Frequently Asked Questions

How are the Getty Vocabularies evolving?

The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), and Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) will transition to a new, modernized platform beginning in fall 2026. This transition will ensure the long-term sustainability of the Getty Vocabularies while building a stronger foundation for collaboration, usability, and interoperability across the art and cultural heritage community. As a result, users can expect the following changes:

• A redesigned interface with enhanced navigation and search capabilities
• Vocabulary data published as Linked Art JSON-LD and a CIDOC CRM–based metadata profile, with AAT published additionally in SKOS RDF serializations
• Improved pathways for contributing to the Getty Vocabularies
• Overhauled Getty Vocabularies web content, including updated documentation and FAQs

Due to shifts in Getty’s infrastructure and strategic roadmap, the Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA) and the Getty Iconography Authority (IA) web interfaces will sunset in June 2027. We intend to preserve both datasets and make them available to the public. Plans for future access are still being assessed.

We look forward to continuing engagement with our community throughout the transition process. Stay tuned for further announcements and updates about the future of the Getty Vocabularies.

What are the Getty Vocabularies?

The Getty Vocabularies are a collection of five tools—Art & Architecture Thesaurus® (AAT), Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® (TGN), Union List of Artist Names® (ULAN), Cultural Objects Name Authority® (CONA), and Getty Iconography Authority™(IA)—that contain structured vocabularies for the visual arts domain, including art, architecture, decorative arts, other cultural works, archival materials, visual surrogates, and art conservation.

The mission of the Getty Vocabulary Program is to build the shared language of art history: structured vocabularies that connect people, collections, and ideas across cultures and time. Our vocabularies are open, interoperable, and built on international standards so they work within the tools and systems researchers and institutions already use. They are multilingual and multicultural by design, reflecting the diversity of global art history rather than a single tradition or perspective.

We do not work alone. We grow these vocabularies with the international community—through partnership, training, and outreach—so the language of art remains a living, evolving collective resource.

The Getty Vocabularies are managed by the Getty Vocabulary Program.

How are terms added to the Getty Vocabularies?

In most cases, contributions are submitted by external museums, art libraries, archives, bibliographic and documentation projects, visual resources collections, and scholars, as well as from internal Getty cataloging, exhibitions, and publications. Learn more about how to contribute and see the full list of contributors.

What are the sources of information for the Getty Vocabularies?

Sources differ for various data elements or various topics, but typically include scholarly articles and books, repository usage, standard general reference resources such as encyclopedia or dictionaries, and other standards-based, credible sources.

Additional sources may include original archival documents, oral histories, or signatures and inscriptions on art objects. Common usage among source communities and domain professionals is also warrant for inclusion of a term. See Editorial Guidelines for recommended sources.

What are relationships in the Getty Vocabularies?

All Getty Vocabularies are thesauri. The defining characteristic of a thesaurus is the network of relationships among its terms and concepts. Thesaurus construction standards identify three kinds of relationships, all of which are included in each tool:

• Equivalence relationship: Multiple terms may refer to the same iconographical topic. The relationship between terms that represent the same concept in a tool is the equivalence relationship. Among terms that refer to a single entity, one is chosen as the record-preferred term.
• Hierarchical relationship: The hierarchy in a tool refers to the method of structuring and displaying each tool’s entities within their broader contexts. These can include relationships such as whole/part, genus/species (type of) or instance (example of).
• Associative relationship: Associative relationships are cross-references, relationships, or links between terms that are not hierarchical or equivalent. For example, in IA, a character may be an actor in a narrative legend.

In addition to thesaural relationships, IA includes important relationships to other Getty Vocabularies, including AAT, TGN, ULAN, and CONA. For example, the named entity of the Persian angel Dobiel in IA is linked to the generic concept of angels in AAT. The Maya underworld Xibalba in IA is linked to the place Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala in TGN. These relationships are one-way (non-reciprocal) and clearly defined.

I have additional questions. How can I get in touch?

Email the Getty Vocabulary Program.

How do I cite the Getty Vocabularies?

See Licensing and Citation information.

Must I use a “preferred” term to describe my art work?

