Search Collections
Artwork Search Tips
- Searches are not case sensitive - you may use all capital letters, all lower case, or mixed case and get the same result.
- If you type any words into the name, title, or keyword fields, the system will match anything that contains that combination of letters.
Example:Entering Richard into the artist name field will return the names Richards or Richardson.
Entering swim into the keyword field will return swimmers and swimming. - Try using the different available search fields together to refine your search.
Example:Enter Sargent, John Singer into the artist name field and select Artwork Type = Painting.
Enter dog into the keyword field and check the box for Artworks with image.
Enter Los Angeles into the keyword field and select Artwork Type = Photography.
Artist Name
- For artist names, enter the first and last names either in normal word order or inverted word order separated by a comma.
Example:Robert Rauschenberg
Homer, Winslow
-
If you enter one name only, the search will return works by any artist who has that name (as either a first or last name, or even as part of their name).
Example:Enter the name William and the search results will include works by William H. Johnson and Arthur Williams.
-
Watch for spelling and typos - if a name is misspelled, then you may get a result of "no works" after you click "Find Artwork."
Example:Enter Georgia O'Keeffe and the search will return a number of records.
Enter Georgia O'Keefe and the result will be "no works."
Title
-
Enter in any word or combination of words in the title. The more words of the title you can include, the narrower your results will be. Using more unusual or specific words will help you find a particular work more quickly.
Example:Entering a general word like "sun" in the title will return hundreds of results (including titles with the words sunset, sunrise, Sunday, sundown, and sunny). If you were searching for the painting 3:00 p.m. Sunset at Head of Bowdoin Bay by Frank Wilbert Stokes, try entering Bowdoin Bay in the title search instead of sun or sunset to get a smaller set of results.
Keyword
Keyword searching allows you to find artworks based on subject matter or medium. Keyword will search on medium or process (watercolor, pencil, ink, gelatin silver, lithograph, etching, gouache, bronze), support (paper, canvas), and an extensive set of subject terms (landscape, California, still life, shipwreck, self-portrait, horse, church, boxing, playwright). Keyword searches will also look for the word in the title of the work.
Keyword hints
- Medium or process: Enter only a single word at a time.
Examples:To find oil paintings, type in only the word oil (NOT "oil on canvas" or "oil on wood").
For photographs, type in gelatin to find gelatin silver prints.
For prints, use process terms like lithograph or etching to find a specific type of print. - Historical subjects: You may search on historical terms like Boston Massacre, Civil Rights, Civil War, Depression, Emancipation Proclamation, Holocaust, immigration, Underground Railroad, or World War II. Enter all the words into the box for subject terms like Civil War.
-
Places: To find works that depict specific locations, try searching by the proper place name.
Examples:You may enter place names for countries (France, Ecuador), states (Maine, Tennessee), cities (Boston, New York), parks (Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park), mountains (Catskill Mountains, Mount Saint Helens), lakes (Lake Placid, Great Salt Lake), rivers (Platte River, Hudson River) and many other places.
- Portraits: To find a portrait of an individual by name, type in the first and last name of the sitter or subject into the keyword field in INVERTED ORDER, SEPARATED BY A COMMA (i.e., Washington, George or Lincoln, Abraham). Include a hyphen in the term self-portrait.
- Ethnic Groups: Include a hyphen in the term African-American.
- Native American subjects: use the term Indian to include all Native American groups, or use specific names like Sioux or Blackfoot to narrow the results to a specific group.
- For additional hints on the type of subject terms available, you can view the set of keyword terms assigned to any object by clicking on a title in the search results to go to an individual object record. Scroll down to the bottom left side of page to view the keyword terms. You may click on any keyword term in that set (each term appears as a hyperlink) to create a new search based on that keyword.
-
IMPORTANT: within the keyword search field, enter only one search term at a time.
Example:If you enter the terms watercolor AND church (one medium and one subject term), you will get no results.
Accession Number
Every object in the collection has a unique object number, called an Accession Number, assigned by the museum when the object was acquired. If you know the specific accession number for any work, you can enter the number in the search field.
Example:
Life and Death, Porcupine Flat, 1930 by Chiura Obata has an accession number of 2000.76.3. Enter 2000.76.3 in the accession number search field to find that artwork.
An accession number is made up of two or more parts. The first four digits are the year that the object was acquired by the museum, followed by a period. The digits after the period represent a lot number and an object number.
Accession Number hints
- The web search has a "wildcard" character—the % symbol. If you do not know the exact accession number, but you know part of it, you can type in what you know followed by the % sign. This is also a good way to find all the artworks acquired in a certain year. Example: Enter 2005% in the search field to see everything that has an accession number beginning with 2005.This also works to locate all the items acquired as part of a single group or lot. Example:
2005.5.1 - 2005.5.75 is a large group of objects acquired at the same time. Enter 2005.5.% to see just this group.
Join in the Conversation!