You’ve been there to see exhibits, enjoy lunch on the terrace and attend programs, but did you know that even before it opened in 1886 the Cincinnati Art Museum began collecting materials for a library that is now an invaluable resource for today’s artists, collectors and students of art?
Staffed by professional librarians since Miss Jane Wright was hired in 1906, the Mary R. Schiff Library now has an extensive collection of over 100,000 items spanning six thousand years of human artistic creativity, including decorative arts, fashion, and photography. The collection includes books, reference resources, periodicals, ephemera files, auction catalogs, and online databases. The library also has a unique assortment of materials on Cincinnati art, artists and events in the arts.
Located on the third floor of the Longworth Wing (the historic former Art Academy building), the Mary R. Schiff Library is open Tuesday through Friday, 11:00 a.m – 5:00 p.m. and the second Saturday of every month September through June. An appointment is required if you’d like to use materials from the museum’s archives. Materials do not circulate but can be used on site by anyone looking for information on artwork or artists in the museum’s collection or perhaps on an artist whose work you have in your own collection. Before you visit, you can search for materials in the library’s collection at https://uclid.uc.edu/search/X.
For more information about the library, see https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/visit/library-archives/. To ask a question or request an appointment email [email protected] or call 513-639-2978.
