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Because a picture is worth a thousand words, today we are spotlighting online resources with Chicago architecture images. The sites listed below allow public use of a limited number of images.

The Art Institute of Chicago Design and Architecture website can be searched across the collections for “Chicago architecture.”
https://www.artic.edu/collection?q=%22Chicago%20architecture%22

Wikipedia’s article on “Architecture of Chicago” has many good images, including a chronological list of important buildings with their images. Also included are other Wikipedia links to useful pages like “Chicago Skyscrapers.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Chicago#External_links

The permanent collection of architectural, engineering and landscape documentation at the Library of Congress consists of measured and interpretive drawings, large-format black and white and color photographs, written historical and descriptive data, and original field notes. Some useful historic images can be found under “Chicago architecture.”
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Chicago%20architecture&co=hh

The Artstor Digital Library features a wide range of multidisciplinary content from some of the world’s top museums, artists, libraries, scholars, and photo archives, available through membership. Artstor also offers access to a growing number of public collections. Some “Chicago Architecture” images are available.
https://library.artstor.org/#/search/Chicago%20architecture;page=1;size=48

 Two of the largest collections of images are SAHARA (from the Society of Architectural Historians) and Artstor. Both require membership for access to full content, but as noted above, Artstor has some public collections.

Now, let’s put it all together. CLICK HERE for the excel spreadsheet of all the digital resources available to date. This is also posted under Files and Documents, All Volunteers, CAC Digital Library EResources. As we add resources, the spreadsheet will be updated. We are working to get this information up on The Bridge, but for the time being, you may save in your files.

Up next: statues and monuments. Don’t miss it.

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 A big thank you goes to Steven Redfield and Leigh Gates for their work on the Digital Library spreadsheet.