Art FAQ: Princeton Art Museum

See: Sculpture of Princeton University: including works from the John B. Putnam Jr. Memorial Collection in Marquand, NB235.P74 P74 2004, and Firestone-Trustee Reading Room, LD4600, Box 2, Folder 5; and, Living with Modern Sculpture: The John B. Putnam, Jr., Memorial Collection, Princeton University, by Patrick J. Kelleher (1982), in Marquand-Reference, NB198 .P74 (and other copies on campus).

Mosaics from the joint expedition to Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Syria (now Turkey) in the 1930s are located throughout the Princeton campus and vicinity: in the Art Museum (when it reopens in 2025), elsewhere in McCormick Hall (also, starting in 2025), the School of Architecture, and in Firestone and Marquand Libraries (the latter, adjacent to the library entrance, and on B Floor, in the far back: wall text on the far left wall, reopening in 2025), and at the Institute for Advanced Study. Many books at Princeton on Antioch begin with call number NA 3770, so one can browse in Marquand or else do a Call number browse by call number in the library catalog.

Relevant links:

• Antioch Mosaics in Princeton (by F. Jones, 1982)
• Dig of the Century (by W. B. Maynard, 2012)
• Images from Antioch
• Mosaic Restoration Project (PUAM)
• Search for Antioch objects in the Art Museum catalog
• See photographs available from the Dept. of Art & Archaeology
• Expedition excavation reports at PUL (PU affiliates scroll to the bottom for digital versions)

Please inquire via marquand@princeton.edu about a list of mosaics in Firestone, etc. and/or a selected bibliography

• The Museum’s database including objects in the collection is available online; in some cases there will be bibliographical information available. NOTE: links to bibliography may link to worldcat.org for library holdings (some link to JSTOR). In some cases, the item in question MAY actually be in our collection despite what is indicated, so do cut and paste a title (book or journal name) into the library catalog to confirm we have/don't have a particular source. One can also now search both library and museum content together via the "All-Search" feature on the library website. Try a search for monet, or claude monet, for example, and see the results under the grouping labeled Art Museum Collections for museum collections (appears at bottom center of search results).
• A Handbook of the Collections was published in 2007 (Marquand Reference N714.P65 A65 2007), and revised in 2013 (Marquand reference and stacks N714.P65 A65 2013). Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum was published in 2014, the first volume of American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum, on Drawings and Watercolors, was published in 2004, Roman Sculpture in the Art Museum in 2001, and Selections from the Art Museum in 1986. Do a search for additional titles using the Catalog: Author (browse) "Princeton University Art Museum" or keyword "Princeton University Art Museum." Sort results by title or date, etc., or "edit search" at the top to add an additional keyword to the search.
• One good starting point for researching the artist of your object, if known, is Oxford Art Online.  Search there for an artist, e.g. Claude Monet, or a region, e.g. Mexico, or a theme, and you will retrieve encyclopedia articles from Grove Art Online and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists (for artists), and other sources. Experts in the field have written these articles and provide bibliographical information for important scholarly books and articles. See also the Artist/Architect/Designer tab of this guide for locating material on a specific artist.
• You may need to search for books about the type of artwork your Museum object is (sarcophagus, Greek vase, Impressionist painting, etc.), or locate books about the artist, if known: this would involve keyword and/or subject searches using the library catalog. 
• Search for the work in the museum's publication, Record of the Art Museum, and its predecessor Record of the Museum of Historic Art, although these citations often appear in the Museum's database. The Record is available in full in JSTOR (online) except for the last several years: Browse by Title, and select Record of the Art Museum.  Then, put your term(s) in the search box: a keyword, the title of the work in quotes, and/or the artist: e.g. Monet and haystacks. Each result should tell you at the top where in the article the search term(s) appears. For more recent years of the Record, do a search in Art & Architecture Source, and then retrieve the issue in question from Marquand stacks: N512.P88 M9.
• For locating journal articles other than in the Record, see the Journal Articles tab in this guide. NOTE: while there may not be an entire book about a particular work of art or ones like it, there may be an article, and one can search on a more specific topic when searching for articles than for books. The Can't Find a Book tab in this guide offers general tips for locating Marquand books. Comparative works listed on other museum websites might also be useful.
• Image needs for PUAM works of art: try ArtStor (artstor.org) or e-mail musphoto@princeton.edu .

Firestone has works of art throughout the library, including several mosaics from Antioch. Contact Rebecca to inquire about a particular object.