The Princeton University Art Museum has contributed nearly 600 images to the Artstor Digital Library. The selection presents highlights from the museum’s global collections.

The origin of Princeton’s art collection nearly coincides with the University’s charter in 1746, making it one of the oldest in America. However, the Museum, along with what is now the Department of Art and Archaeology, was not formally founded until 1882, positioning the University at the fore of the nascent discipline of art history in North America.

Today, with global holdings including nearly 100,000 objects, the Museum is among the nation’s leaders, and one of our most outstanding academic collections. The encyclopedic holdings range from ancient to contemporary art and concentrate geographically on the Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America. A distinguished collection of Greek and Roman antiquities includes ceramics, marbles, bronzes, and Roman mosaics. Medieval Europe is represented by sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. The collection of European paintings and sculpture includes important examples from the early Renaissance through the nineteenth century, which stand alongside a collection of prints and drawings that now numbers nearly 10,000 objects. The collection of twentieth-century and contemporary art—with a particular emphasis on undervalued artists—is supplemented by exceptional long-term loans whose histories are now intertwined with that of the Museum.

Along with the University’s Department of Art and Archaeology and the Marquand Library, the Museum anchors a dynamic center for the study of art.

The Museum has also contributed a substantial share of its Minor White Archive—representing nearly 6,000 photographs—to the Artstor Digital Library, as a separate collection. Please visit the Minor White Archive (Princeton University Art Museum).