Research Guides: Curatorial &amp; Analytical Ancient American Art: Primary Sources

Online Archives

Ancient and Pre-Columbian Art

UNM Maxwell Museum
Reflecting a broad mission that encompasses the entire history of humankind, the museum's collections are worldwide in scope, with extensive holdings from throughout North, South, and Central America, as well as Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. With its primary emphasis on the American Southwest, the Maxwell is world-renowned for its holdings from this region. Collections include archaeology, ethnology, archives, and human osteology.
Maya Vases by Justin Kerr
The photographs in Mayavase.com were created with few exceptions by Justin Kerr over a period of thirty years. The vessels and objects depicted are in museums and collections across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize. Many of the photographs have been published in books and papers by scholars so that information about them is readily available.
Mayavase.com is composed of two databases. The vase database is composed of rollout photographs of Maya vessels.
FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Latin American Studies, Inc.)
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is honored to announce it has assumed stewardship of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI). FAMSI's dedication to research and online collaboration over the past two decades has made it an invaluable tool for pre-Columbian studies internationally and the principal source for research of ancient cultures. By adding FAMSI's significant scholarly resources to LACMA's important pre-Columbian collections, LACMA looks forward to an exciting new future for the Art of the Ancient Americas.

New Mexico Archives Online (NMAO) This link opens in a new window
It provides access to finding aids for archival collections from 19 repositories across the state of New Mexico. The finding aids include information on the contents, historical context, creation, and organization of materials in the collections.
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Index of over 1,000 archival institutions and their collections.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Information about North America, Central America, South America, the Arctic, Antarctica, and the West Indies, published across the globe.This collection of many hard-to-find primary sources covers society, politics, culture, religious beliefs, and contemporary opinions, at home and abroad.
As well, included are original accounts of exploration, pioneering, settlement, the Western movement, military actions, Native Americans, slavery, and abolition. Coverage: 1500 to 1926.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Contains books and scholarly journals digitized from libraries around the world covering many topics and languages. Choose University of New Mexico for full access to restricted content and log in with NetID
Choose University of New Mexico for full access to restricted content and log in with UNM NetID.

Digital Public Library of America
Discover 42,414,520 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.

Internet Archive This link opens in a new window
An eclectic open collection including millions of books, government documents, films, software, music, archived websites, and more.

Exhibition catalogs

UNM Libraries
The UNM libraries has a prominent collection of exhibition catalogs dedicated to the Ancient Americas. At the Fine Arts & Design Library, they may be located in the regular, browseable stacks, or they may be in our Special Collections, or even in our Closed Access. Keep in mind that, due to the nature of this class, you may find great materials at Zimmerman Library, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Browse through exhibition catalogs and art books that the Met has digitized and made freely available to the public.
Digitized Rare Books from Dumbarton Oaks
Access full digital facsimiles of select titles in the Rare Book Collection, relating to Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian Studies, through this searchable resource.