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Purpose
The Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ® (TGN), and the Art & Architecture Thesaurus ® (AAT) are structured vocabularies that can be used to improve access to information about art, architecture, and material culture.
- Cataloging: They may be used as data value standards at the point of documentation or cataloging. In this context, they may be used as a controlled vocabulary or authority by the cataloger or indexer; they provide preferred names/terms and synonyms for people, places, and things. They also provide structure and classification schemes that can aid in documentation.
- Retrieval: They may be used as search assistants in database retrieval systems. They are knowledge bases that include semantic networks that show links and paths between artists; these relationships can make retrieval more successful.
- Research tools: They may be utilized as research tools, valuable because of the rich information and contextual knowledge that they contain.
Target audience: The three Getty vocabularies are intended
to provide terminology and other information about the objects,
artists, concepts, and places important to various disciplines that
specialize in art, architecture and material culture. The ULAN includes
proper names and associated information about artists. Artists
may be either individuals (persons) or groups of individuals working
together (corporate bodies). Artists in the ULAN generally represent
creators involved in the conception or production of visual arts
and architecture. Some performance artists are included (but typically
not actors, dancers, or other performing artists). Repositories
and some donors are included as well.
The primary users of the Getty vocabularies include museums, art libraries, archives, visual resource collection catalogers, bibliographic projects concerned with art, researchers in art and art history, and the information specialists who are dealing with the needs of these users. In addition, a significant number of users of the Getty vocabularies are students or members of the general public.
Accessing the vocabularies: Catalogers and indexers who use the vocabularies typically access them in two ways: By using them as implemented in a collection management system (either purchased off-the-shelf through a vendor or custom-built for their local requirements), or by using the online databases on the Getty Web site. The databases made available on the Web site are intended to support limited research and cataloging efforts. Companies and institutions interested in regular or extensive use of the Getty vocabularies should explore licensing options by contacting the Getty Vocabulary Program at vocab@getty.edu. Implementers who wish to provide vocabularies to end-users or use them in search engines may license the vocabularies in any of three formats: XML, relational tables, or MARC. The licensed files include no user interface. Implementers who wish to acquire the vocabularies already integrated into Web-based tools may consult Web Choir at http://www.webchoir.com/.
Comprehensiveness and updates: The ULAN is a compiled resource;
it is not comprehensive. A minimum record contains a numeric ID,
a name, a role, nationality, and life dates. The ULAN grows through
contributions. Information in the ULAN was compiled by the Getty
Vocabulary Program in collaboration with many institutions. Institutions
interested in contributing to the ULAN may contact us at vocab@getty.edu.
Implementers should keep in mind that the vocabularies grow and
change over time. New versions are released in licensed files annually
and on the Web site every month.
History of the ULAN
Work on the ULAN began in 1984, when the Getty decided to merge
and coordinate controlled vocabulary resources for use by the J.
Paul Getty Trust's many automated documentation projects. The AAT
was already being managed by the Getty at this time, and the Getty
attempted to respond to requests from Getty projects for additional
controlled vocabularies for artists' names (ULAN) and geographic
names (TGN). In 1987 the Getty created a department dedicated to
compiling and distributing terminology. The ULAN grows and changes
via contributions from the user community and editorial work of
the Getty Vocabulary Program.
Although originally intended only for use by Getty projects, the
broader art information community outside the Getty expressed a
need to use ULAN for cataloging and retrieval. The Getty thus distributed
ULAN for broader use according to the tenets previously established
for the construction and maintenance of the AAT: Its scope includes
names needed to catalog and retrieve information about the visual
arts and architecture; it is based on terminology that is current,
warranted for use by authoritative literary sources, and validated
by use in the scholarly art and architectural history community;
and it is compiled and edited in response to the needs of the user
community. Originally constructed as a simple alphabetized "union
list" of clustered artist names and biographies, in order to
make it consistent with the AAT and TGN, in the late 1990s ULAN
was brought into compliance with national and international standards
for thesaurus construction. Its scope was broadened to include corporate
bodies such as architectural firms and repositories of art, which
may have hierarchical levels.
The ULAN was founded under the management of Eleanor Fink (head
of what was then called the Vocabulary Coordination Group, and later
Director of the Art History Information Program, later called the
Getty Information Institute). The ULAN has been constructed over
the years by numerous members of the user community and an army
of dedicated editors, under the supervision of several managers.
The ULAN was published in 1994 in hardcopy (Union List of Artist
Names. Project manager, James M. Bower; senior editor, Murtha
Baca. New York: G.K. Hall, 1994) and machine-readable files. Given
the growing size and frequency of changes and additions to the ULAN,
by 1997 it had become evident that hard-copy publication was impractical.
It is now published in automated formats only, in both a searchable
online Web interface and in data files available for licensing.
The data for ULAN is compiled and edited in an editorial system
that was custom-built by Getty technical staff to meet the unique
requirements of compiling data from many contributors, merging,
moving, and publishing in various formats. Final editorial control
of the ULAN is maintained by the Getty Vocabulary Program, using
well-established editorial rules. The current managers of the ULAN
are Patricia Harpring, Managing Editor, and Murtha Baca, Head, Vocabulary
Program and Digital Resource Management.
Scope and Structure
The ULAN is a structured vocabulary currently containing around
293,000 names and other information about artists. Names in ULAN
may include given names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in
multiple languages, and names that have changed over time (e.g.,
married names). Among these names, one is flagged as the preferred
name.
Although it is displayed as a list, ULAN is structured as a thesaurus,
compliant with ISO and NISO standards for thesaurus construction;
it contains hierarchical, equivalence, and associative relationships.
The focus of each ULAN record is an artist. Currently there are
around 120,000 artists in the ULAN. In the database, each artist
record (also called a subject in this manual) is identified
by a unique numeric ID. Linked to each artist record are names,
related artists, sources for the data, and notes. The temporal coverage
of the ULAN ranges from Antiquity to the present and the scope is
global.
More about scope and structure: Even though the structure
is relatively flat, the ULAN is constructed as a hierarchical database;
its trees branch from a root called Top of the ULAN hierarchies
(Subject_ID: 500000001); it currently has two published facets:
Person and Corporate Body. Entities in the Person
facet typically have no children. Entities in the Corporate Body
facet may branch into trees. There may be multiple broader contexts,
making the ULAN structure polyhierarchical. In addition to
the hierarchical relationships, the ULAN also has equivalent and
associative relationships.
Information in the Record (Fields)
- Language: Most fields in ULAN records are written in American English. However, the ULAN has the structure of a multi-lingual thesaurus; therefore, the Names themselves may be expressed in many languages. All Names are written in the Roman alphabet; where names have been transliterated from other alphabets, the transliteration using the appropriate ISO standard for that language will be flagged as the preferred name for that language whenever possible.
- Diacritics: The ULAN names and other fields contain dozens of different diacritics, expressed as codes (e.g., $00) in the data files. The ULAN diacritical codes are mapped to Unicode. The mapping is distributed with the licensed data files. These codes should be translated into the proper diacritical mark for end-users. In Web displays, it may be impossible to display all diacritics; therefore, some diacritics are suppressed (e.g., the macron on the "e" of the fourth name Hesychios will not display on the Web, so it is suppressed; this unfortunately may be confusing to end-users, because it will appear as if two homographs are included in a single ULAN record, which is contrary to ULAN editorial and technical rules).
- Fields: The ULAN fields (i.e., discrete pieces of data) are described below. Data dictionaries for the licensed files are available at http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/download.html.
- Subject ID
Unique numeric identification for the ULAN record. Each artist in the ULAN database is uniquely identified by a numeric ID that serves to link the names and all other pertinent information to the artist record. The ID is generally permanent. Occasionally an ID may change due to the record being merged with another record; in such cases, the new IDs are included in the licensed files, and a mapping between defunct and new IDs is provided to licensees.