Sources in the Getty Vocabularies are carefully chosen and cited. While the Vocabularies indicate record-preferred terms,there is no single "correct" term for a concept. In many vocabulary records, synonyms and variant names refer to the same concept. The term appropriate for that concept in the context of your work may vary. Preferences according to language, part of speech, current and historical usage, usage in sources, and usage by contributors are flagged in each vocabulary record. Choose the term that is most appropriate for your use.

You can control terminology by using the record-preferred term in each record. This default term is analogous to an authorized heading in bibliographic cataloging. The record-preferred term appears in the results list and at the top of the names of a full record display. This is the name or plural noun most often used for the concept in scholarly literature in the English language.

Why is the term I’m searching for missing from the Getty Vocabularies?

The term may be out of scope for that tool or it may not have yet been contributed. Check the guidelines within each tool or consider adding the term you need. The Getty Vocabularies grow through contributions from projects, scholars, cataloging and documentation institutions, and other users. To contribute, see How to Contribute to the Getty Vocabularies.

I have noted an error in the Getty Vocabularies. How do I suggest a correction?

To request error corrections or the addition of information to existing Getty Vocabulary records, email the Getty Vocabulary Program.

Can I download data from the Getty Vocabularies?

Yes. See Data and Services for information about how to access Getty Vocabularies data.

The Getty Vocabularies may be used and reused under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0 to support research and cataloging efforts.

How do I use tools like OpenRefine and SPARQL?

See the Getty Vocabularies OpenRefine tutorial or the SPARQL sample queries page for more information.

For help, email the Getty Vocabulary Program.

Why and how do Getty Vocabularies records and names change over time?

Data within each Vocabulary changes due to additions and changes in scholarship or usage over time. Although additions are frequent, substantive changes to preferred terms and hierarchical structure are rare, as such changes could cause problems for users who rely upon legacy data. The unique subject_ids and term_ids, along with the Revision History, allow implementers to keep up with changes.

The Getty Vocabularies rely upon the user community to grow. We welcome update requests due to errors or inconsistencies.

What is the scope of AAT?

AAT includes generic terms and associated dates, relationships, and other rich information about concepts related to or required to catalog, discover, and retrieve information about art, architecture, and other visual cultural heritage. This includes related disciplines such as archaeology and conservation. Visual works include not only visual cultural works classified as "art" according to Western aesthetics, but also utilitarian and ceremonial works. Terminology may be used for work types, roles, materials, styles, cultures, techniques, subjects, and more, so long as terms are within the defined scope of AAT.

Read more about the Scope and Structure of AAT, which includes information about what is excluded from AAT.

What are Scope Notes?

The Note or scope note clarifies the meaning and usage of a concept within the context of AAT. A scope note differs from a definition in a dictionary or glossary in that, rather than providing all the possible meanings for a word, it identifies a single concept and explains its particular meaning.

For example, a dictionary entry for barrel could include a dozen different definitions including those for a type of container, a firearm component, and a part of a musical instrument, all of which are barrels. In AAT, barrels would appear three times, as barrels (aerophone components), barrels (containers), and barrels (firearm components); each is found in its appropriate part of AAT hierarchical structure.

In AAT, words that are spelled the same but represent different concepts are homographs and are recorded in separate records, unlike in a dictionary. The parenthetical qualifiers of AAT allow users to distinguish among the homographs at a glance, but their scope notes further define them.

Scope notes serve two basic purposes: to clarify the precise meanings of concepts and to advise on usage.

A scope note may:

• describe different ways in which the terms may be used
• alert the user if the meaning of a term has changed over time
• guide the user in selecting the most appropriate term among several possibilities

Why aren't the terms in AAT organized in the way I expect to see them?

Within its given scope of art, architecture, and material culture, AAT is organized for general use, not for one particular use or according to any specific discipline.

A researcher may wonder, for example, why communion cups and chalices are not narrower terms to church plate. This happens because church plate is a collective term for many different types and forms of objects used for ecclesiastical purposes, so it is placed in the Object Genres hierarchy. Individual examples of church plate, such as communion cups and chalices or candlesticks, are found in various other places in AAT because AAT's organization stresses function and form over the context in which an object is used.

For this reason, communion cups and chalices are placed in Containers, and candlesticks in Furnishings, under lighting devices. However, AAT links them to church plate as an alternate parent using polyhierarchical relationships.

