| As a research center, the Frick Art Reference Library is first and foremost committed to serving scholars gathering information for their own publications. Nonetheless, over the course of its history, the Library staff has also been pro-active in publishing much-needed research tools that independent scholars and academics are rarely inclined to produce themselves.
Original Index to Art Periodicals
The first of these publications was the Original Index to Art Periodicals (1983), which is a compendium of references to journal articles on a myriad of subjects, compiled by Library staff during the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the articles cited reside in journals never indexed by The Art Index, Répertoire d’Art et Archéologie, RILA, or today’s Bibliography of the History of Art.
Spanish Artists from the Fourth to the Twentieth Century:
A Critical Dictionary
A second instance of the Library staff acting on a demonstrated need for a research tool is the four-volume Spanish Artists from the Fourth to the Twentieth Century: A Critical Dictionary (1993-1996). This publication provides essential bibliographic information on more than 3,500 artists, while it also brings clarity to the preferred and alternate forms of the multiple surnames used by so many Spaniards. Since its publication, Spanish Artists has been widely acclaimed not only as a useful reference work, but also for the scholarship reflected in its comprehensive review of scholarly opinion about numerous anonymous masters whose artistic identities have been the subject of debate for decades.
The Montias Database
In 1999, the Library acquired an exceptional online research tool, The Montias Database. This original online publication was a donation to the Library by its creator, John Michael Montias (1928-2005), Professor Emeritus of Economics at Yale University and author of numerous books on the art and art collecting of The Netherlands during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This resource, consisting of more than 12,000 records for works of art held in the Amsterdam Archives is a goldmine of primary documentation on collecting patterns during Holland’s Golden Age.
A Directory of Archives Relating to the History of
Collecting in America
Currently, the Library is poised to launch a new publication, one that will require collaboration and constant updating: A Directory of Archives Relating to the History of Collecting in America. An online resource, whose relevance and reliability will depend on staying current with acquisitions and changing access policies, this tool will provide essential information for scholars working in the fast-growing field of the History of Collecting.
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