SVA Library Research Guides: Archival Research for Design & Illustration: Home

Archivist

Beth Kleber

Email Me

Contact:

380 Second Ave, 2nd floor

212.592.2636

Subjects: Design

Great NYC Archives

Special Collections at New York Public Library
Manuscripts and Archives Division; Schomburg Center for Black Culture; Library for the Performing Arts Theatre on Film and Tape, Spencer Collection (history of the illustrated word and book binding), Photography Collection.
Lubalin Center at Cooper Union
Great resource for the work of major designers active in the middle part of the 20th century.
Fales Library at NYU
Downtown New York Collection, Riot Grrrl Collection, Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection.
Columbia University Avery Library
Drawings and architectural records from American architects of the 19th and 20th centuries.
New School Archives
Collections relating to the history of the new School as well as the lives and work of people associated with the school, including designer Bea Feitler.
Fashion Institute of Technology Manuscript Collections
FIT's collection of more than 500,000 works on paper from primarily American designers from the late nineteenth century through the 1980s.
Interference Archive
Collections documenting the relationship between social movements cultural production.

Archival Design Collections Outside of NYC

Rochester Institute of Technology Design Archives
Premier resource for the work of graphic designers working primarily 1920s-1950s, plus selected designers working in the modernist tradition.
Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT
The Archives of Massimo and Lella Vignelli.

Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives at SVA

The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives + the SVA Archives are unique resources to study the work of the great designers, illustrators and art directors who’ve taught and studied at SVA. The collections allow visitors to examine the design and illustration process, from conception to completion, through original sketches, artwork, and photographs, as well as the final posters and publications, from more than twenty giants of art and design:

Gail Anderson

Ed Benguiat

Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar

Seymour Chwast

Stephen Doyle

Heinz Edelmann

Roger Ferriter

Louise Fili

Cris Gianakos

Milton Glaser

Keith Godard

Steven Heller

David Mazzucchelli

Ed McCabe

James McMullan

Tony Palladino

Stefan Sagmeister

Paul Sahre

Deborah Sussman

George Tscherny

Fred Troller

Henry Wolf

The Archives is also a place to study the history of SVA, from its subway poster campaign, to its groundbreaking exhibitions by professional and student artists, to the faculty and programs dating back its founding in 1947. Students just need to contact Archives staff to make an appointment: archives@visualartsfoundation.org or 212.592.2636.

Find out more about our collections on our web site.

Visit our I nstagram feed to see some of the great stuff in our collections.

Read our blog, Container List.

Locating Archival Material

Use these resources to locate physical archival collections anywhere in the world.

WorldCat: Massive catalog of library holdings around the world. Use the Advanced Search feature and limit format to "Archival Material" to find archival collections

ArchiveGrid: Aggregates more than four million records of archival collections from more than 1,000 institutions.

Digital Resources - a wealth of materials available to you without getting out of your chair

AIGA Design Archives
More than 20,000 examples of significant design from American Institute of Graphic Arts annuals.
Cooper Hewitt Digital Collections
Vast collection of digitized historic and contemporary design
Digital Public Library of America
More than 14 million digital items from libraries, archives and museums.
Hoover Institution at Stanford
Political posters that document the wartime viewpoints and diverse political sentiments of the twentieth century.
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University
The Center's collections promote understanding of the social, cultural, and historical impact of advertising, marketing, and sales.
Museum of Modern Art Digital Collections
More than 71,000 works from MoMA's Collection, including many design objects.
Museum of Modern Art Exhibition History
Extensive documentation of MoMA's exhibitions from its founding in 1929 to the present.
New York Public Library Public Domain Images
More than 187,000 public domain digital images from NYPL available for hi-res download.
Smithsonian Archives of American Art Digital Collections
Collections of some of the most significant artists in the Archives of American Art that have digitized in their entirety.
The Wolfsonian - Florida International University
Digital collections of Wolfsonian, which collects objects (1850-1950) that demonstrate the persuasive power of design, from social, political and technological perspectives.