Graphic Arts Research Guide

Graphic arts collections include prints (engravings and lithographs), broadsides and ephemera, photographs, maps, and sheet music. There are also drawings, postcards, portraits, silhouettes, United States views, and games. More about collections[link to types of collections]

How to Find

• Search the Catalog
  Prints, broadsides, and some ephemera collections can be found in the AAS Online Catalog.
• Other Places to Search
• Catalogue of American Engravings (CAEP)
  A union catalogue, the Catalogue of American Engravings describes engravings issued as separate publications or as illustrations in books and periodicals from the early eighteenth century through the year 1820.
• GIGI: The AAS Digital Image Archive
• Illustrated Inventories
• Card catalogs at AAS are available for maps and music (songsters, secular & sheet music)

Digital Access

• Freely Available (can look at from home):
  Scanned images of many graphic arts collection items are available by browsing GIGI separately or by following links in the AAS Online Catalog
• By Subscription (must be at AAS or an institution that has purchased the digital product):
  • American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1760-1900 (Readex)* [digital versions of most of AAS’s broadsides and ephemera, links are in AAS Online Catalog]

Types of Graphic Arts Collections

• Artists' Collections (include drawings, prints, watercolors, paintings) [Cross Family Collection; David Claypoole Johnston Family Collection; George Dubois Family Collection; Louis Maurer Collection; Nathaniel Hurd Collection; Paul Revere Collection]
  Broadsides (single sheet printing) [Charts; Circus posters; Civil War recruiting posters; Entertainment advertisements (Popular & Worcester); Philadelphia book auctions 1860-1870s; News carriers’ addresses]
• Drawings
• Engravings [Nathaniel Hurd Collection; Paul Revere Collection]
• Ephemera (printed items originally intended to be disposable)
• Commercial [Advertisements; Clipper Ship Cards; Trade Cards; William Allen Collection]
• Events [Calendars; Invitations; Menus; Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition Collection; Tickets]
• Cards [Calling Cards; Christmas and Holiday Cards; Civil War Envelopes; Sentiment Cards; Valentines]
• Financial [Bank notes; Billheads; Lottery tickets]
• Institutional [Election Ballots; Membership Certificates; Rewards of Merit; Ream Wrappers]
• Games [Amusement; Instructional; McLoughlin Paper Dolls]
• Geography [Atlases; Guidebooks; Maps (War maps, Geological maps,
• Railroad maps, Postal maps, Handwritten maps, Pocket maps)]
• Misc. GA Collections [Thomas and Eno Collection; Scrapbooks; Bound volumes; Silhouettes (framed & unframed); Portrait paintings, miniatures, and sculpted busts; Artifacts; Textile Printing]
• Lithographs
• Music
  • Ballads [Ballads digitized in ABE; Isaiah Thomas Ballad Broadsides collection]
  • Music books [Hymnals; Secular Music; Songsters (only lyrics); (Mss. Music Book Collection)]
  • Sheet Music [Sheet Music -- Pictorial (subject access); Sheet Music – Engraved; Sheet Music – Lithographed]
• Photographs
  • By format [Ambrotypes; Bound volumes of photographs; Carte-de-visites; Cased photographs; Daguerreotypes; Stereotypes; Tintypes]
  • By subject [Actors and Actresses; Groups; Native Americans; Historic Buildings of Central Mass.; Worcester County; Worcester Portrait Photographs]
• Prints, by subject [Art Union Prints; Political Prints (U.S. Political Cartoons, Civil War Cartoons, European Political Prints, Charles Pierce Collection, U.S. Historical Scenes; Portrait Prints (General and Worcester); U.S. Views (by state, by town, within Worcester)]