Canadian Art Databases
In addition to the databases listed below, which have a Canadian focus, see the Databases section of the Art History & Visual Art Research Guide for more art-specific and multidisciplinary databases.
- Artists in Canada This link opens in a new windowUnion list of Canadian artists, with biographical information and locations of files for over 42,000 artists in 23 libraries and galleries across Canada.
- Canadian Women Artists History InitiativeA research tool that brings together literature about women artists who worked in Canada and who were born before 1925.
- CCCA Canadian Art DatabaseDocuments Canada's leading professional artists, designers, art writers, and curators, and Canadian art institutions and organizations, since the 1960s.
- e-ArtexteAn online platform that provides access to Artexte's: (1) catalogue of publications on contemporary art from 1965 to the present, and (2) open access digital repository for full-text documents on contemporary Canadian art.
- National Gallery of Canada (NGC) Art DatabasesIdentifies collections and resources in the Gallery's art holdings and its Library and Archives. Some collections are searchable online.
- NGC: Inuit Artists' Print DatabaseAn online version of The Inuit Artists Print Workbook (Sandra B. Barz, ed.), containing 8000 prints by Canadian Inuit artists from 1957 to the present.
- NGC: Index to Art in Canada to 1930Online index of works of art listed in Canadian exhibition, auction, and collection catalogues from 1823 (date of the earliest catalogue identified) up to 1930.
- HéritageA 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of the most significant archival collections held by Library and Archives Canada, encompassing roughly 40 million pages of primary-source documents that chronicle the country and its people from the 1600s to the mid-1900s.
- Library and Archives Canada: Canadian Illustrated News, 1869-1883A selection of almost 4,000 images of people, places and events across Canada and around the world taken from the popular 19th-century weekly magazine based in Montreal.
- Library and Archives Canada: Rare Book Illustrations, Before 1800Contains 550 images (mostly engravings) from LAC's Rare Book Collection, which contains Canadiana printed before 1868 and rare works printed after 1868. Images have been selected because they depict geography that is now part of Canada or events that are significant in Canadian history.
Multidisciplinary Canadian Databases
- Canadiana Online This link opens in a new window'Canadian' source material written by Canadians, published in Canada or written/published outside the country but about Canada.
- Dictionary of Canadian biography This link opens in a new windowThe definitive Canadian biographical dictionary. Includes entries for non-Canadians with a significant role in the history of the country.
- Canadian Encyclopedia This link opens in a new windowCanada's national encyclopedia covering all branches of knowledge. Includes more than 35,000 articles in English and French.
- Indigenous peoples North America This link opens in a new windowIncludes manuscript material, monographs, newspapers, photographs, motion pictures, and images of artwork drawn from a variety of repositories in the United States and Canada.
- British Columbia Newspaper Index This link opens in a new windowSelective index of The Province, Vancouver Sun and Times-Colonist; 1991-2007. From the BC Legislative Library.
- British Columbia Periodical Index This link opens in a new windowArticles selectively indexed from major British Columbia magazines.
- Canadian Newsstream This link opens in a new windowOffers full text of almost 400 Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers, including The Globe and Mail, National Post, and the Vancouver Sun.
- Open Information Portal (Government of Canada) This link opens in a new windowProvides digital information resources from Library and Archives Canada and the Government of Canada Publications collection. Includes an Expenditure Database and Quarterly Financial Reports.
- Canada Commons This link opens in a new windowSearchable access to current public documents issued by Canadian public policy and health research agencies and think tanks, as well as books from over 70 Canadian publishers.
- Proquest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail This link opens in a new windowElectronic full-page newspaper archive from June 1844 to 2013.
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs (CBCA) This link opens in a new windowIncludes journals, magazines, and newspapers published in Canada in business, current events, education and general reference.
- Canada Year Book Historical Collection 1867-1967 This link opens in a new windowThe Canada Year Book Historical Collection 1867 to 1967: historical text, tables and maps on Canadian society, events, and the economy: population, industry, trade, immigration, labour, transportation, government, etc.
- BC Historical NewspapersThe BC Historical Newspapers project features digitized versions of historical papers from around the province. The titles range from the Abbotsford Post to the Ymir Miner and date from 1865 to 1994.
Need Help?
For help finding articles:
- Look at the Articles / Journals section of this research guide
- See UBC Library's Finding Journal Articles guide
- Visit the Music, Art & Architecture Library's Information Desk
- Contact the Art Librarian