While 2021 had its share of jolts, schools and libraries began to regain their footing after the shocks of 2020 and started looking forward. And Artstor did as well, as we continued to make progress on the integration with JSTOR and on furthering the diversity of our content.

More diverse content and Open Artstor collections

Our ongoing efforts to bring more African American and ethnically diverse resources to Artstor and JSTOR started making their appearance in the middle of 2021, and we look forward to more releases this year.

Two buttons: "Free the Panthers 21" and "BLACK is Beautiful"

Two buttons. Image and original data from the New York Public Library. No copyright.

Open images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library)

A curated selection from the world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.

Promotional pamphlet for the Soul City development in North Carolina

Portfolio of eight promotional pamphlets for the Soul City development in North Carolina. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Creative Commons: Free Reuse (CC0)

Open images from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

A selection representing diverse narrative histories including enslavement and emancipation, protest and civil rights movements, and the lives of celebrated citizens and everyday people.

Eli Reed. USA. Houston, Texas. June 8, 2020. George Floyd’s Funeral service… 2020. © 2021 Eli Reed / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SAIF, Paris.

New images from Magnum Photos

Last year, Magnum photographers traveled the globe recording both the universal effects of the pandemic and a wave of domestic and worldwide protest stirred by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Poster illustration of three Axis leaders with syringes

Arthur Szyk, Fool the Axis—Use Prophylaxis. Philadelphia, 1942. Work on paper. Image and original data provided by Irvin Ungar.

The Arthur Szyk collection

A landmark offering of images by one of America’s most celebrated political artists during World War II, a dedicated activist who used his pen and brush to advocate for religious tolerance, racial equality, and human dignity.

Bayon, Tiger biting a man’s neck. Late 12th-late 13th centuries.

Bayon, Tiger biting a man’s neck. Late 12th-late 13th centuries. Sandstone, laterite. Image and data from Barbara J. Anello-Adnani.

Barbara Anello: Photographs of Khmer Sites and Monuments

Photographs of culturally and historically significant Khmer monuments and heritage, amplified by detailed descriptions.

Frederic Edwin Church. Hudson River Valley in Winter Looking Southwest from Olana. c. 1870-1880.

Frederic Edwin Church. Hudson River Valley in Winter Looking Southwest from Olana. c. 1870-1880. Oil and pencil on board. Image and data from Allan T. Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Additional images from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)

The eclectic teaching collection includes iconic works present in art history curricula. All images were selected with the assistance of Allan Kohl, visual resources librarian.

New ways to use Artstor

We’ve been working hard on the JSTOR platform to make it easy to research, teach, and learn with Artstor’s images along with texts and other types of content.

Among the many improvements, we’ve introduced advanced image search; you can also filter image searches by classification, country, and dates; and you can download and cite images directly from the image search results page. We also have made it easy to organize, annotate, and export the content on your JSTOR Workspace as PowerPoint presentations and as PDFs. You can try these tools now! Simply log in to JSTOR using your Artstor credentials.

You can follow our progress on this initiative on this page, or you can sign up for updates

Your top favorite blog posts of 2021

While 2020’s top posts concentrated on pandemics and remote learning, your favorite posts in 2021 were more celebratory — though a bittersweet personal essay by art historian Magda Salvesen also made the list.

Photograph of Shirley Chisholm greeting a group of people

Shirley Chisholm. Not dated. Copyright: Tuskegee University Archives, 2016.

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  5. Pleasurable and daunting: a wife’s work on her late husband’s archive

What we look forward to in 2022

We’re excited to continue the two directions we started last year: improving your experience working with images, primary sources, and scholarly writing together, and diversifying our content to better serve all our users in their research. Thank you for being part of our journey.