We’ve just gotten lost….in the Yale Digital Commons, the wondrous archive that they’ve recently started making available online, for anyone to browse and USE without limits. We’re talking seriously amazing images here, from Brassai’s famous images of Paris and artists in their studio to obscure, rarely-seen snapshots and children’s book drawings by Andy Warhol. So far, 250,000 images have been uploaded to their new collection catalog, with more on the way.

The Yale treasures that are now accessible under the new policy are as wide-ranging as the collections themselves and include such diverse items as a small limestone stela with hieroglyphic inscription from the Peabody Museum of Natural History, a Mozart sonata in the composer’s own hand from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a 15th-century Javanese gold kris handle from the Indo-Pacific collection of Yale University Art Gallery and a watercolor by William Blake from the collection of prints and drawings in the Yale Center for British Art.

We instantly fell into their photography archive, wandering by Matisse Drawing a Nude Model at Villa d’Alésia

and an undated Warhol snapshot of a car (above)…past a trove of Diane Arbus, Eugene Atget and Walker Evans…

Katherine Beaton's Table, Walker Evans 71
Walker Evans, Yale Digital Commons

…then found ourselves in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology looking at things Linnaeus catalogued in 1758

Linnaeus Morus Bassanus Yale Archive

If you are a person who uses digital images for your work, or you just want a reminder of the astonishing beauty and creativity in the world, this archive is a GIFT.

Click here to start wandering.

via David Saltman via MediaBistro

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