Topics in American Art - How to research topics not listed

Topics in American Art

with content focusing on representational art

How to research topics not listed (and gain insight into interconnectivity of disparate facts)

For researchers wishing to study American art history from perspectives beyond those presented as topics, e.g. ethnic orientations as described in Ethnic Ancestry, Culture and Influences in American Art, the TFAO Free Online Digital Library contains thousands of texts and catalogues with external resources related to a plethora of subjects. An easy way to identify specific facts and interconnectivity of disparate facts is via keyword search.

Method one:

Before entering keywords in a basic Google search, enter site:tfaoi.org. See Indexes and information retrieval for more information.

Method two:

Conduct keyword searches within TFAO's Resource Library and other parts of TFAO's website using the advanced search feature of:

After entering keywords, select tfaoi.com or tfaoi.org as the sole domain to be searched.

Since TFAO's website contains a through collection of content focusing on American representational art within a single domain, keyword searches within it can produce amazing results.

Museums with local focus

Since American art museums often focus on local art history, an index to assist in identification of articles and essays with a regional focus is useful. See Resource Library's Sources of Articles and Essays Indexed by State within the United States for a handy guide.

Researching individual artists

Determining that one particular topic is the best location for an article or essay devoted to an artist is a subjective exercise. During a lifetime, an artist may produce significant work on several topics. Experts argue about whether the artist's earlier, mid-career or later work -- or devotion to one particular subject over another -- is the most significant. Resource Library articles and essays devoted exclusively to individual artists known for their devotion to a topic included in this catalogue may, for various reasons, not be listed within a topic. If they are deceased artists, a proven way to access biographical information is TFAO's America's Distinguished Artists, a catalogue companion to Topics in American Art.

More on conducting research

We welcome researchers to read TFAO's General Resources page, with information on evaluating website pages, plagiarism, copyright abuse and more. The page Accuracy and trustworthiness from America's Distinguished Artists may also be useful. Also see the Indexes and information retrieval page of TFAO's Resource Library.

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