LibGuides: Community and Regional Planning: Visual Resources

Visual Media Databases

Images

ARTstor Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Comprised of over 2.5 million digital images of visual material encompassing artistic and historical traditions across many time periods and cultures. Focuses on, but is not limited to, the arts. Includes architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture. Designed to be used by researchers in fields that do not traditionally use images as well as by art historians.
In order to take advantage of all the features of the site, you must register or log in with the service. The registration and login links are visible once you enter the database.
Cities/Buildings Database Most current file. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Offers more than 5,000 images of buildings from across time and throughout the world. Search for buildings by country, city, style, title of building, architect and/or date of construction.

Looking for Maps

The links below will take you to resources within which you can search for maps. If you need a tool to create your own map, please see the Mapping Tools tab on this Guide. In addition to the links, you can also search the library catalog for maps. In the advanced search, please select Maps and Atlases or Maps (Manuscripts) in the Material Type.

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (PCLMC), comprising more than 350,000 items representing all areas of the world. Includes online and physical collections, maps of Texas, thematic, topographical, historical, weather, and much more! The PCLMC consists of the physical collection and an online collection of scanned maps. The Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Map Room (PCL 1.306) houses the physical maps, the majority of which can be checked out. Since 1995, the PCLMC has digitized 70,000 maps from the print collection and has also forged partnerships with local and national archives to create a more comprehensive online map collection.
The Briscoe
The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History's Research and Collections Division houses more than 35,000 printed and manuscript maps which date from 1513 to the present. These cartographic resources depict many geographic areas throughout the world, but their special strengths relate to Texas, the U.S. South, the U.S. Southwest, and Mexico. The Briscoe Center's maps have been acquired individually or as discrete, previously assembled collections or have been separated from archival and manuscript collections.
City of Austin: GIS and Maps
General Land Office: Archive Map Store
General Land Office: GIS Maps and Data
General Land Office: Land Grant Search
Library of Congress: Sandborn Map Collection
Search by state, country - Mexico, Cuba, and Canada, or building type
Library of Congress Map Collection
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Texas (1877-1922), Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer
USGS EarthExplorer

More Resources

For more information on visual resources: