LUNA is the main image database for teaching art at UChicago. The Art History Department Image Collection is the VRC’s primary repository for images scanned and cataloged in-house by instructor and student request. In addition, the VRC hosts several dedicated collections of locally created content, and licensed collections are also available through the LUNA platform. Consult the Collections Development Policy for further details on building the image collection
To access LUNA, login with your CNetID and password
LUNA allows users to search within an image collection or across multiple collections to find the images they need for teaching and research. LUNA searches for the exact wording entered into the search bar (rather than broadening and editing the term, like a Google search would). Misspellings, alternate punctuation or spacing, and wording can lead to different results. Users can propose edits or corrections to be made to the records by emailing visualresources@uchicago.edu. Please consult the VRC’s Subject Language Guide to view up-to-date alternatives to outdated language as it relates to art
The LUNA Viewer allows users to export individual images or create Media Groups of images that can be saved for later reference, shared with collaborators, or exported directly into PowerPoint. The “Medium” export size in LUNA is appropriate for classroom projection and use in course papers. To request high-res tiff files of images for dissertations or publications, please write to visualresources@uchicago.edu.
Select Collections in LUNA
University of Chicago Collections
VRC Collections
Art History Department Image Collection—developed in collaboration with faculty, instructors and students, contains nearly 200,000 images for teaching and research.
CWAC Exhibition Archive–CWAC Exhibitions is an opportunity for student- and class-curated exhibitions in the hallways of CWAC. View the installation archive of past CWAC Exhibitions on LUNA.
Joel Snyder Materials Collection—a teaching collection of art historical objects, materials, and tools that are available for instructor and student handling from the VRC. Online access to images of the physical collection is provided through LUNA.
Jessica Stockholder Archive—works from Chicago artist Jessica Stockholder's, Raymond W. & Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Visual Arts, personal archive of her extensive body of work, made up of digital images, 35 mm slides, and photo negatives. Additionally includes images from Stockholder's gallery and publications.
Lantern Slide Collection—publicly available collection of 2,000+ images scanned from the Department of Art History’s lantern slide collection
Wu Hung Contemporary Chinese Video Art Archive—videos of contemporary Chinese art digitized from VHS tapes in University of Chicago professor Wu Hung's, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and the College, personal collection.
Campus Art Collections
Booth School of Business Art Collection at the University of Chicago—installation photographs of Booth’s contemporary art collection
Logan Center Exhibitions Archive—installation photographs from the Logan Center Exhibitions program.
Neubauer Collegium Exhibition Archive—collection of installation and exhibition opening photographs from the Neubauer Collegium’s exhibitions program
Open Practice Committee Archive—collection of more than 100 video recordings from of lectures, conversations, and performances since OPC’s inception in 2007
The Renaissance Society Archive—installation and exhibition photos from the Renaissance Society
Smart Museum of Art—images from the fine arts museum of the University of Chicago
Smart Museum of Art Exhibition Archive—collection of exhibition files from the Smart Museum’s exhibition program
University of Chicago Civic Engagement Public Art—images and ephemera documenting the Office of Civic Engagement's public art engagement.
UChicago Public Art Collection and Archive—images and archival documents from the Smart Museum related to campus public art
University of Chicago Library Collections
Middle East Photo Archive—publicly available collection of more than 400 19th century photographs of the Middle East.
North Korean Stamp Collection—about 2,000 images from 20 stamp books and 30 individual sheets. The dates of origin span over several decades (1962 to 2017).
Patricia Houghton Clarke Photograph Collection
Postcard Collection of Colonial Korea—nearly 9,000 postcards of Korea from the first half of the 20th century.
University of Chicago Map Collection—more than 700 images from the Library’s Map Collection.
Yerkes Observatory Photographic Glass Plate Slides—more than 200,000 images of glass plate negatives including sky surveys, objective prism observations, and spectroscopic images.
Chicago Collections
Georg Stahl Mural Collection—publicly available collection of more than 600 photos of Chicago murals from the 1970s
Hyde Park Art Center Archive—installation photographs from exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center.
Jene Highstein Collection, Rhona Hoffman Gallery—works by the artist Jene Highstein held in the archive of his gallery, Rhona Hoffman.
Public Art Workshop Mural Archive—publicly available collection of almost 400 images of murals and public projects of the Public Art Workshop, along with documentation of the workshop’s activities and images of other murals created in Chicago from the late 1960s to the early 1980s
Robert Sengstacke Photography Archive—publicly available collection of more than 5,000 images from South Side photojournalist Bobby Sengstacke’s negative collection
South Side Community Art Center—publicly available collection of images from Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center
The VRC also subscribes to a number of vendor collections and LUNA Commons collections. Luna Commons are image collections made available by other institutions for public use. The images and metadata are created by the holding institution, and are subject to each institution’s standards. Image quality and available metadata may vary.