Why are some of the terms that I need split into separate words and placed in separate hierarchies in AAT?

AAT is composed of terms that represent discrete concepts. This makes the thesaurus powerful and versatile, but it means that a term such as Baroque cathedrals will not be found in AAT. This phrase must be constructed from separate AAT terms. Baroque is in the Styles and Periods hierarchy; cathedrals is in the Single Built Works hierarchy, under <churches by location or context>. When the two concepts are combined, they retain their individual meanings: they mean structures that are built in the Baroque style and serve as cathedrals (the seat of a bishop).

However, every multiple-word concept is not necessarily split up in AAT. Some terms must be listed in AAT as bound terms. An example is onion domes, in the Components hierarchy. Onion domes are bulbous domes, the style of which developed in Turkey and the Middle East. If the two words that make up onion domes are taken apart, they no longer mean the same thing (i.e., domes retains its meaning, but onions are pungent edible bulbs of Allium cepa).

What is the scope of TGN?

The scope of TGN includes names, relationships, place types, dates, coordinates, and other rich data for the places required to catalog, discover, and retrieve information about art, architecture, and other visual cultural heritage.

TGN provides information about a work’s current location, creation location, discovery location, and subject depicted. TGN also provides information about people listed in ULAN, including places of birth, death, and activity. TGN is linked to location references in CONA and IA as well.

TGN focuses on historical places, including historical information for extant places and new information about former places. Types of places in TGN include cities, other settlements, nations, empires, archaeological sites, lost settlements, and some physical features. TGN also includes alternative names for modern places, such as Indigenous names and historical names. In efforts to provide inclusive and unbiased access, certain historical names are being deprecated and flagged as avoid use.

Read more about the Scope and Structure of TGN, which includes information about what is excluded from TGN.

Does TGN have maps? Is TGN a GIS?

TGN is not currently linked to maps. TGN is not a GIS (Geographic Information System); it is a thesaurus. While many records in TGN include coordinates, these coordinates are approximate and are intended for reference ("finding purposes") only.

To combine TGN with GIS information, TGN may be linked through co-references to existing major, general-purpose, geographic databases.

How much information is required to identify a place in TGN?

The logical focus of a record in TGN is a place. Although most records contain links and other rich data, the minimum record for each place includes a name, a place type, and a position in the hierarchy that shows its parent places (or broader contexts). When creating lists of results from queries or when matching entities, the name alone does not identify a place because there may be many homographs in TGN. For example, there are 145 inhabited places called Springfield.

Latitude and longitude do not uniquely identify a place. Single point latitute-longitude data is often variable in the way it is determined. Single-point latitude and longitude for an inhabited place or physical feature may represent the approximate center of the place or the location of the courthouse in a town. For a river or other linear feature, the point may represent the source of the feature, which can be variably estimated. So, while coordinates may assist in locating a place on a map, or in narrowing down possibilities in matching between data sets, variations in the determination and expression of coordinates mean that these data points cannot uniquely identify places in TGN. More information is available in TGN Editorial Guidelines: Coordinates.

What historical places are included in TGN?

TGN includes both current and historical places. Its scope ranges from prehistory to the present, focusing on locations relevant to art history, architecture, and archaeology. While global in scope, TGN is not comprehensive; it grows through contributions from the expert user community.

Included may be the following:

• Ancient and extinct entities: Records for historical nations, empires, and lost settlements (where the exact location may be unknown)
• Archaeological sites: Significant sites important for cultural heritage and research
• Historical names: Historical variant and vernacular names for modern places (e.g., Londinium for London) Physical features: Historical names for features such as mountains, rivers, and continents

What is the scope of ULAN?

ULAN includes names, relationships, biography, and other rich data for creators and others required for the documentation of information about art, architecture, and other visual works.

Included in ULAN are records for:

• makers of works that are of the type collected by art museums and similar repositories
• makers of architecture
• makers of cultural visual works that are ceremonial or utilitarian in nature, even if not classified as "art" according to traditional Western aesthetics
• patrons (who often have input in the creative process)
• repositories of art

Makers may be named (e.g., Katsushika Hokusai) or anonymous (e.g., Master of the Aachen Altar). Included are painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers, computer artists, architectural engineers, and more.

