The Visual Resources Collections of the Department of Art and Archaeology have existed in one form or another since the end of the 19th century. The primary mission of these collections is the provision of visual materials to support the department curriculum, as well as providing resources for departmental research. The collections include slides, digital images and photographic prints.

The Western images division houses over 400,000 slides that form the basis of art history lectures by the faculty, as well as seminar presentations by students. These slides cover art and architecture of the Western world ranging from prehistory to contemporary art. The Far Eastern division holds about 100,000 slides. This division is headed by a full-time curator who specializes in Chinese and Japanese art.

The Research Photographs Collection holds primary source materials relating to expeditions and excavations conducted by Princeton University over the last one hundred years. A collection of photographs relevant to specific research interests is also housed here. The Research Photographs Collection is administered by a full-time curator.

Computer access to the collection holdings is through our Pictor database as well as Princeton's Almagest database of images. In the Western area, Pictor includes more than 135,000 catalog data entries and about 40,000 digitized images. Digitized images for study and class use are available using Almagest, accessible throughout the campus.