The Big List of Online Exhibitions: NEW

This exhaustive list from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries features links to online exhibitions created by libraries, archives, historical societies and museums, all with a significant focus on library and archival materials. Exhibitions include printed books, book illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, printed ephemera, posters, archival audio and video recordings, artist's books, and the book arts (engraving, marbling, bookbinding, etc.). Exhibitions are listed alphabetically by title; a keyword search engine is under development.

Form Follows Function

The Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum scores an impressive victory for sane and useful web design with it's online exhibit Graphic Design In The Mechanical Age. This elegantly simple exhibit explores the avant garde roots of a relative newcomer among the visual arts -- the term "graphic designer" first appeared in print in 1922 -- tracing its evolution from the early century's work by Dadaists and Futurists through its development as a powerful tool of commerce, social change and politics. The images are wonders of fidelity that load fast, the text concise and enlightening, and the site's navigation easy and logical. All in all, this is a wonderful marriage of form and content. All of us who publish on the web would do well to learn its lessons.

    Also Of Interest: Van Gogh Museum | Amsterdam

    And: Kyoto National Museum

    New: Tate Gallery | London, Liverpool, St. Ives

A Long Time Coming

Sublime Anxiety: The Gothic Family and the Outsider can be vexingly slow to load over a dial-up connection; in fact, we've skipped the gratuitously graphics-heavy top page and linked here to the next page in the line-up. It's slow, too, but the images that eventually show up are worth the wait. If you've got time on your hands and a taste for Gothic literature -- from the books listed in Jane Austen's "Northanger Canon" to Anne Rice's time-traveling vampire yarns and Edward Gorey's unsettling images -- you'll enjoy this exhibit from The University of Virginia Library.

    Also Of Interest: The Freak Show: photographs by kattaryna breaux

Rare Images for Authors & Publishers

Looking for a vintage photo of Sylvia Beach to illustrate your next book? How about a nice 18th-century Ethiopic illumination depicting St. George and The Dragon? You're in luck. The Princeton University Library has assembled more than 400 of the most often requested images from its Department of Rare Books & Special Collections in a new online Portfolio Project. Thumbnails and enlargements of the images are the main attraction for the casual browser, but researchers, authors and publishers will find the information they need to request copies and secure permission for publication.

Mark Rothko: Toward A Dark Palette

While not an online exhibition as such, but rather a biographical companion to an exhibition, Washington's National Gallery of Art's illustrated timeline of one artist's evolution has more to offer than online notes. Mark Rothko is a rich collection of images, of both the artist and his work at key stages in his creative life, combined with concise but revealing text. And there's more to the site than meets the eye at first glance; be sure to use the little maroon arrow icons to move back and forth within major sections. The top page of each is just the beginning. Delicious.

    Also Of Interest: Frank Lloyd Wright [ companion to PBS bio ]

Virtual Ink is a PICTOGRAPH.COM Web Guide