as an additional resource for readers a sub-index page containing links to each Resource Library article or essay concerning that institution, plus available information on its location and other descriptive information. .

Unless specifically described in editor's notes or headers within Resource Library or Resource Library Magazine pages containing articles and essays by named authors, such materials were published in 1997 through 2016 by either permission of a named institutional source within the Art Museum, Gallery and Art Center index, an author within the Author Study and Index, or a non-institutional source. In some cases, both the source and author provided permissions.

Permissions, in most instances, were provided by institutional sources specifically identified within the article or essay pages. As noted above, when Resource Library or Resource Library Magazine published over time more than one article or essay concerning an institution, it created, as an additional resource for readers, a sub-index page containing links to each Resource Library or Resource Library Magazine article or essay concerning that institution, plus available information on its location and other descriptive information. A typical notation at the end of an article or essay might be "Read more information, articles and essays concerning this institutional source by visiting the sub-index page for the (named institution) in Resource Library (or Resource Library Magazine in instances of publication by Traditional Fine Arts Organization's predecessor)" or similar wording.

An invitation to museums

TFAO advocates for museums to permanently make available materials about special exhibitions on their websites. Most museum websites have a "past exhibitions" section. Often, when information about an exhibition is first posted, a permanent URL is created that is carried forward in website sections for future, current and past exhibitions. A common format is: https//museumname.org/exhibitions/name of exhibit.

A wide variety of materials are posted by museums for an individual exhibition. Contents on a page for an exhibition may include narrative paragraphs about the exhibition, photos of art objects, plus links to: a press release for the exhibition, newspaper and magazine articles, promotional PSA videos, lecture videos, gallery guides, brochures and checklists.

Once a museum has decided upon a URL format for presenting online exhibition information, it is important that the format be maintained permanently. This is to prevent dead links in articles, research papers and other materials published by outside persons and organizations.

An effect of Covid temporary museum closures in 2020-21was that scores of art museums greatly enhanced the quality and quantity of online exhibit presentations.

TFAO catalogues providing useful resources

American Representational Art - links to dozens of topics in American Representational Art

Distinguished Artists - a national registry of historic artists

Videos Online - a comprehensive catalogue of online full motion videos streamed free to viewers

Audio Online - a catalogue of online streaming audio recordings

Collections of Historic American Art - notable private collections

Geographic Tour of American Representational Art History - a catalogue of articles and essays that describe the evolution of American art from the inception of the United States to WWII.

Articles and Essays Online - substantive texts published outside of Resource Library

Videos - an authoritative guide to videos in VHS and DVD format

Illustrated Audio Online - streaming online narrated slide shows

Books - general reference books published on paper

Magazines - paper-published magazines and journals

Interactive media - CD-ROM format

How to find content on our site using search engines

Conduct keyword searches within TFAO's website and Resource Library, a collection of articles and essays honoring the American experience through its art, using the advanced search feature of Google and Yahoo. Or, before entering keywords in a basic search, enter site:tfaoi.org

Also see Indexes and information retrieval for more information.

Return to Topics in American Art - Site Guide

About Resource Library

Resource Library is a free online publication of nonprofit Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO). Since 1997, Resource Library and its predecessor Resource Library Magazine have cumulatively published online 1,300+ articles and essays written by hundreds of identified authors, thousands of other texts not attributable to named authors, plus 24,000+ images, all providing educational and informational content related to American representational art. Texts and related images are provided almost exclusively by nonprofit art museum, gallery and art center sources.

All published materials provide educational and informational content to students, scholars, teachers and others. Most published materials relate to exhibitions. Materials may include whole exhibition gallery guides, brochures or catalogues or texts from them, perviously published magazine or journal articles, wall panels and object labels, audio tour scripts, play scripts, interviews, blogs, checklists and news releases, plus related images.

What you won't find:

User-tracking cookies are not installed on our website. Privacy of users is very important to us. You won't find annoying banners and pop-ups either. Our pages are loaded blazingly fast. Resource Library contains no advertising and is 100% non-commercial. .

(left: JP Hazeltine, founding editor, Resource Library)

Links to sources of information outside our website are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other websites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. We neither recommend or endorses these referenced organizations. Although we include links to other websites, we take no responsibility for the content or information contained on other sites, nor exert any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see our General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.