Art NACO

Below are some biographical resources, mostly online, that may be helpful in establishing names in the Name Authority File.

• The AIA Historical Directory of American Architects (American Institute of Architects)
• American ceramist database (compiled by Elizabeth Gulacsy, New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University) [no longer available except within AU firewall, as part of MDID database]
• Art Metropole Collection at the National Gallery of Canada Library. The collection preserves the artistic production and documentary evidence of the conceptual art movement in Canada and internationally, chiefly from the 1960s onward. (from a notice by Jonathan Franklin on ARLIS-L, 20 January 2003) The database was created by Art Metropole staff. It includes information on more than 8000 artists. The authority records for the artists are not available on the web but if you could use the information on an artist, library staff could provide the text of the authority record. Contact email: erefel@gallery.ca.
• the-artists.org (mostly contemporary artists)
• Artists in Canada (National Gallery of Canada Library)
• Biographical dictionary of architects in Canada, 1800-1960
• Brief biographies of American architects who died between 1897 and 1947 (transcribed from the American art annual by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Director, Maine Historic Preservation Commission)
• British Architectural Library Online Catalogue (includes architect search and building search, database includes books, periodicals, and other materials)
• The Canadian Art Database (Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art)
• Canadian Women Artists History Initiative (based at Concordia University)
• Contemporary Artists Index (Cleveland Institute of Art. Gund Library)
• Copyright Catalog: Books, Music, Etc.
• The dictionary of art historians (Lee Sorensen)
• Directory of Minnesota photographers (Minnesota Historical Society)
• Fotografiebibliotheek online (Nederlands Foto Museum database)
• Franciscan authors, 13th-18th century: a catalogue in progress, compiled by Maarten van der Heijden and Bert Roest
• International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) (Virginia Tech)
• Inventory of the Native Artists Files, c. 1962-Present from the Institute of American Indian Arts ("nearly 4,300 biographical files containing primary and secondary source material related to Native American Artists"; the webpage includes listing of names)
• Inuit artists page at Inuit Art Centre website (IAC = a federal program in the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) - recommended by Liz Stevens, University of Manitoba (effectively supplements the Inuit Artist Biography System which is available on disks)
• http://local-artists.org/ (Irving Sandler Artist File, housed at Artists Space, New York; mostly NYC artists with information including images submitted by artists)
• Long Beach Museum of Art On-line Ceramics Collection (under portfolios, you can select potters A-Z; checking several, I found life dates)
• North Carolina Architects and Designers (North Carolina Modernist Houses)
• Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
• Photographers' Identities Catalog (New York Public Library)
• Social Security death index (Rootsweb)
• VIRCONA: a catalog of Native American artists
• William J. Hill Texas Artists & Artisans Archive (Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Museum of Fine Arts Houston)

Last updated: 4 March 2025