Read more about the Scope and Structure of ULAN, which includes information about what is excluded from ULAN.

What is the difference between the designations “anonymous,” “unknown,” and “unidentified named” in ULAN?

Anonymous makers: When the name of the maker is unknown to scholarship, but the hand (stylistic identification) and oeuvre (body of works) are identified by experts, it is common for the anonymous person to be given an appellation by scholars and museums (e.g., Master of the Morgan Leaf or Monogrammist AEL). The appellations, deduced locus of activity, roles, approximate dates of activity, relationships, and other data are included in ULAN.

Unknown makers: An unknown maker is designated when the identity of a hand is not established for the target work, but the maker is identified by a culture (e.g., unknown Maya or unknown Florentine). This designation identifies the culture from which the work originated, not actually tied to an individual artist. This same identification may refer to any of hundreds of unidentified artistic personalities. Using such designations is common for art from many periods, genres, and subsections of art history where the names of artists are commonly not known.

Unidentified named: Another distinct set of unidentified makers are Unidentified Named artistic personalities.These comprise records for entities having names that are found in a work record or other documentation, but the identity of the person has not yet been firmly established. In order to facilitate cataloging and to resolve the problem of delayed linking in open data, these records are included in a special facet of ULAN. With time, the identities of these entities would ideally be established and merged with a known artist in ULAN, which would lead to an update in subject_id. Users are discouraged from linking to these records, except for those users who are directly documenting the works with which these entities are associated.

What are "corporate bodies" in ULAN?

Corporate bodies in ULAN are legally incorporated bodies (e.g., modern architectural firms) as well as other groups of people working together to collectively create art (e.g., Gobelins Manufactory or Della Robbia family). Corporate bodies are organized, identifiable groups of individuals working together in a particular place and within a defined period of time.

A workshop may be included as a corporate body in ULAN if the workshop is a distinct personality that is collectively responsible for the creation of art (for example, the 13th-century group of French illuminators, Soissons atelier). However, generic attributions to workshops or studios are outside the scope of ULAN. See discussion of this issue in the CONA editorial guidelines, Attribution Qualifier.

Why doesn't ULAN show me lists of works of art by an artist?

ULAN is a structured vocabulary resource that focuses on names, relationships, biography, and other rich information for artists and others. It is outside the scope of ULAN to list all the artists' works. Images of a few representative works may be linked via the Media field in ULAN.

What is the scope of CONA and IA?

CONA focuses on architecture, multiples (e.g., prints), lost works, and works depicted in other works. CONA is a thesaurus that includes unique IDs, titles, artist attribution, creation dates, relationships, and location for both current and historical works. Works are documented as items or in groups, whether such works are extant, destroyed, or planned but never built.

IA is a thesaurus that includes proper names, relationships, and dates for iconographical narratives, religious or fictional characters, historical events, literary works, and performing art. IA has a special focus on non-Western topics, with co-references to other resources including Iconclass and Library of Congress Authorities. IA is based on the Subject Authority of the CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art) standard, intended for iconographical subject content that cannot be controlled by AAT, TGN, or ULAN.

Read about the Scope of CONA and the Scope of IA, which includes information about what is excluded from these databases.

Due to changes in Getty’s infrastructure and strategic roadmap, CONA and IA are no longer accepting new contributions and the associated public platform will sunset in June 2027. Plans for future access are still being assessed. Contributors to and users of CONA and IA are encouraged to contact the Getty Vocabulary Program for more information or to share their particular use cases.

What are some search tips for CONA and IA?

CONA
Use any of the 10 fields in the main CONA search screen to search for CONA records. Multiple terms may be entered in most fields. Alternatively, use the Lookup option to find terms in AAT, TGN ULAN, or IA. Choose terms and click Return to CONA.

Searches from the CONA form will look for all synonyms for the term in the linked vocabulary. For example, altar-altaar-ara and other AAT synonyms for "altar (religious fixtures)" would be used in the search.

IA
Use the bottom field of the CONA search screen. IA is a separate authority; however, currently IA data is searchable within the CONA data model. Currently in IA, searches may be made only on title. We plan to allow searching on additional fields via this form in the future.