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Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library

One of the great treasures of the University, the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library supports teaching and research primarily in the fields of art and architecture, although its collection is valuable to all departments in the humanities.

The Fiske Kimball Library was named in honor of architect and architectural historian Fiske Kimball (1888–1955). The scholarly work of Kimball, who headed the University’s art and architecture department from 1919 to 1923, led to the current reputation of Thomas Jefferson as an architect. The digital image collection alone contains some 23,000 images, including photographs, architectural drawings, and reproductions of paintings.

Collections include the following:

  • The Archivision Digital Research Photo Library documents architecture, gardens, parks, and landscape architecture worldwide, from the ancient to the modern eras.
  • The Architecture of Jefferson Country Collection contains 3,325 images of central Virginia from an architectural inventory compiled by K. Edward Lay, professor emeritus.
  • The Frances Benjamin Johnston Photograph Collection reveals the work of one of the first American women to achieve distinction as a photographer. The University has more than 900 of her photographs of Virginia architecture taken between 1929 and 1935.
  • The Jackson Davis Collection of African American Educational Photographs houses more than 5,000 photographs taken by Jackson Davis, an educational reformer and amateur photographer. His photographs depict African American schools, teachers, and students throughout the southeastern United States.
  • The Smithsonian American Art Museum Catlin Indian Paintings Collection presents 439 portraits of Native Americans and cultural documentation landscapes by American artist George Catlin (1796–1872) from his travels with William Clark and on his own through the Western frontier in the early 1830s.
  • The Alex MacLean Aerial Photographs Collection documents city grids, suburban developments, and agricultural tracts.

The Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library needs funds for building and maintaining the collection and services.