History

The Getty Research Portal launched in 2012 as a collaboration with leading art libraries worldwide to digitize and share art history texts.

Founding contributors include:

• Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University
• Biblioteca de la Universidad de Málaga
• Frick Art Reference Library
• Heidelberg University Library
• Getty Research Institute
• Institut national d’histoire de l’art
• Members of the New York Art Resources Consortium
• Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Since its inception, the Portal has continued to grow and now includes contributions from more than 50 institutions of all sizes around the world, with new partners joining regularly.

Within the broader landscape of platforms offering digitized publications, the Portal occupies a distinct role as a discipline‑specific, open‑access resource devoted to art historical literature. Many large discovery tools are broad in scope or require institutional credentials; by contrast the Portal is intentionally designed to surface art historical texts that may otherwise be difficult to find and to provide free, unrestricted downloads of complete digital copies to anyone, anywhere.

Getty Research Portal Launch Colloquium

The Getty Research Portal began in 2010 as an international collaboration among libraries working to digitize their art historical collections. Emerging from Getty’s Future of Art Bibliography initiative, this collaborative work laid the foundation for the Getty Research Portal.

On May 31, 2012, the Getty Research Institute hosted a colloquium to officially launch the Portal. The program highlighted the Portal’s potential to expand access to art historical publications held in libraries worldwide and examined its implications for digital humanities research. Speakers from major libraries and cultural heritage institutions discussed how the Portal could help address longstanding barriers to research at a time when digitized art historical literature was still limited and scholars often relied on costly travel and lengthy archival visits. All recordings from the colloquium are available online.

The launch symposium marked an important moment in the early development of digital art history. As participants noted, the Portal opened new opportunities for students and researchers who lacked access to major art history libraries and helped chart new directions for digital scholarship.

Speakers and Participants

• Ann Jensen Adams, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Murtha Baca, Getty Research Institute
• Irina Costache, California State University, Channel Islands
• James Cuno, J. Paul Getty Trust
• Johanna Drucker, University of California, Los Angeles
• Carole Ann Fabian, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library
• David Farneth, Getty Research Institute
• Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Getty Research Institute
• Deborah Kempe, The Frick Collection
• Hubertus Kohle, Ludwig‑Maximilians‑Universität München
• Max Marmor, Samuel H. Kress Foundation
• Martine Poulain, Institut national d’histoire de l’art
• Kathleen Salomon, Getty Research Institute
• Joseph Shubitowski, Getty Research Institute
• Ken Soehner, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Stephanie Wood, Knight Library, University of Oregon