For the study of Art, Art History, Architecture, and Architectural History, visual images are crucial. Scholars' work is often done in the field, sketching medieval monastic architecture in Europe or examining the structure of nineteenth-century New York brownstones. Scholars explore the color and composition of impressionist paintings hanging in the Muse d'Orsay or critique the work of an emerging performance artist in Toronto. Visiting sites and studying artifacts first hand is unequaled, but the need for high quality visual resources does not end with the research trip. Art and architecture historians, cultural observers, and art critics rely heavily on the existence of scholarly journals to enable them to disseminate their scholarship and to engage and learn from their colleagues. For these individuals, as well as for students just beginning their studies, there is value in the collective journal as a whole, including the printed text, reproductions of paintings, drawings, photographs, architectural sketches, and images of material culture that are the objects of their study.

This marriage between object and commentary in academic journals has a long and influential tradition. Nearly fifty years ago, Dr. Osmund Overby "discovered" the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians while browsing the stacks at the University of Washington. At the time, the journal included studies, sketches, and photographs of sixteenth-century architectural plans for a hospital in Rome, eighteenth-century church fronts in Mexico City, nineteenth-century urban redevelopment, and the influence of the West on Japanese architecture. He credits this experience with setting him on the path to a career as an architectural historian and academic. Later, during his editorial tenure (1968-1973) at the journal, Overby worked to ensure the journal's pages would engage scholars. "The high-quality illustrations, faithfully rendered, were of as much importance as the accompanying text," says Overby. "At that time, the journal was type-set, with a photogravure process used to merge type and black and white illustrations." Dr. Nancy Stieber, the current editor, continues this commitment today. "Because this subject matter is intrinsically visual," says Stieber, "we emphasize the quality of the images reproduced in the journal. As we look ahead to our work with JSTOR, enabling students and researchers to connect with these same texts and images in an online environment further supports the aim of the Society of Architectural Historians to advance our discipline."

Preserving this traditional union of image and text has been at the center of JSTOR's work to digitize the past issues of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and six other important Art, Art History, Architecture, and Architectural History journals. "Our aim has been to capture the intensely visual nature of each journal and display faithful representations of the contents," explains Heidi McGregor, Director of Publisher Relations at JSTOR. Faced with more than 100,000 color and gray-scale images, and the unique beauty of journals such as The Burlington Magazine and Art Journal, JSTOR staff embarked on a process to develop new approaches to address the special needs presented by this material. John Kiplinger, JSTOR's Director of Production, explains:

This was a group of titles that prompted us to review our overall scanning and indexing specifications and upgrade them in several key areas. Image resolution, positioning of illustrations on the page, and capturing additional metadata related to illustration captions were all revised. We spent a lot of time in the early days of the project reviewing sample images and displays in an effort to yield digital images that would match the quality of those in the paper issues. I think that with the release of these titles, JSTOR has reached a new level of fidelity to the original.

In practical terms, this approach introduces a new look and increased functionality for these journals. Each of the color and gray-scale images in these journals have been carefully scanned and integrated into the text pages using a compositing technology developed by JSTOR. In this way, images remain part of the journal page, appear in the same context as in the print version, and are not separately downloadable. Articles are available for printing both in black and white and in color for use in offline study. In addition, the searchable caption information enables more targeted searching for articles on specific buildings, artists, or works of art.

The enclosed insert¹, through its display of a sample journal page in the JSTOR interface, reflects our commitment to preserving the material in a way that is as faithful to the original as possible. Scholars and students now have the opportunity to experience the Art, Art History, Architecture, and Architectural History journals for themselves as part of the Arts & Sciences III Collection.

If you would like more information on the Arts & Sciences III Collection, or the Art, Art History, Architecture, and Architectural History journals in particular, please contact us at participation@jstor.org.

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The College Art Association publishes two journals: Art Journal and The Art Bulletin. Founded in 1941, Art Journal features scholarly articles, conversations, portfolios, and other contributions by leading art historians, artists, curators, and critics. The Art Bulletin, established in 1913, has as its primary mission the publication of scholarly research in all areas of the history of art and architecture.

The Burlington Magazine celebrated its centenary this year. Devoted to the fine and decorative arts, The Burlington Magazine covers topics from ancient times to the present day, combining rigorous scholarship with critical insight.

For over 25 years, October has focused critical attention on the contemporary arts and their various contexts of interpretation through an examination of relationships between the arts and their critical and social contexts.

¹ The insert mentioned above was included in the print version of JSTORNEWS, No. 7, Issue 3. It is not available as a part of the online version.

Last updated on September 8, 2006