- Record Type
Type designation that characterizes the ULAN record (artist, corporate body, etc.). Record types include the following:
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Person: Refers to records in the ULAN that represent a single individual, usually someone who was engaged in the design or creation of art or architecture.
Corporate Body: Refers to records in the ULAN that represent two or more people, not necessarily legally incorporated. They are generally people who worked together to collectively create art, such as an architectural firm, porcelain manufactory, or painters' workshop. A family of artists may also be a "corporate body."
Guide Term, Hierarchy Name, and Facet: Currently these record types are hidden from end-users.
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- Label
Brief text identification of the artist, concatenated from the preferred Name and preferred Display Biography. Whereas the Subject ID identifies the artist in the database, the Label serves as an easily legible heading to identify the artist for end-users. In the ULAN Online displays (an entry in a results list display is illustrated below), the Label is displayed with the hierarchy icon (to the left of the Label) in order to permit the end-user to go to the hierarchy/list to browse for artists.
- Note
Often called the Descriptive Note, a note that describes the career of the artist, his relationship to other artists, or the usage of his names. Many, but not all, ULAN records include a note. The example below is the Note for Bartolommeo Bulgarini.
- Names
Proper names and appellations referring to the artist, including a preferred name and variant names. All names in a record (i.e., all names linked by a single Subject ID) are considered equivalents (i.e., synonyms). A ULAN record may contain synonyms in inverted order for sorting or indexing (e.g., Wren, Christopher), the natural order name for wall labels and other displays (e.g., Christopher Wren), the married name for women, variant spellings, variations in different languages, nicknames, pseudonyms, and other appellations. One name is flagged as the preferred name, which is the indexing form of the name most often found in scholarly or authoritative publications. In the example below, all names refer to the same artist, who was born in Dalmatia, but active in Italy (and who is, therefore, known by his Italian name).
- Term ID: Numeric ID that identifies the name in the database (e.g., in the example above, Schiavone, Andrea has the following Term_ID: 1500001503). Term IDs are unique; homographs have different IDs. The Term_ID may be hidden from end-users.
- Display order of the names
Names are arranged in a particular order by the editors. The preferred name is positioned first in a list of names for the artist, with the more commonly-used names at the top of the list.
Implementers should sort the names by the Display_order number, which is included in the data files, but typically hidden from end-users.
- Flags for the Names
In the ULAN data, there are various flags associated with each name. In displays for the end-user, some of the flags are currently suppressed. The Vernacular flag is displayed as a capital letter "V" in parentheses following the name above. The capital letter in the above display is linked to an explanation of what the flag means.
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Preferred Name
The flag preferred following a name indicates that the name is the so-called preferred name for the record. (The flag non-preferred is hidden in the display.)
Each record has one and only one default preferred name, flagged in order to provide a default name for the hierarchical and other displays (see also Language of the Names below). The preferred name is the inverted form of the name most commonly used in American English publications (as in the example below). If there is no inverted form of the name or the inverted name is not the form most often used, the natural order form of the name is the preferred name (as in the example below).
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Example
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Display Name
There may be a name flagged Display, meaning that this name could be used in wall labels and other displays. It is generally the natural-order form of the preferred name. If the name is flagged Index, this is the name that should be used in alphabetical lists. The Preferred Name is the default Index Name.
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Y = Yes (i.e., this is the Display Name)
I = Index
N = No
NA = Not Applicable
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Other Flags
Indicates various characteristics of the Name. Currently in ULAN, this flag is used to denote an official name.
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Official Name
NA
Example
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AACR
Indicates that this is the name form preferred in the Library of Congress Name Authority. Currently this flag is hidden from end-users on the ULAN Online (however, it should be displayed to end-users as flag "LC" and will be displayed in future versions of the ULAN Online).
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LC = Yes (meaning this is the Library of Congress authoritative name form)
NA = Not Applicable
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Name Type flag
This flag is always set to N/A in the current ULAN data.
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NA = Not Applicable
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Historical flag
Indicates if the name is current or historical. Most names in the ULAN are currently flagged NA.
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NA = Not Applicable
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Vernacular flag
Indicates if the name is in the vernacular (local) language, or some other language. There may be multiple vernacular names. See also Language of the Names below.
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V = Vernacular
O = Other
U = Undetermined
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- Dates for the Names
Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information about the name, and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users. Note that the dates refer to usage of the name, not to the life dates of the artist.
Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar produced by extending the Gregorian calendar to dates preceding its official introduction. Dates BCE are expressed as negative numbers. If the name is currently used in literature to refer to the artist, the End Date for names is 9999.
- Language of the Names
Some ULAN records currently include names with language designations. A single name may have multiple language designations because it may have the same spelling in multiple languages.
Languages are derived from a controlled list, which includes the name of the language and a numeric code (e.g., English / 70051). The code is hidden from end-users.
- Preferred flag for a given language
A "P" following the language in the examples indicates that this is the preferred name in that language. In the ULAN, the preferred name (descriptor) is by default the preferred American English name. If there is a British English equivalent, it will be flagged. For example, the preferred English spelling is marked with a "P" (English -P) in the example above. For a given language, there is only one preferred name, although there may be multiple non-preferred names in that language.
- Qualifier
Currently, qualifiers are rarely used in the ULAN. A qualifier is a word or phrase used to distinguish between homographs or other confusing names; qualifiers may be used in the ULAN in the future. In the ULAN data files, the Qualifier is stored in a separate field, not in the Name field.
- Birth Date
Date when the artist was born or the corporate body was founded. The birth date is used for retrieval but not displayed to the end-user. Dates must be years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
For the end-user, the birth date is referred to in the Display Biography (see below). Indications of uncertainty (e.g., ca.) are expressed in the Display Biography. Uncertain life dates are estimated in Birth Date and Death Date to give each artist a 100-year lifespan or greater.
- Death Date
Date when the artist died or the corporate body disbanded. The death date is used for retrieval but not displayed to the end-user. Dates must be years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
For the end-user, the death date is referred to in the Display Biography (see below). Indications of uncertainty (e.g., ca.) are expressed in the Display Biography. Uncertain life dates are estimated in Birth Date and Death Date to give each artist a 100-year lifespan or greater. For living artists, the Death Date is recorded as 2090.
- Nationality
A reference to the nationality, culture, or ethnic group associated with the person or corporate body. There may be multiple nationalities. Nationality does not necessarily indicate citizenship of a particular nation, empire, or city state. It refers to a prolonged association of an artist with a given place. Nationality may refer to historical nations (e.g., Flemish). It may also refer to culture (e.g., Frankish) or ethnic groups (e.g., Native American). Artists may have multiple nationalities, particularly when they lived for prolonged periods in more than one nation, or when one so-called nationality is more general than another that also applies to the artist (e.g., for an ancient vase-painter, Greek is a broader, general designation, while Attic is more specific).
- Preferred flag for Nationality
One nationality is flagged preferred for each artist, to provide a default when creating displays. Preferred following a nationality in the examples indicates that this is the nationality most commonly associated with the artist.
- Roles
Words or phrases describing one or more roles or characteristics of the artist. Roles are the major professional roles or activities performed by the artist throughout his or her lifetime (e.g., artist, architect, sculptor). For a corporate body, roles include the major activities or purpose of the firm, institution, or other corporate body (e.g., studio, manufactory, workshop).
- Preferred flag for Roles
One role is flagged preferred for each artist, to provide a default when creating displays. Preferred following a role in the examples indicates that this is the role most commonly associated with the artist. It is often the general role, artist, rather than a specific role (e.g., painter).
- Display order for Roles
Roles are arranged in a particular order by the editors. Implementers should sort the names by the Display_order number, which is included in the data files, but typically hidden from end-users.
