The Study of Art History

Cornell’s Fine Arts Library began with A.D. White’s donation of his architecture library in 1871, and continued to expand. It originally housed the architecture materials as well as casts, drawings, and sculpture, as described here in White’s own notes on the collection. This collection included thousands of casts of gems and medallions depicting classical images through contemporary figures. Today, one can study these religious texts and objects - from beautifully hand drawn images of Hindu deities to the pictographic catechism from the Andes - from an art historical perspective.

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