Library

The Crystal Bridges Library features more than 50,000 volumes pertaining to American art and art history, plus archives containing personal papers and other artist ephemera, and access to several online resources. The Library provides the highest quality of access to resources and services, as well as commitment to the highest ethical standards for privacy, copyright, intellectual freedom, and preservation of information. The Library is located on the museum’s third floor and is open during all museum public hours.

Contact Us:
Library@CrystalBridges.org

(479) 418-5748

Crystal Bridges Library is non-circulating to guests: art reference books and resources are available for use in the museum Library only. Computers are available for Library guests, as well as additional stations for laptop use. Circulation privileges are available to museum staff, volunteers, and visiting scholars. Please fill out an application for circulation privileges at the library reference desk, or by emailing Library@CrystalBridges.org.

We are happy to include a visit to the Library on your class trip to the museum! Please see University of Arkansas Art Resources and Art Libguides for specific course research. If you are on a guided tour, please coordinate with your contact in the School Programs department or email School.Programs@CrystalBridges.org in advance.

All museum guests, students, and community members are welcome to use these databases at the museum Library. Passwords and access available only from museum Library computers. University of Arkansas students can access electronic resources using your current UARK login and password. Non-university users can access selected electronic resources from UA Library or Crystal Bridges Library public computers.

• Grove Art Online
  *A licensed online subscription database only accessible from museum staff & Library computers. The most comprehensive online reference resource for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide. Grove Art Online features artists’ biographies, over 45,000 signed articles, 5,500 images, 40,000 image links, timelines of world art, and MoMA lesson plans.
• JSTOR
  *A licensed online subscription database only accessible from museum staff & Library computers. JSTOR is one of the best resources for art publications and includes full-text content of more than 1,300 academic journals, as well as thousands of primary sources in the arts, humanities and other disciplines.

The Crystal Bridges Archives contain materials which support the Crystal Bridges art collection through art research, scholarship, and education. The archive is open-access to all patrons for private viewing by appointment only. Please request a viewing appointment at least two weeks in advance of your visit.

To fill out a request form, please click “request” on the collection record you are interested in viewing. To obtain permission to publish, reproduce, or cite these materials, please contact Library@CrystalBridges.org.

Artists’ Letters and Manuscripts Collection

Index of Artists in Manuscripts

• Box 1, Alexander, F. to Burroughs, B.
  Box 1, Alexander, F. to Burroughs, B.
  BOX 1 with oversized documents
• Box 2, Cabot, S. to Durand, J.
  Box 2, Cabot, S. to Durand, J.
  BOX 2 with oversized documents
• Box 3, Eads, J.B. to Hill, Thomas
  Box 3, Eads, J.B. to Hill, Thomas
  BOX 3 with oversized documents
• Box 4, Homer, W. to Knaths, K.
  Box 4, Homer, W. to Knaths, K.
  BOX 4 with oversized documents

• Box 5, Kneller, Sir G. to Peale, M. J.
  Box 5, Kneller, Sir G. to Peale, M. J.
  BOX 5 with oversized documents
• Box 6, Peale, R. to Starr, E. A.
  Box 6, Peale, R. to Starr, E. A.
  BOX 6 with oversized documents
• Box 7, Stella, J. to Zorach, W.
  Box 7, Stella, J. to Zorach, W.
  BOX 7 with oversized documents

Crystal Bridges librarians or scholars collaborate to prepare digital exhibitions or other online resources, often based on materials held in the Library’s historical collection. These research-based materials are made available for all as a means of providing insight into the Library’s resources and to increase public access to the materials herein. We will continue to add to these resources as new projects are developed.

• Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture Comes to Arkansas
  Explore the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright on Fay Jones’s work as illustrated in the Bachman-Wilson House, a 1953 example of Wright’s Usonian principles soon to be installed on the grounds of Crystal Bridges museum. The lives of these two notable architects – Arkansas native and award-winning architect Fay Jones (1921-2004) and his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) – intersected for a 10-year time period, beginning in 1949 until Wright’s death in 1959. This digital exhibit documents the development of these two notable architects’ affiliation, and includes nearly 150 photographs ; plus primary source materials such as correspondence; lectures; musings and writings; and other media, including a video interview with Fay Jones’s wife Gus, created by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. This exhibition was created through a collaboration between the Library at Crystal Bridges museum of American Art and the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections.
• “Fruit-Full” Arkansas: Apples
  “Fruit-Full” Arkansas: Apples is collaboration between Crystal Bridges museum Library and Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries. The selections for this digital include images of apples from fifteen Crystal books of color plates published between 1851 and 1922 and an array of materials from the Special Collections manuscripts and book collections includes folklore class reports, folk customs, poetry, and souvenir booklets of Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas. By 2014 William Reese Company Teacher Fellow, Anne Greenwood.