- Dates for Roles
Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information about the artist relative to the role (e.g., for the role lithographer for Hendrik Voogd below), and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users.
Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The latest possible End Date for an artist's role would be his date of death. (In the example above, the artist was a lithographer only during part of his career, thus the end date is not date of death.)
- Gender
The sex of the artist, male, female, or known. For corporate bodies, the gender is not applicable.
- Birth Place and Death Place
Locations where the artist was born or died, or where the corporate body was established. The example below illustrates the Birth and Death Places for Vincent van Gogh.
Place names are taken from a controlled list comprising the place name and its parent string combined with a numeric code (e.g., Zundert (North Brabant, Netherlands) / 4390750024). The place list in ULAN is based on records in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. The codes are used only for ULAN; they are not the Subject_IDs from TGN. When there is an English name for the place, it is used rather than the vernacular (local) name.
- Event
Terminology that refers to pertinent events in the artist's life or the corporate body's history. An event must always be accompanied by a place and/or a date. For a person, events may include the event active, particularly when the locus of activity differs from the nationality (as in the example for the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger below), when an artist was active only late in life (e.g., for Grandma Moses), or his or her birth date is unknown. Examples of other events included: documented, burial, relocation, winner of contest/prize.
Terminology for the Event is drawn from a controlled list comprising a numeric code and a word or phrase (e.g., active / 12002).
- Display order for Events
Events are arranged in a particular order by the editors. Implementers should sort the events by the Display_order number, which is included in the data files, but typically hidden from end-users.
- Place for the Event
Location where the event occurred. Place names are taken from a controlled list comprising the place name and its parent string combined with a numeric code (e.g., from the example above, England (United Kingdom) / 4601120000).
- Dates for the Event
Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information referring to a date or other information about the artist relative to the event (e.g., for the Polish painter, Olga Boznanska, below, Winner of the Legion d'honneur in 1910), and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users.
Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. In the example above, the event took place in a single year, so Start and End Dates are the same year.
- Related People or Corporate Bodies
Associative relationships (i.e., non-hierarchical references) to other persons or corporate bodies in the ULAN, particularly professional relationships. Familial relationships are included for families of artists. There may be relationships between and among people and corporate bodies in the ULAN. For example, an artist may have a student/teacher relationship with his or her master. Family relationships are typically noted only if the family member was an artist (as in the example for Lucas van Leyden below) or other important historical figure.
Each reference comprises a relationship type plus a link to the related entity. For end-user displays, the related entity should be represented by the preferred name, role, parent string, and subject ID for the related artist.
- Relationship Type
A term or phrase characterizing the relationship between the artist at hand and the linked artist. In the example above, the Relationship Type in the record for Lucas van Leyden indicates that he was a student of Cornelius Engebrechtsz. Relationship Types are reciprocal (that is, linked to both records), drawn from a controlled list that comprises the controlled phrase and a numeric code, as illustrated below. The codes are hidden from end-users.
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Code |
Focus Entity |
Related Code |
1302 |
associate of |
1302 |
1311 |
partner of |
1311 |
1512 |
parent of |
1511 |
1511 |
child of |
1512 |
2828 |
teacher was |
2829 |
2829 |
student was |
2828 |
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- Historical flag for the Related Person or Corporate Body
Indicates if the link between the related concepts is current or historical. Currently in the ULAN, in most cases the Historical Flag for relationships is set to Not Applicable.
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C = Current
H = Historical
B = Both current and historical
U = Undetermined
NA = Not Applicable
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- Dates for the Related Person or Corporate Body
Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information about the relationship between the two artists, and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users. The example below illustrates a related person in the record for the British architect, Herbert Baker.
Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar.
- Hierarchical Positions / Parent ID
As is true of the AAT and TGN, the ULAN is constructed as a hierarchy, even though the ULAN hierarchy does not have the same amount of depth as AAT and TGN. The hierarchy of ULAN should be displayed to end-users as an alphabetical listing that will explode to show children where necessary. Hierarchies are built by using the Parent_ID, which is linked to each Subject_ID; the Parent_ID is hidden from end-users. For individual artists in the Person facet, the broader context is usually simply Person. In the Corporate Body facet, there may be some hierarchical depth, for example between institutions and their divisions or departments.
- Multiple parents
The structure of the ULAN is polyhierarchical. Each Subject_ID may be linked to multiple Parent_IDs. If there are multiple parents, one is marked as preferred. In displays, the preferred parent is listed first or otherwise designated. The example below illustrates the display of parents in a Full Record Display for the Foundation for Documents of Architecture.
In the full hierarchical view, it is recommended that implementers indicate relationships to non-preferred parents with an "[N]", as illustrated below.
- Sort order in the hierarchy
Siblings in the hierarchies are usually arranged alphabetically. However, it is possible that they could be arranged by another logical order by the editors.
For siblings at any level, implementers should build displays using the Sort_order, followed by an alphabetical sort. (In an alphabetical display all Sort_order designations are "1," and will therefore be sorted alphabetically in the second sort.) The Sort_order number is hidden from end-users.
- Historical flag for the Parent
Indicates if the link between the child and its parent is current or historical. Most relationships in the ULAN are flagged Current; if the flag is Current, it is generally not displayed to end-users. If the flag is Historical, it is displayed (e.g., "H" in the example above). Other flags could be used in future versions of the ULAN.
- Dates for the parent
Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information about the link between a child and its parent, and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users. The example above illustrates a historical relationship between the Foundation for Documents of Architecture and the National Gallery of Art.
Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar produced by extending the Gregorian calendar to dates preceding its official introduction. Dates BCE are expressed as negative numbers. If the date extends to the current time, the End Date is 9999.
- Display Biography
Display biographies are notes, linked to the contributors that submitted them. One biography is marked preferred for the record, to serve as a default for displays, for example, to create the Label.
The Display Biography typically contains the following information for a given artist: nationality, major roles, birth and death dates. Note that biographical information for the same artist is often expressed differently by the various contributing institutions.
If there is uncertainty regarding the artist's life dates, roles or nationality, it is expressed in the Display Biography (and—for longer discussions—in the Descriptive Note). Information in the Display Biography is indexed by the following controlled fields: Birth Date, Death Date, Nationality, and Role.
- Contributors
The institutions or projects that contributed information to the ULAN record. In order to give due credit to the contributing institution, it is required that implementers display a reference to the contributor to end-users.
References to contributors are drawn from a controlled list comprising a numeric ID, a brief name, and a full name. The end-user must have access to the brief name and the full name. The Brief Name is the initials, abbreviations, or acronyms for the contributing projects or institutions (in square brackets in the display below). Contributors may be linked to the record in three ways: with the names, with the record as a whole (subject), and with the note (scope note). In the example below, end-users may click on the initials of the contributor in the Full Record Display, which produces a fuller description of the contributor name.
- Sources
The ULAN record generally includes the bibliographic sources for the names. Most names were found in authoritative publications on the given topic or in standard general reference works, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. In order to give due credit to published sources, it is required that implementers display a reference to the published source to end-users.
References to sources are drawn from a controlled list comprising a numeric ID, a brief citation, and a full citation. The end-user must have access to the brief citation and the full citation. Sources may be linked to the record in three ways: with the names, with the record as a whole (subject), and with the note (scope note). In the example below, end-users may click on the brief citation in the Full Record Display, which displays a full citation for that source.
- Page Number
A reference to a volume, page, date of accessing a Web site, or heading reference in a source (as seen following the brief citation (in black following the blue citations in the above example).
- Revision History
The editorial history of each ULAN record is captured in the Revision History, which identifies when records and names have been added, edited, merged, etc. The Revision History is included with the licensed files, but hidden from end-users. This information allows implementers to update the ULAN in their system with each new release.
Sample Record
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Conducting Research
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